121–130 of 205 posts
Google voice numbers work, BTW. So since you ha E a Google account, make a burner G voice number and get the text that way.
You cannot create a Google Voice number without providing an existing, working, real number.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Anyone over the age of 40 (and many younger) will have had a landline, almost all in the phone book. Name, address, and phone all neatly collected, very few were bothered.
Very good point. I had completely forgotten about that practice. Name, address, phone number. Seems surreal.
When it's available electronically, everything changes
Maybe giving them your phone number gives Google another signal to catch hackers in another country trying to taking over your Google account. Or a malware server could be prevented from taking over tons of Google accounts? I don't want in abuse, so there are only guesses. I don't mind giving Google my hone number to keep my data secure, and I'm in the majority, so this is a good thing IMO.
From there it's a small step to reset passwords (SMS 2FA won't help here, as they also have your phone) to all online services you signed up for with that email.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sonos just did the same. They want you to create an account (and therefore give them an email) and otherwise are effectively bricking the device in the latest update. Was time to get rid of this pos.
Doesn't Apple do that too? One of the reasons I use Linux on my MacBook.
When it asks if you have an Apple ID (which can be any email address) there is a skip button in very plain language on a very uncluttered screen where it is very easy to read.
And no, it never asks for a phone number. You are free to add one later though if you choose. But the OS doesn’t want it or use it...
The only place I can think of where you can put in your phone number is the Messages app, which is not even part of the OS.
You would do this on your own initiative by the way, not requested by the app or by the OS. Putting your number into that allows SMS messages to appear on your computer.
I have a similar problem with yandex. It's not hardware, just an email account, but I'm locked out of one I used for stuff because they are now asking me for my phone number because of "suspicious activity". I don't want to give them one.
Not to mention that I created both a custom question and answer with randomly generated strings that couldn't possibly have been known by anyone else, which they confirmed as correct during the lockout and still are demanding a phone number to 'verify'. I mean, really now, how on earth would giving any random phone number further verify I'm the account holder when I already know the correct randomly generated password, secret question and secret answer.
Gmail has similarly locked out various accounts with this despite no actual suspicious activity and having a completely unique password. It's a transparent effort by all these companies to gather more user details.
I've had this happen with gmail accounts randomly. Most of the time with computers I've been using for years on the same network. The worst occasion I've ever had was the one time I was traveling. I was getting by with only wifi and, naturally, didn't have a phone number to confirm my account with. I didn't have a number bound to my account, either, making the whole process pointless. How did I get into my account? I…
What on earth are those of us supposed to do that don't have a phone?