Why Does Yahoo Need My Phone Number
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Recently, Google and Microsoft asked me to insert my telephone number and kept asking for it until I agreed to insert the number. What’s the main reason for doing this?
Do they have hidden purposes for doing that? Wouldn’t they control everyone doing this? Is privacy on the internet dead?Certainly, privacy is an interesting topic when you start talking about the internet.
I think a lot of people do end up giving more information perhaps than they should. People are effectively, often willingly but in some cases accidentally, decreasing their own amount of privacy – not because it’s required, but because they post private information about themselves in public forums like Facebook, Twitter, and other sites.But in your case, I really don’t think that’s what’s going on at all. I do not believe that Google or Microsoft have some kind of a hidden agenda to get your phone number.
Become a and go ad-free! Account recovery and your phone numberThe issue here is account recovery. Your phone number (and in particular, your cell phone number) is a piece of information that Google and Microsoft can use to restore access to your email or other account through them.For instance, if you’ve forgotten your password, you’re locked out, or even if someone hijacked your account, Google, Microsoft, and other providers can send a text message, call you, or use your cell phone number as a way to help you prove you are who you say you are and thus are the rightful owner of the account.Why is a phone number safe? You’re the person who owns the phone and picks up when someone calls that number. Therefore, you are the person that they can then reauthorize to gain access to that account.
That makes it an important piece of account recovery information that they can use when you run into trouble with your account.I’ve not seen a situation where it’s actually required. Usually, you can bypass it if there’s an option to enter it later or not at all.Even if some system out there requires it, there’s nothing preventing you from putting in a bogus phone number. It doesn’t serve you very well, however, because if you need to recover your account, you won’t have that option. But if you do put in your correct phone number and you do need to recover the account, I think you’ll find it’s a very interesting, a very important, and a very convenient security measure. The importance of recovery informationWhen Google or Microsoft ask for additional recovery information, many people say, “I’m never going to forget my password. I’ll just remember it.
I’ll always be secure. I don’t need this additional recovery information.”“It won’t happen to me.”Trust me.
Someday, it will. You do (and probably will) need the additional account recovery information you provided when you set up the account.That’s not any reflection on you. I’ve had Google and Microsoft accounts for years, but I gave both of them my cell phone number specifically for this reason. If my accounts ever get stolen, I want to get access back to those accounts again. Loss happensBut losing access to your account is a more significant problem than most people realize.People forget their passwords. I hear about it all the time.People give their account passwords to someone else who shouldn’t have the password in the first place and who then missuses it.
People get their accounts hacked either because they use simple passwords, access an open hotspot inappropriately, or do any number of other things that put their account at risk.Account loss happens all the time and entering in your phone number is one additional way you can protect yourself when (not if) it ever happens to you. Google will use your mobile phone number for verification if you lose access to your account. Some people don't want to provide that information to Google. A recovery code created in advance can help you avoid losing access to your Microsoft account. I'll show you how to create a recovery code. These days, most online service providers offer linked services.
Getting an account with one automatically opens accounts for you with the others. If you don't have access to your account recovery phone number or alternate email address, there is a process you can go through to regain access to your account - maybe.Posted: May 10, 2013in:Shortlink:Tagged:,. New Here?Let me suggest my to get you started.Of course I strongly recommend you - there's a ton of information just waiting for you.Finally, if you just can't find what you're looking for,!
Leo Who?I'm and I've been playing with computers since I took a required programming class in 1976. I spent over 18 years as a software engineer at Microsoft, and after 'retiring' in 2001 I started in 2003 as a place to help you find answers and become more confident using this amazing technology at our fingertips. Security my ass. It’s statistically more likely for me to lose access to my phone (ie: loss, theft or physical damage) than losing access to an online account.
The problem is that the average Internet user is completely oblivious to information security, try to pick retarded passwords–like their names, DoB, ‘password’, 123456–do stupid s. online, expose their whole lives and personal information to social networks and then complain when they get their s.
stolen.Now explain how come those service providers suddenly decide to assume.every. user has the intelligence of a gold fish? How does using a third party’s phone device for registration increase MY account’s security?
It’s almost as stupid as sharing your password, something that ironically those same service providers condemn. The hypocrisy is amusing. ^ All of the above, seconded.And personally, I moved house a couple years ago and was 100% without ANY phone until Jan this year. Even now that I have a landline, I sure as heck don’t want it connected to an online account of any sort. I get enough spam calls even with the # on the Do Not Call registry.‘Logic’ makes an excellent point.
Phone numbers change more frequently than online emails become inaccessible, and the easy-to-lose-or-destroy problem is one of many reasons I’ve never bothered with mobile phones.Making the phone entry a requirement is alienating so many potential users. I agree with Me. I happen to have a Google account. When I log in, they ask for my mobile number and I keep clicking Skip because I don’t have a cellphone. If I go to GMail, they suggest I add a GMail account. I select a GMail user name and click OK (or whatever they call the button). On the next screen, they say they have to verify my account so I need to enter a mobile number.
So no GMail account for me.I’ve already been verified about 10 years ago when I first created my Google account. Why do they need to do it again, and why with a cellphone.
They already know that the non-GMail email address is valid and it can be used for account recovery process.Either Google really does want to build a database of cellphone numbers or they just haven’t built a very friendly system. I disagree entirely.The fact is that political discourse takes place these days largely on the internet. Now, all websites appear to be aligning with the same major providers for the comment facility. Google, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Disqus, not to mention all of the newspaper sites which have similar systems.Well, the major cornerstone of freedom is to be able to say something anonymously. So that you can say something that the powers-that-be either now or in the future cannot come and kill you as a political dissident because you are a threat to them.But what google and another handful of companies have done (I think intentionally, but you will think otherwise) is to monopolise the way that we conduct political discourse and the deanonymise it.
Now, sure, you can hide your name from the general public. But everything you write is recorded and along with it your phone number, which in most countries you will have had to show your passport, birth certificate and utility bills to obtain.Are they going to come for the idiots who post stupid comments about how cute Justin Beiber is? Might they come after people who criticise certain political ideologies – certainly, they might. Certainly in the past we have seen it.No. This is a very dangerous move and in fact the government, if it genuinely serves the interests of the people and upholds the spirit of the constitution, they must insist that We The People have easy access to anonymous communications. Of course, the government do not uphold to constitution and they do not serve the interests of the people.
They will of course use the excuse of protecting us from terrorism, national security etcI find it extraordinary how easily people have given up their freedom. Why did you bother to fight for it in the first place! It was all a waste of time. I would have liked Microsoft to ASK me if I wanted to add this useless piece of security to my Hotmail account, before cutting me off. I don’t trust Microsoft, or anyone, to give them my cell phone number, or any other personal information and, if it means I’m prevented from using their so-called ‘free’ services (riddled with paid advertising), then I’ll use one of many who don’t ask for it. You dismiss concerns about this as a ‘conspiracy theory’, which shows your ignorance, rudeness and suggests you still may have strong links to Microsoft, to defend them so strongly. It’s not a conspiracy theory, but FACT, that they have been supplying government agencies with personal details for decades, so get it right.
Using one of Microsoft’s email addresses presents no problem if you prepare by supplying them with a few (not just one or 2, in case you lose access to one or another) alternate email addresses. The problem is that not everybody finds this out until they are locked out of their account. Microsoft seems to have a talent for having great ideas, in theory, but sometimes neglect to realize that they are dealing with the component between the keyboard and the chair, ie., PEOPLE.
Most other email providers simply ask you to type in your phone number or other information to verify who you are. Very simple and IMHO very effective. Window 8, same problem. Great OS, but it changed the whole interface with the person in the chair with no clear instructions on how to do what the people were doing with ease previously.
I, personally love Windows 8, but I work with computers every day, but my heart goes out to all those I see who are confused and frustrated by the changes.I’m tempted to think this not responding to users’ complaints is arrogance on Microsoft’s part, but it’s probably more that MS has become a dinosaur. One factor in the extinction of the dinosaurs was that because of their size, it took too long for the brain to receive signals from the body. Microsoft, Hushmail, and many others have locked me out of my (free) accounts that I did verify one or more times already, and many-many years ago.You think it’s ONLY about account recovery? Naaaah if it was ONLY account recovery, then they could’ve asked for security questions, such as “What was the name of your first pet?”However, no, they insisted on my cell phone number. And of course I refused.Why? Because it’s pretty safe to assume they want one of the followings:A) To take away my freedom.B) To blackmail me later on.
OR.C) To supply my identy info to the government. Most of them have been supplying government agencies with our personal details for decades, so I suggest you think twice before giving them any of your digital identity. Well Most of us know why. The sole reason is to verify the identity of the email user. Once you miss around with the government or you commit any crime using email, it will be much easier for those agencies to come and get you. Phone numbers are the first method government agencies use when they pursue any investigation.
It’s rather the easiest, fastest and best way to find your location and identify you.You can sense the author’s bias opinion and some of the paid commentators here who downplay the risk of privacy invasion when we use our personal phone numbers and attached it to our email addresses. The author and the paid commentators need to realize that the American public is much smarter now. What I did personally is that I bought a $10 prepaid phone and use it solely to verify email accounts (from coffee shops). I bet that askleo.com is so pissed now!! There is no way I am going to give Microsoft my phone number. I trust them about as much as I think a Trump/Sanders coalition would ‘save America’.1) I do not believe that Microsoft will not use that number for other purposes.2) Even if I trusted them not to share it with the government, I doubt their security would prevent the NSA or other spooks from stealing it anyways.3) I doubt their ability to keep out hackers whose purposes might be even more malign than the government’s.Short answer: Go ahead and close the account, Microsoft.
I have 5 other email addresses.Now, can anyone tell me how to turn off the. alerts that Microsoft keeps sending without losing the ability to get updates?. That’s a bit paranoid. Mobile phones work perfectly to recover an account as it is something you can prove you have access to. It’s not done to secure your account (as in “against hackers”). It’s for your own personal safety so that you can recover your account if it gets hacked, or if you forget your password.Also, you are not forced in any way to use a Google or Microsoft email account at all.
You can set up your own personal account in many different ways. I would suggest reading the suggestion under the heading “Option one: buy your own domain” on this article to learn how to create your own email account on your own domain:. I disagree completely. Phone numbers are a very valid way to secure your account. What YOU don’t see are the hundreds – perhaps thousands – of people that lose access to their accounts every day. Using a verified phone number is one way that services like Google and Microsoft can confirm you are who you say you are when you attempt to do an account recovery.
Yes, it’s an email account, but that can be critically important these days.The whole “data mining” argument is, in my opinion, so much paranoia. Particularly when there is no requirement that you actually give them a phone number. It’s on you, then, to secure your account some other way. Recently changed Internet providers, and created outlook accounts for each of my family.
12 year old son wanted to start using his outlook account, so we set it up on his laptop. Outlook required entering texted codes first a 4 digit then I think 5 digit codes. To receive each code required entering the phone number on 4 occasions. We were up and running, but at a price.This is a phone for exclusive purpose of contact while travelling to and from school.
His mother has it, my mother has it, a family friend has it, of course myself, and now Microsoft. The the calls started, maybe 5 days later, share trading, binary trading, and an adult dating site. The clincher was a call from someone offering to offset his tax liability into property for superannuation. I took over the call after earing in for a while, the person admired he was in India, and stated the privacy laws were different there.
When I asked was it common practice to exploit 12 year old children, I was told unfortunately he didn’t qualify, and there must have been a mixup with the date format. Being in Australia we enter day before month, but we state year last.Why would a child have to enter a number 4 times to verify an account created 3 months before, without giving a phone number.My advise, run, don’t look back, just run. Before commenting please:.
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