I'm more paranoid about big companies selling me out for ad money than I am about phishing attacks. There's a number of sites where I feel like I should add 2FA for security, but I won't do it for privacy reasons. Logging into Microsoft Office for my job is a pain in the ass because they redirect me to the "Add your phone number" page twice for each app that I use. I have to click "skip this step" 4 times, since I'm using Teams and Outlook. Was the world a better place when every transaction you made in a retail store didn't come with a request for tracking? "Can we get your email? What's a good phone number for you? Do you have a rewards card? Do you want one? Any way we can peg you with a unique id and sell it to a data broker?"
This page was loading so many trackers for a full minute (doubleclick, openx, google.ca???) that my laptop started heating up. I'll wait for another media source to read about it, thanks.
I'm pretty sure many other companies sell this information as well. I'm pretty sure Comcast sells it as I share an account with someone but it uses my phone for verification & support. I received a spammy text with their name. It's the only account we share.
Prison time is the only serious deterrent. Specific people in the upper management need to have non-suspendable prison sentences.<p>Start with maybe 3-6 months, then escalate for repeat offenders. That fact that these decisions were made internally to a business should not indemnify the executives who allowed it to happen from criminal charges with mandatory prison time that cannot be suspended or avoided.
Doesn't Twitter also require a unique phone number to make an account these days?<p>I'm guessing that number has no protections the way 2FA ones do?