It’s not an actual phone number? It’s a VoIP number that literally protects your real identity. I mentioned this in the initial rant because no website supports it and expects me to get a ‘REAL’ phone and ‘REAL’ phone number. I literally cannot access half of the entire Internet due to this because companies want you to fork over thousands of dollars on a post-paid phone plan. Overwatch 2 literally was going to make people put in a phone number/phone plan to even access the game, and it had to ‘specifically’ be a post-paid plan. Prepaid plans didn’t work. And VoIP numbers were, once again, rendered useless. And guess what this gave Overwatch 2 a lot of? Controversy. They had to back down HARD on the phone number requirements and make it so any old OW account was exempt from this requirement. And that’s just a piece of the puzzle on how much of a complete nightmare Overwatch 2’s launch was. Endless login queues, errors, people getting booted mid-match and being sent right back in the queue, etc., it was a shitshow. But, why the hell did they even expect you to have a phone number to begin with? I am seriously hating the fact that this whole ‘demand any and all personal information from people as possible’ crap is becoming the norm. Every goddamn service, site, and game just expects you to have a phone number unlike a CAPTCHA like it used to be. God, I hate to say it, but doing these CAPTCHA challenges are much better than being told your VoIP number is practically unusable everywhere and that you have to fork out a shit-ton of cash on a phone and phone plan to even do 50% of things on the Internet.
I have tried using those in the form of VoIP numbers, and no fucking website supports any of them and they all expect you to use a ‘real’ number. I literally use TextNow to keep my actual phone number secure but I cannot use any form of SMS verification because I have to sign up for this fucking “Lock-In Number” subscription bullshit to even get the SMS code in my inbox. I have literally tried using a puppet phone before and the companies STILL expect me to buy a fucking phone plan and phone number. And most, if not all of the time, my TextNow number is useless because it is a VoIP number and nearly 90% of websites don’t support VoIP numbers.
I have heard some Robokiller calls and so far all of them have been entertaining. It is like that website ‘PrankDial’, but it’s used with good intentions and not for pranking people.
That’s not the point I am trying to make. The point is that companies use very poor and very bad security to keep your phone number quote-unquote ‘protected’. Data leakers love it when companies have poor security as it makes it easier for them to attack their customers and expose their personal information. 2 years ago, Twitch suffered from a huge data breach that resulted in personal info getting accessed, which possibly included the phone numbers of verified users, because you have to enter in a phone number to be considered a ‘verified account’. Look, I do not trust these huge megacorps with my phone number if I ‘did’ have one. Besides, they will just sell your data to data brokers as it is, in which completely eliminates any sense of ‘privacy’ they claim to provide when you are forced to add two-factor authentication. The thing is, I care about my ‘personal information’ being ‘personal’ as it should be to begin with. The only time that having to give out your personal info sort-of makes sense is when you are needing to complete your taxes/bills, or when you’re entering shipping details on Amazon or eBay. Any other thing is just them wanting your personal information just to be wanting it.
It’s the principle because EVERY FUCKING COMPANY expects you to have access to a phone. I would rather NOT use a phone than potentially have my phone number get leaked later on because of the company having poor as fuck security.
Outright refusing to give companies more of my personal information. They have enough of the shit as it is and I am not trusting them with my information because you KNOW they will send it off to data brokers or use very poor security and protection methods to keep all of your data quote-unquote ‘anonymous’. Data leakers LOVE shit like that, and Twitch had a big data leak in 2022 that resulted in personal info being accessed, and that possibly included the phone numbers of verified Twitch accounts.
Complete asshole design, I swear to God… -_-
“Do you guys not have phones?”
This is literally every company in a nutshell when they ask you to enter in a phone number and it turns you do not have access to one. I hate that this has become the norm.
And companies would probably still want you to enter in an ‘actual’ phone number regardless.
These companies just want every bit of information they can get out of you.
At this point we’re either going to have to throw our hands up and give the greedy scumbags what they want or go off the grid entirely. We’ve reached the point of no return, and we cannot go back to how things used to be. To how COMPANIES used to be.
I wish we could, but we can’t.
Being restricted access to a Discord server over phone verification for the 10,000th time in a row today was the final straw for me, and that is what drove me to my breaking point and is what encouraged me to make this long and rage-induced rant. I am glad to know I am not alone when it comes to Discord being overzealous with its phone verification system.
And SIM cards require access to a phone, which I, again, don’t have. And even if I DID have access to a phone, AND had a prepaid SIM card, I bet websites would ‘still’ want me to enter in a fucking phone number because these companies want to harvest any and all of your data so they can sell it to data brokers who will use that info for malicious purposes, such as robocalls.
Funny you’d mention ChatGPT, because that ALSO required a phone number. You used to have to enter in a phone number during the sign up process. If you didn’t have a phone number or didn’t want to enter one, then boom, your access to ChatGPT was revoked until you coughed up that phone number. Now, all of a sudden, you don’t need one when you are making a ChatGPT account. Gee, I wonder why… 🤔
Once again, the point of my ENTIRE rant has been proven with this single reply.
Might as well make everything require a fucking phone number these days.
That only further strengthens my point. Companies just LOVE to make things as overly complicated as fucking possible. I don’t think I need to tell you how complicated TurboTax makes things. Their service is like trying to find a fucking needle in a haystack.
Jesus fucking Christ, can companies stop making shit so fucking overly complicated?
It’s like everything has to be a fucking overly complicated maze or puzzle these days.
I truly hate that shit like this is normalized. Every site on the planet just expects you to cough up that fucking dough, get a phone plan, and buy a phone. Buying a phone ALONE is incredibly fucking costly. But no, services also expect you to buy a phone plan just so you can access the restricted shit which requires 2FA. The day I will add two-factor authentication is the day when I know that my phone number is private like the rest of my personal info should be (if I had a phone, that is). Why the fuck would you even trust goddamn megacorps with your phone number as it is? All they will do is sell it to data brokers like they always fucking do with your personal info. It is not about making you more secure, it is about having more access to your information. Period.
Hmm, it’s almost like the 2011 PlayStation Network breach that affected 77 million accounts happened because of bad security…
It’s almost like that could have been avoided entirely… 🤔
And then they act all fucking surprised Pikachu face when they find out that hackers leaked personal information of customers because their goddamn systems use outdated fucking security which feels 20 fucking years old.
“Oh my god, we’re so sorry, we didn’t know that would happen”
You’re LITERALLY the one still using outdated as fuck security! Improve and update your fucking security to stop attacks like this!
Yep, mentioned this in the rant.
“THIS IS NOT MADE TO PROTECT YOU AND KEEP YOU SAFE, IT IS ONLY MADE SO THESE FUCKTARD COMPANIES CAN SELL YOUR DATA TO DATA BROKERS, WHO WILL THEN SELL THAT DATA TO ROBOCALLERS WHO WILL CALL YOU ALL THE FUCKING TIME!”
Thank fucking GOD for services who stop fucking calls like this. Robokiller, especially. They not only block robocallers from calling you, but they also call the robocallers using a fake voice and basically fuck with the robocaller who attempted to call you. And you get to hear every fucking call that Robokiller makes to these scumbags, and they’re ALL fucking amusing and entertaining.
NOTE: Sadly, you need to have a smartphone to use Robokiller, which is a darn shame.
You shouldn’t have to find compromises like buying burner phones to keep yourself protected, either. You shouldn’t have to look for workarounds to bypass overly strict phone verification. You shouldn’t have to do any of this, but the companies doing all of this shit doesn’t really give you a choice now, does it?
I am sorry if I am coming off as overly cautious. I just want to keep myself protected without needing to do extra steps or any other shit. I literally will never understand why companies expect a very specific plan or very specific phone carrier in some very rare cases. It will just never make sense to me.
Again, I am sorry if I am coming off as being overly cautious. I just want to make sure my data is safe and is not being sold against my will.