On: Ask HN: Does Instagram suspend accounts just to ge...

[tric]

It's always surprising to see how willing people are to give up their phone number to use an app. It's not just Meta products. Telegram & ChatGPT too.

I'm afraid more services will go in this direction.

[Kiro → tric]

In my country phone numbers are public information so not really giving up much.

[tric → Kiro]

The problem is with linking the account/activity with your identity.

HN can only use less reliable identifiers (eg GeoIP) to link my account to other data. A phone number (potentially) connects me to more data about me.