I DO NOT HAVE A FUCKING PHONE PLAN OR FUCKING PHONE FOR THAT MATTER. STOP ASKING ME FOR SHIT I DON’T FUCKING HAVE. EVERY FUCKING MAINSTREAM SERVICE OUT THERE JUST EXPECTS YOU TO HAVE A FUCKING PHONE AND PHONE PLAN THESE DAYS. WANT TO SIGN UP FOR A WEBSITE? VERIFY YOUR GODDAMN PHONE NUMBER. WANT TO TALK IN CERTAIN DISCORD SERVERS? NO SIREE. VERIFY YOUR PHONE NUMBER FIRST. LOCKED OUT OF ONE OF YOUR ACCOUNTS OVER SOME BULLSHIT REPORTS? VERIFY YOUR PHONE NUMBER TO UNLOCK IT. LITERALLY JUST FUCKING EXISTING? VERIFY, VERIFY, VERIFY! FOR THE LOVE OF FUCK, STOP PROMPTING ME TO VERIFY MY FUCKING HUMANITY WITH A PHONE NUMBER. I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO LOOK FOR FUCKING WORKAROUNDS AND BYPASSES TO GET AROUND THIS SHIT. EVEN IF I DID HAVE AN ACTIVE PHONE NUMBER, YOU AIN’T GETTING JACK SHIT FROM ME. 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! LOOK, YOU’RE NOT GETTING MY NUMBER. IF I HAVE TO FIND FUCKING FAKE PHONE NUMBERS OR SIGN UP TO TEMP NUMBER SERVICES, THEN SO FUCKING BE IT, BUT I SHOULDN’T HAVE TO. I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO POTENTIALLY BREAK THE FUCKING LAW TO GET SOME FUCKING SENSE OF PRIVACY. I LITERALLY HAVE A NUMBER ON TEXTNOW THAT IS BASICALLY FUCKING USELESS AND IS ONLY USABLE FOR MAKING CALLS AND TEXTING. EVEN IF I WAS ABLE TO USE THAT NUMBER TO GET A VERIFICATION CODE IN THE FORM OF A SMS, IT WOULDN’T WORK, BECAUSE “OH, YOU NEED TO SIGN UP FOR ANOTHER FUCKING SUBSCRIPTION (LOCK-IN NUMBER) TO GET VERIFICATION CODES”! FUCK, I CAN’T EVEN PARTICIPATE IN SOME TWITCH CHATS DUE TO THIS BULLSHIT BECAUSE SOME FUCKING STREAMERS SET UP THIS STUPID-ASS ‘VERIFIED ACCOUNTS ONLY CHAT’ BULLSHIT THAT FORCES YOU TO VERIFY VIA PHONE NUMBER TO ACCESS THEM. AND GUESS WHAT? MY TEXTNOW NUMBER? FUCKING USELESS ON ABOUT 90% OF SERVICES ON THE FUCKING INTERNET! WHY? OH, WELL, BECAUSE SOME FUCKING ‘GENIUS’ DECIDED TO MAKE IT HARDER FOR PEOPLE LIKE ME BY BLOCKING VOIP NUMBERS COMPLETELY. AND TEXTNOW IS A VOIP SERVICE. IF I DO TOO MANY ATTEMPTS TO VERIFY, I GET ‘RATE LIMITED’. FUCK. OFF. GIVE ME ANOTHER FUCKING WAY TO VERIFY BECAUSE YOU ARE SURE AS FUCKING HELL NOT GETTING ACCESS TO MORE OF MY DATA! I WOULDN’T BE ABLE TO EVEN “START” THIS PROCEDURE, ANYWAY, BECAUSE I DON’T HAVE A FUCKING PHONE TO BEGIN WITH! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH FUCKING PHONE PLANS COST THESE DAYS? WELL, HUNDREDS, MAYBE EVEN THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS. DO YOU REALLY EXPECT ME TO GO BUY A FUCKING PHONE PLAN THAT IS OVERPRICED AS SHIT, GET A PHONE NUMBER, AND VERIFY WITH IT? OH, FUCK YOU. AND GUESS THE FUCK WHAT? GUESS WHO LOVES PHONE NUMBERS? FUCKING DATA LEAKERS. SHOULD I EVEN REMIND YOU ABOUT THE TWITCH DATA LEAK THAT TOOK PLACE OVER 2 YEARS AGO? PERSONAL INFORMATION ACCESSED. THAT POSSIBLY INCLUDED PHONE NUMBERS. THAT MEANS THAT THE PEOPLE WHO GOT BREACHED PROBABLY HAD A SHIT-TON OF ROBOCALLS. GODDAMNIT, THE INTERNET IS NOT A FUCKING EXCLUSIVE CLUB, YOU GODDAMN DICKWEEDS. BACK WHEN I WAS AROUND THE INTERNET, YOU DIDN’T NEED TO GIVE OUT JACK SHIT WHEN SIGNING UP FOR WEBSITES OR PARTICIPATING IN CHAT. HOLY FUCK, IRC DIDN’T EVEN NEED THAT SHIT. AIM DIDN’T NEED IT. YOU COULD JUST MAKE A FUCKING ACCOUNT ON THE AOL WEBSITE OR YOUR IRC CLIENT, AND BOOM, YOU COULD TALK TO ANYONE IN YOUR CONTACTS. NO STRINGS OR ANYTHING ELSE ATTACHED. BUT NOWADAYS, YOU HAVE TO GIVE OUT A SHIT-TON OF PERSONAL INFO TO ACCESS NEARLY ALMOST EVERYTHING, AND THAT INCLUDES HAVING A PHONE NUMBER, BECAUSE IF YOU DON’T HAVE ONE, THEN YOU ARE APPARENTLY JUST FUCKED, BECAUSE EVERYONE EXPECTS YOU TO HAVE ACCESS TO A FUCKING CELLULAR DEVICE. BACK IN THE 2000S, HAVING A FUCKING PHONE WAS A FUCKING NOVELTY. YOU COULD EVEN CONSIDER YOURSELF LUCKY IF YOU HAD ONE. NOW, EVERYONE EXPECTS YOU TO HAVE ONE. LIKE, WHAT THE FUCK? I HATE THE FUCKING FAKE-ASS EXCUSES COMPANIES GIVE BY CLAIMING THAT HAVING A PHONE NUMBER MAKES YOU MORE SECURE. BRO, THAT IS A FUCKING LIE AND A HALF. WHERE’S MY FUCKING LIE DETECTOR? ALL IT DOES IS GIVES DATA-HUNGRY COMPANIES ACCESS TO MORE OF YOUR INFORMATION, AS IF THEY DON’T HAVE FUCKING ENOUGH OF IT ALREADY. I MISSED OUT ON SO MANY GODDAMN COOL THINGS BECAUSE OF THIS SHITTY-ASS FORCED PHONE NUMBER VERIFICATION. I FUCKING MISSED OUT ON MONSTER HUNTER FRONTIER WHEN IT WAS STILL UP AND RUNNING DUE TO THIS BULLSHIT. NOW, IT IS FUCKING SHUT DOWN FOREVER AND I MISSED OUT ON IT ENTIRELY BECAUSE OF OVERZEALOUS VERIFICATION. I TRULY THOUGHT THAT PHONE VERIFICATION WAS GOING TO BE EASY AS THERE ARE SEVERAL DIFFERENT WEBSITES WHERE YOU CAN RECIEVE SMS TEXTS WITH EITHER ‘REAL’ OR ‘FAKE’ PHONE NUMBERS. NOPE! NOT ONLY DOES THE PHONE NUMBER NOT HAVE TO BE ALREADY USED BY TOO MANY PEOPLE, BUT IT ALSO HAS TO SPECIFICALLY NOT BE A VOIP NUMBER. I MIGHT AS WELL SAY 99% OF THE ENTIRE FUCKING INTERNET DON’T SUPPORT THESE FUCKING NUMBERS. THEY MIGHT AS WELL TELL YOU TO FUCK OFF AND BUY A PHONE PLAN. “DO YOU GUYS NOT HAVE PHONES?” MIGHT AS WELL SUM UP TWO-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION ENTIRELY. DOES IT LOOK LIKE I HAVE A FUCKING PHONE? THEN DO NOT ASK ME FOR A FUCKING PHONE NUMBER OR ASK ME TO USE ANYTHING THAT REQUIRES AN APP! I FUCKING HATE THOSE GODDAMN ‘AUTHENTICATOR’ APPS BECAUSE OF THIS AS WELL, BECAUSE THEY ‘ALSO’ REQUIRE YOU TO HAVE ACCESS TO A PHONE. WE ALREADY PAY FOR FOOD, HOUSING, ELECTRICITY, INTERNET, WATER, AND OTHER ESSENTIALS. STOP ASKING ME TO GET A FUCKING PHONE PLAN AND PUT IN MY FUCKING PHONE NUMBER JUST TO ACCESS NEARLY HALF OF THE ENTIRE FUCKING INTERNET. BESIDES, YOU WON’T BE GETTING MY ACTUAL PHONE NUMBER EVEN IF I “DID” HAVE ONE, SO TOUGH FUCKING SHIT. GO ASK OTHER FUCKING PEOPLE TO PUT IN THEIR GODDAMN PHONE NUMBERS, BECAUSE THAT IS OBVIOUSLY YOUR FUCKING DAY-TO-DAY ACTIVITY.
FUCK. YOU. ALL. 🖕
I don’t know how you function without a phone. This rant indicates the answer is…not well.
“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.
Yeah, I mean, when society originally standardized around the telephone being a necessity, you also would’ve had a hard time then too.
You could buy a very cheap phone on a cheap prepaid plan and that would resolve this issue, but you’re just against it on principle?
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.
If you use the cheap phone only for uses like this, it’s not a very useful tool for any data miner. What the hell good is a phone number that basically isn’t used? You can even turn off the ringer permanently and keep it powered off when not needed. So again I ask, is it just the principle? Surely you know you don’t actually have to use the phone for every day use – you already live without that.
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.
What the hell good is a phone number that basically isn’t used? You can even turn off the ringer permanently and keep it powered off when not needed
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.
For those companies that have no reason to call me I enter a fake number. There’s no reason for me to want to talk to them, so they get nothing.
Until they want to send your phone a text or a call with code just to verify you aren’t feeding their database bad info to use for advertising later
Nice rant. A+ venting
I got an out of the blue call from my bank trying to pitch me on some free advisor service that they offer. I was bored, so I heard them out.
10 mins in they transfer me to someone who wants wants me to verify number by reading back a number sent via SMS.
I got immediately super suspicious and told them I wasn’t doing that and asked for a callback number. The guy understood and suggested I find the number on their website and call that (for the record, this is the correct action. A number that came from a corporate website is safer than one given by a stranger over the phone).
They had called me, and wanted me to verify my number. Also, the message they sent to me came from the same number as the normal 2-factor system I use to log in. Except unlike all previous messages this one omitted “don’t share this with anyone.”
I called them back and they verified that they did indeed call me. I told them their system was fucked. They confirmed that it was a new system.
Similarly, I was fixing some Verizon bill bullshit and they texted me a URL to verify my number. I have a feature phone. So they sent me an SMS that had the “Verizon will never ask for this number.” I told the guy that the text said he wouldn’t ask for the number. He said “yeah, but I’m Verizon, and I need that number,” completely disregarding how ridiculous the situation was.
They eventually sent me an email.
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.
Oh I didn’t even mention my health insurance. Every time I submit a claim, I need to verify my email address. I am already logged in to my account. I can view all of my past records and personal information. But when I want to submit a claim, I need to verify my email address. EVERY. TIME.
Some times I put it off for a few months and have a backlog of weekly therapy to submit. I have to verify my email address 5-6 times in a row all on the same machine during the same session.
I mean, I know they’re just hoping I give up. Half of my recent claims were denied for “missing information.” They wanted me to snail mail in a form with all the info I had definitely already included. I called them and they were like “oh oops. We’ll have this fixed in 17 days.”
Fuck United Healthcare.
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.
It’s by design mate and a lot of folks unfortunately will tell you “They don’t have anything to hide” so they contribute and are part of this problem…
Complete asshole design, I swear to God… -_-
I told them their system was fucked. They confirmed that it was a new system.
A tale as old as time.
Amen!
Today was officially my breaking point when Discord asked me YET AGAIN to enter a fucking phone number.
I am getting sick and fucking tired of every fucking site on the Internet expecting you to have a fucking phone! 🤬
Right?! And even if you did have a phone, why tf would you share it with some fuckin randos with unknown (and most assuredly shite) privacy policy and security? They’ll just sell your number to whoever! Gee, wonder why I’m getting so many fuckin scam calls lately! Bunch bastards!
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.
Robokiller
the roborevenge radio thing is pretty sweet. Screw those spam/scam callers.
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.
PSA: In the US, Supercuts will not cut your hair if you do not first create an account (First Name, Last Name, Phone Number) with them. Apparently, arriving in person, waiting an hour and paying in cash is no longer supported.
That is all.
Whaaat?! This sounds so inane that I don’t know that I actually believe it.
I don’t know that I actually believe it.
🤷♂️
Really? What Gestapo supercuts do you have? I’ve taken my kids there just walking in and gotten them haircuts within 5-15 minutes.
One in CA and another in MI. Maybe it’s me?
A dog groomer near me does exactly the same. You CAN NOT make an appointment at the desk. I refuse to use them although they are closer
I just want to say I LOVE YOU!
And YES you are RIGHT! And YES FUCK these fuckers!
I’m with you!
Preach, Lemming!
Fucking forced phone verification is making me go fucking crazy 🤪🔫
And the worst part is when you go looking for a way to complain about this, the feedback form requires A FUCKING PHONE NUMBER.
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.
I hate that this shit is normalized. Some countries have a strict rule about linking your real identity to the sim card you purchase, so that gets even more vile. Surprising to no one, that doesn’t help with bots or bad actors.
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!
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… 🤔
Mate LAWS are for LAW ABINDING CITIZENS! Bad people DON’T GIVE A FUCK about any law!
I wonder when will people understand this simple statement ???
This applies to any law “ideea”…
OK. Please upload your citizen ID to verify you’re not a not.
**thot
That is a very pleasing typo.
Assuming it is such.
Interesting rant. Just wanted to ask if you dont have the option for prepaid SIM cards where you live? I know where I am you can buy a prepaid card for like 5-10€ and you dont have to give any personal info.
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.
Oh I must have missed you dont have a phone. Well yeah that certainly would not work. But I just mentioned prepaid cards because they do have a phone number that can receive calls and texts while you remain anonymous.
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.
Do you mean actual phone number as one with an actuall package or whatever? Because as far as I know here, at least the card I have is prepaid but fully functional phone number. If you want to have a normal plan you give them a call and you keep the number you just have to pay the bill every month.
So maybe prepaid works different where you live but I have had succes getting codes and confirmation stuff to a prepaid card without issue. As far as the system knows the phone number is just a phone number.
But yes companies will now milk every last cent from you ignoring any moral values just to make that quick buck.
Once you put ANY SIM in any phone you will give away an IMEI + IMSI and other very identifiable unique ids. From there on, you can switch any sim cards every minute as it will not count… that is why changing IMEI is outlawed on most countries…
Think of IMEI as a UNIQUE_ID of every smartphone/sim device on which they will track the shit out of you and me: like where you are going, for how much time, where is your home, where you work etc.
If it is not clear enough I can explain it in more detail.
TL;TR
Using ANY SIM/eSIM in the phone is not a viable solution for those who care at minimum about privacy.
Alright did not know that. But I muat ask at this point does it even make sense for you to not live off grid? I mean going to such lengths just for an IMEI seems a bit exteeme to me. I mean there must be other ways that companies are able to track you.
You are right! I think it boils down to what one wants…
On a personal level, with the events unfolded in the past years I think that the cards are on the table for everyone to see them, if they want…
I made my choices and I’m trying to be very aware of my surroundings with an emphasis on the manipulations we are all subject of.
At all times, no matter how small we can take actions and decissions moving towards the direction we want.
It boils down to taking action or not… And that it is an individual choice!
🙂
!the_pack@lemmy.world would love this.
Verifying your phone number => cranking your hog.
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.
(Your Local Area Code) 867-5309
Pretty much works anywhere- nobody likes giving their number.
Thank you, Tommy Tutone!!
Please enter the verification code sent to your device
Just guess it a few times, it’s only 4 digits! Couldn’t take THAT long
And dont forget the sites that expect you to have a physical phone. Having a VoIP line is no good for many things… Google will refuse VoIP numbers, even if you can get sms through it.
VoIP numbers are too easy to cycle.
Remember 10 years back, companies were MANIC to have verified emails.
Now they want verified cellphone es
Next they will want verified face scans… Try applying for gov assistance without submitting to id.me full face scan
You got some money boy? I’ll have the numbers sent to me then I’ll text em to you. No phone no problem! Cool?🙂
