I personally am fine with this.
how would they track you?
The reason they want a phone number is, that it’s a relatively cheap way to ensure people not signing up bots galore, as getting phone numbers en masse is a lot harder than getting email accounts
phone numbers are typically tied to your name/identity, and phone companies can locate you using their towers and such. Giving a company your phone number is identical to giving a company your full legal name and address.
First part is not quite true, varies by country.
Second part is full on Olympic mental gymnastics
me giving, let’s say, twitch my phone number gives them exactly 0 ways of tracking me in any way whatsoever
Source: worked for a mobile company
I can hear the tinfoil hat from here
That’s a pretty absurd take in 2023. Tracking and surveillance is rampant these days.
