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This is why using phone numbers as account identifiers is a bad idea. (For the users, at least. Not necessarily for the companies who want to own those users.
by Jordrok 10y ago
This is why using phone numbers as account identifiers is a bad idea. (For the users, at least. Not necessarily for the companies who want to own those users.)
- superuser2 10y agoArguably WhatsApp would have gotten nowhere if they required users to construct screen names and manually build their social graph on yet another service. It seems like every popular "personal" messaging service since Facebook got that way by bootstrapping on top of smartphone contacts.
- dingaling 10y agoMy wife, who is rather dedicated about keeping away from Facebook, ordered a new pay-as-you-go SIM for use in an old Android phone specifically and only for WhatsApp. It seemed a bit of an expensive tactic, having to top-up with an initial £10, but now I realise she was quite prescient.
- pooper 10y agoDoes she still have that number? If not, will the new owner get WhatsApp messages sent to her if they use WhatsApp?