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> safety and security purposes I tried making a Twitter two months ago because I was having trouble with my phone and needed to access T-Mobile's social media-

> safety and security purposes I tried making a Twitter two months ago because I was having trouble with my phone and needed to access T-Mobile's social media-only support team. Within five minutes of making the account, I was banned for "suspicious activity" and required to enter my phone number "for security purposes". But the only reason I made the account is because my phone wasn't working... Emailed support and was told that they could not make an exception for me because I had broken some vague unnamed rule. Then I said the magic words, "This is clearly a ploy to collect phone numbers for data aggregation purposes," and within the next 24 hours my account was unlocked, accompanied by a very salty and accusatory email.

munk-a 7y ago
I'm sort of amazed your account was unlocked instead of you just being shown the door. Especially since, as a company policy, letting users like you through is likely to result in very little revenue for users. They're much better off just targeting the tech illiterate folk who can be easily swayed into clicking through ads.
- talaketu 7y ago
  Twitter has put some effort into the "customer service" use case. https://www.forbes.com/sites/shephyken/2016/04/30/how-to-use-twitter-for-customer-service/#559e316d49f2 https://www.forbes.com/sites/shephyken/2016/04/30/how-to-use... At a basic level, you could think of it as providing the content for the audience - the inventory that is sold to advertisers. Twitter as we know it would not exist if all the users were tweet consumers, and none were tweet producers. T-Mobile is great example of a business providing customer service over Twitter.
LudwigNagasena 7y ago
>Within five minutes of making the account, I was banned for "suspicious activity" and required to enter my phone number "for security purposes". The same was done to me. The thought that the point of this was not to take my phone number for advertising never occured to me. It seemed very obvioius and I hope the EU, as the only political actor that sometimes seems to care about people, will do something about this.
mjevans 7y ago
This seems like a dark pattern; requiring the use of an external life invasion platform to access actually decent tech support.
- soulofmischief 7y ago
  I tried asking T-Force if we could continue the conversation over email, but they misunderstood or something and sent me an account validation form via email but then just continued the conversation over Twitter. I'm not sure if they have been given an avenue for support outside of Facebook and Twitter.
gouggoug 7y ago
> accompanied by a very salty and accusatory email Would you mind sharing the anonymized content of said email?
- soulofmischief 7y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21199808 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21199808
0xdeadb00f 7y ago
> Then I said the magic words, "This is clearly a ploy to collect phone numbers for data aggregation purposes," and within the next 24 hours my account was unlocked, accompanied by a very salty and accusatory email. Do you think this would still work? I've been wanting to get a twitter but I've been put off by the phone number "requirement" for a long time. Every time I attempt to make an account or log into an old one it requires phone number verification. (I can't get burner phones where I am).
- soulofmischief 7y ago
  This happened to me only two months ago, I assume it's still a possibility. Ask them if they like the idea of you constantly making new alt accounts until one finally gets through.
paranoidrobot 7y ago
Twitter isn't alone in this sort of invasive activity. I have family and friends that share photos on their private Instagram accounts and nowhere else. I didn't have an account, so I installed the app on my phone, signed up, verified email and mobile number, and followed the family accounts. The next day I open the app only to be prompted to log in again, which it won't accept (password stored in a password manager). A few minutes later an email arrives from Instagram saying that my account has been locked due to suspicious activity and demanding that I provide a photo of myself holding government issued ID. Their helpdesk refuses to do anything until I do.
- doppp 7y ago
  Yup, this just happened to me too.
- delfinom 7y ago
  Instagram is amusing. You can remove an email address from your account. And its still valid for logins many weeks after the fact.
- 0xdeadb00f 7y ago
  Facebook has done this to me multiple times as well. However i think my activity could very well be considered suspicious: I signed up with a fake name and gave no other information, then followed a load of people.
- fouc 7y ago
  I'm not sure I like the trend of these sites trying to collect identity information. They might justify it with spam/scam/fraud protection, but they don't really have an ethical reason to do so.
- soulofmischief 7y ago
  What the heck happened to our parents' advice of "never reveal your personal information online"? I was being force-fed this lie since birth? Why do they suddenly not care anymore? My mom constantly calls me paranoid now for not wanting to do things like upload all of my photos to Google cloud.
Crontab 7y ago
I tried making a new account two or three months ago. Twitter sent me a verification email, which I confirmed, but they immediately requested phone verification as well - even though I had never been able to use the account in any way. I refused and never opened an account because of that. The sceptic in me thinks this is more about advertising and less about security.
codazoda 7y ago
I have changed my phone to opt-in only by setting it to "do not disturb" mode permanently. If you're not in my contact list, my phone doesn't ring and you can only leave a message. It's mostly great. I may try the Call Screen feature I noticed the other day as an alternative too.
cwkoss 7y ago
I wonder if requiring a phone number for access could create ADA compliance liability for web services.
catacombs 7y ago
> accompanied by a very salty and accusatory email. post the email
- soulofmischief 7y ago
  " Hello, Your account was locked due to a violation of the Twitter Rules (https://twitter.com/rules https://twitter.com/rules), specifically our rules around abuse: https://support.twitter.com/articles/20169997 https://support.twitter.com/articles/20169997. Your account is now restored. Please note that further violations may result in the locking of your account again or permanent account suspension. Thank you, Twitter" They refused to take responsibility for the error.
  - catacombs 7y ago
    That doesn't sound salty coming from an automated system.
Timpy 7y ago
I don't have a Twitter account and I agree that Twitter (and all the other platforms) use misleading tactics to collect data on their users. To play devils advocate though, Twitter genuinely has a problem with troll accounts don't they? Adding a phone number requirement could reduce the amount. I have the impression that some people are holding Twitter accountable for the way their platform is affecting public discourse, this could be primarily a tactic to curb fake accounts.

munk-a 7y ago

I'm sort of amazed your account was unlocked instead of you just being shown the door. Especially since, as a company policy, letting users like you through is likely to result in very little revenue for users. They're much better off just targeting the tech illiterate folk who can be easily swayed into clicking through ads.

talaketu 7y ago
Twitter has put some effort into the "customer service" use case. https://www.forbes.com/sites/shephyken/2016/04/30/how-to-use-twitter-for-customer-service/#559e316d49f2 https://www.forbes.com/sites/shephyken/2016/04/30/how-to-use... At a basic level, you could think of it as providing the content for the audience - the inventory that is sold to advertisers. Twitter as we know it would not exist if all the users were tweet consumers, and none were tweet producers. T-Mobile is great example of a business providing customer service over Twitter.

LudwigNagasena 7y ago

>Within five minutes of making the account, I was banned for "suspicious activity" and required to enter my phone number "for security purposes". The same was done to me. The thought that the point of this was not to take my phone number for advertising never occured to me. It seemed very obvioius and I hope the EU, as the only political actor that sometimes seems to care about people, will do something about this.

mjevans 7y ago

This seems like a dark pattern; requiring the use of an external life invasion platform to access actually decent tech support.

soulofmischief 7y ago
I tried asking T-Force if we could continue the conversation over email, but they misunderstood or something and sent me an account validation form via email but then just continued the conversation over Twitter. I'm not sure if they have been given an avenue for support outside of Facebook and Twitter.

gouggoug 7y ago

> accompanied by a very salty and accusatory email Would you mind sharing the anonymized content of said email?

soulofmischief 7y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21199808 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21199808

0xdeadb00f 7y ago

> Then I said the magic words, "This is clearly a ploy to collect phone numbers for data aggregation purposes," and within the next 24 hours my account was unlocked, accompanied by a very salty and accusatory email. Do you think this would still work? I've been wanting to get a twitter but I've been put off by the phone number "requirement" for a long time. Every time I attempt to make an account or log into an old one it requires phone number verification. (I can't get burner phones where I am).

soulofmischief 7y ago
This happened to me only two months ago, I assume it's still a possibility. Ask them if they like the idea of you constantly making new alt accounts until one finally gets through.

paranoidrobot 7y ago

Twitter isn't alone in this sort of invasive activity. I have family and friends that share photos on their private Instagram accounts and nowhere else. I didn't have an account, so I installed the app on my phone, signed up, verified email and mobile number, and followed the family accounts. The next day I open the app only to be prompted to log in again, which it won't accept (password stored in a password manager). A few minutes later an email arrives from Instagram saying that my account has been locked due to suspicious activity and demanding that I provide a photo of myself holding government issued ID. Their helpdesk refuses to do anything until I do.

doppp 7y ago
Yup, this just happened to me too.
delfinom 7y ago
Instagram is amusing. You can remove an email address from your account. And its still valid for logins many weeks after the fact.
0xdeadb00f 7y ago
Facebook has done this to me multiple times as well. However i think my activity could very well be considered suspicious: I signed up with a fake name and gave no other information, then followed a load of people.
fouc 7y ago
I'm not sure I like the trend of these sites trying to collect identity information. They might justify it with spam/scam/fraud protection, but they don't really have an ethical reason to do so.
soulofmischief 7y ago
What the heck happened to our parents' advice of "never reveal your personal information online"? I was being force-fed this lie since birth? Why do they suddenly not care anymore? My mom constantly calls me paranoid now for not wanting to do things like upload all of my photos to Google cloud.

Crontab 7y ago

I tried making a new account two or three months ago. Twitter sent me a verification email, which I confirmed, but they immediately requested phone verification as well - even though I had never been able to use the account in any way. I refused and never opened an account because of that. The sceptic in me thinks this is more about advertising and less about security.

codazoda 7y ago

I have changed my phone to opt-in only by setting it to "do not disturb" mode permanently. If you're not in my contact list, my phone doesn't ring and you can only leave a message. It's mostly great. I may try the Call Screen feature I noticed the other day as an alternative too.

cwkoss 7y ago

I wonder if requiring a phone number for access could create ADA compliance liability for web services.

catacombs 7y ago

> accompanied by a very salty and accusatory email. post the email

soulofmischief 7y ago
" Hello, Your account was locked due to a violation of the Twitter Rules (https://twitter.com/rules https://twitter.com/rules), specifically our rules around abuse: https://support.twitter.com/articles/20169997 https://support.twitter.com/articles/20169997. Your account is now restored. Please note that further violations may result in the locking of your account again or permanent account suspension. Thank you, Twitter" They refused to take responsibility for the error.
- catacombs 7y ago
  That doesn't sound salty coming from an automated system.

Timpy 7y ago

I don't have a Twitter account and I agree that Twitter (and all the other platforms) use misleading tactics to collect data on their users. To play devils advocate though, Twitter genuinely has a problem with troll accounts don't they? Adding a phone number requirement could reduce the amount. I have the impression that some people are holding Twitter accountable for the way their platform is affecting public discourse, this could be primarily a tactic to curb fake accounts.