4 ms·

I don't really get this. My phone number is apparently already known by every scammer and spammer on earth, which is why I never answer calls from people I don'

I don't really get this. My phone number is apparently already known by every scammer and spammer on earth, which is why I never answer calls from people I don't know, so what am I losing? Meanwhile, Twitch has had a significant bot spamming problem.

Semaphor 5y ago
I’m also subscribed to a few channels. I’m pretty sure that is a far stronger signal that I’m not a bot than getting my phone number. And unlike most people, I only had 2 or 3 spam calls, and maybe 10 spam SMS on the number I’ve had for almost 20 years.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
  Ok so you don't want them to have your phone number but you're ok with them having your payment details?
  - Semaphor 5y ago
    Pretty much my PayPal account, only. And even otherwise, any fuckups there, my bank is liable. My phone number? Outside of changing my 20-year-old number, there’d be nithing I could do. > And even otherwise, any fuckups there, my bank is liable. My phone number? Outside of changing my 20-year-old number, there’d be nothing I could do.
Nextgrid 5y ago
> so what am I losing? The fact that they can use this number to correlate against contact lists collected from other people. Now I don't think Twitch itself is doing this, but they may provide this information to marketing platforms such as Facebook which will use this data for ad targeting (and they definitely have a lot of people's contacts and can infer social graphs very well as a result).
weberer 5y ago
Which came first? You giving your phone number away online, or the scam calls?
- zamadatix 5y ago
  Scam calls just end up ringing every working number these days and if you pick up even once you're already on the list of "real people". Targeted scamming of even just 100,000 potential victims is just wasted effort when with the same setup you could do untarget scamming of 100,000,000 potential victims.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
iuri1 5y ago
Probably not everyone has disposable phone numbers or even know how to manage them, or even choose not to do it out of a personal decision
slightwinder 5y ago
> I don't really get this. My phone number is apparently already known by every scammer and spammer on earth, which is why I never answer calls from people I don't know, so what am I losing? The only scammers who know my number are my phone-provider and my mom. Other scammers either never call me, or just don't know the number. Protecting your number is possible. > Meanwhile, Twitch has had a significant bot spamming problem. Which can be solved without this. The bot-problem is more about people not using the existing tools well and twitch sucking in their handling. Adding another features they won't use will not make anything better. Especially as the phone-number only rises the bar for bots.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
  The twitch tools for dealing with spam suck ass. You basically get a blacklist of words and follower/subscriber only chat modes.
  - slightwinder 5y ago
    You can also restrict to following-age, certified e-mail, and some more. That experienced mods do have little to no problems with bot speaks kinda for itself. Additionally, there are also a bunch of requested features on twitch-side which could had defused the problems even more, without opening the privacy-box.
- farmerstan 5y ago
  Anyone who has your number in their contact list might have uploaded their entire contact list. It literally takes only one person who has your number to reveal your number.

Semaphor 5y ago

I’m also subscribed to a few channels. I’m pretty sure that is a far stronger signal that I’m not a bot than getting my phone number. And unlike most people, I only had 2 or 3 spam calls, and maybe 10 spam SMS on the number I’ve had for almost 20 years.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
Ok so you don't want them to have your phone number but you're ok with them having your payment details?
- Semaphor 5y ago
  Pretty much my PayPal account, only. And even otherwise, any fuckups there, my bank is liable. My phone number? Outside of changing my 20-year-old number, there’d be nithing I could do. > And even otherwise, any fuckups there, my bank is liable. My phone number? Outside of changing my 20-year-old number, there’d be nothing I could do.

Nextgrid 5y ago

> so what am I losing? The fact that they can use this number to correlate against contact lists collected from other people. Now I don't think Twitch itself is doing this, but they may provide this information to marketing platforms such as Facebook which will use this data for ad targeting (and they definitely have a lot of people's contacts and can infer social graphs very well as a result).

weberer 5y ago

Which came first? You giving your phone number away online, or the scam calls?

zamadatix 5y ago
Scam calls just end up ringing every working number these days and if you pick up even once you're already on the list of "real people". Targeted scamming of even just 100,000 potential victims is just wasted effort when with the same setup you could do untarget scamming of 100,000,000 potential victims.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

iuri1 5y ago

Probably not everyone has disposable phone numbers or even know how to manage them, or even choose not to do it out of a personal decision

slightwinder 5y ago

> I don't really get this. My phone number is apparently already known by every scammer and spammer on earth, which is why I never answer calls from people I don't know, so what am I losing? The only scammers who know my number are my phone-provider and my mom. Other scammers either never call me, or just don't know the number. Protecting your number is possible. > Meanwhile, Twitch has had a significant bot spamming problem. Which can be solved without this. The bot-problem is more about people not using the existing tools well and twitch sucking in their handling. Adding another features they won't use will not make anything better. Especially as the phone-number only rises the bar for bots.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
The twitch tools for dealing with spam suck ass. You basically get a blacklist of words and follower/subscriber only chat modes.
- slightwinder 5y ago
  You can also restrict to following-age, certified e-mail, and some more. That experienced mods do have little to no problems with bot speaks kinda for itself. Additionally, there are also a bunch of requested features on twitch-side which could had defused the problems even more, without opening the privacy-box.
farmerstan 5y ago
Anyone who has your number in their contact list might have uploaded their entire contact list. It literally takes only one person who has your number to reveal your number.