5 ms·

> my account locked up and said there was "suspicious activity" and if I wanted to continue I needed to supply my phone number. I have repeatedly heard it said

by teddyh 5y ago

> my account locked up and said there was "suspicious activity" and if I wanted to continue I needed to supply my phone number. I have repeatedly heard it said that Twitter does this for every single new account as a matter of course. Twitter wants your phone number, but don’t want you to bounce right at registration.

shmatt 5y ago
I would guess it started as a reaction to the many botnets used by companies and countries trying to maximize certain opinions On top of the phone number, they also go through purges seemingly once a year, getting rid of up to a million accounts a day. That also doesn't fair well with giving the stock market raw numbers
- teddyh 5y ago
  > reaction to the many botnets Makes no sense. If they wanted to require a phone number to keep out bots, they would simply ask for a phone number at registration. Delaying it like this, claiming “suspicious activity” is hard to see any other way than how I described it.
  - jazzyjackson 5y ago
    bots can get phone numbers cheap, a cost of doing business. Speculation: Twitter wants your phone number so they can correlate you with existing marketing data so they can target you more effectively.
    - alexpotato 5y ago
      I would agree. Twitter has massive data on your interests but collects only minimal information about you vs, say, Facebook which has your name, birthday etc etc. I would also argue that Twitter has BETTER interest data than Facebook b/c you are constantly interacting with thousands of tweets a day across multiple dimensions. Facebook tends to be your family and a couple pages you happened to like. If they get your phone number, they get all of the available "data in the cloud" about you e.g. income, purchasing preferences etc. Cross reference the interests with that cloud data and you have a very precise target profile to sell to advertisers.
      - wyclif 5y ago
        Twitter doesn't have the purest of intentions in harvesting user phone numbers, that's true. But the flip side of this, especially when I see people getting angry about apps that ask for phone number, is that it's not like 1990's or even 2000's anymore where you wanted to keep your phone number private. It's trivial to get a new phone number now and Signal makes it easy. There's also VOIP services like Google Voice (not sure if Twitter allows the use of VOIP numbers, though).
  - Terry_Roll 5y ago
    Because even a phone number is not enough to keep out bots. Some VoIP providers do a PAYG model, so you can choose from any number of phone numbers, regional, local landlines or from mobile numbers for free and only pay when you make a call or answer their answerphone. Now obviously Twitter will send text messages so you never incur a cost from the VoIP provider. So how does a phone number solve bot activity?
    - shmatt 5y ago
      its a cat and mouse game. lately I've found many websites show an error when I put in my Google Voice number for sms verification I don't know how the implementation works, if theres a way to check for virtual vs. real number, but some sms verification service provider seems to have successfully implemented a filter on Google Voice
    - koolba 5y ago
      Don’t you have to seed the PAYG account with a non-zero amount of money to initially get the number? Even a few dollars multiplied out becomes a significant spend if it’s a unique number per bot.
      - Terry_Roll 5y ago
        Totally free and that's just one VoIP provider. https://www.sipgatebasic.co.uk/ https://www.sipgatebasic.co.uk/
  - IncRnd 5y ago
    If Twitter asked for the phone number at registration, they would have fewer signups due to people opting not to complete their registrations. Delaying the ask for a phone number increases the number of accounts they are able to claim.
- winternett 5y ago
  The junk calls I ritually get whenever I need to use the app, specifically after about 1 minutes of opening the app while I am reading says otherwise. Implementing (no opt in) 2FA on sites where that level of security is not really warranted is just a ploy to get data that can be resold in my opinion.
userbinator 5y ago
but don’t want you to bounce right at registration. Instead, they end up filling their database with countless unused accounts created by those who gave up?
- adrianN 5y ago
  Space in databases is essentially free.
  - gaius_baltar 5y ago
    ... and they can say to investors "we have N million accounts".
- pseudo0 5y ago
  What are the odds that they still count those unused accounts towards that crucial user growth metric?
  - ThalesX 5y ago
    Worked for a CEO that used to require his Customer Service to create new accounts whenever a user would request their account be deleted. You can imagine where the company ended up when the CEO's solution to people wanting to delete their accounts is to replace them with fake ones for the vanity metrics.
tehbeard 5y ago
Microsoft also do this. I had to make a new MS account to migrate a 2nd minecraft account. The account has only ever been used from the game launcher, and they have the analytics that the account was created for the migration. But apparently there was "suspicious activity" that violates TOS and they auto locked it, and rather than contact the gmail address I used for the account, they demand a phone number. Tbf, I'm considering just raising this with the authorities, given a lot of relevant authorities, as not everyone migrating an account will be ab adult, and asking for kids phone numbers seems like a GDPR slamdunk.
- verve_rat 5y ago
  Do it.
- brimble 5y ago
  Wrangling MS accounts for Minecraft is weirdly hellish. I don't know if they're trying to get people to stop using the Java edition, or what. It feels like they don't want your money.
  - tehbeard 5y ago
    They already have my money, twice, and the second account was after release so "full price". Its weird because they have to know that hurting Java edition is just stabbing the most evangelical members of the community. The ones that built it up and developed so much of the word of mouth marketing.
    - brimble 5y ago
      I hear you. I'd have already bought two more if buying the first (post-Microsoft-acquisition—family has two from before that already) copy hadn't been been such a pain in the ass. My alternative isn't switching to the non-Java edition—it's finally getting around to looking into open source clones. I'm riiiiight on the edge of pushing my kids into one of those instead.

by teddyh 5y ago

shmatt 5y ago

I would guess it started as a reaction to the many botnets used by companies and countries trying to maximize certain opinions On top of the phone number, they also go through purges seemingly once a year, getting rid of up to a million accounts a day. That also doesn't fair well with giving the stock market raw numbers

teddyh 5y ago
> reaction to the many botnets Makes no sense. If they wanted to require a phone number to keep out bots, they would simply ask for a phone number at registration. Delaying it like this, claiming “suspicious activity” is hard to see any other way than how I described it.
- jazzyjackson 5y ago
  bots can get phone numbers cheap, a cost of doing business. Speculation: Twitter wants your phone number so they can correlate you with existing marketing data so they can target you more effectively.
  - alexpotato 5y ago
    I would agree. Twitter has massive data on your interests but collects only minimal information about you vs, say, Facebook which has your name, birthday etc etc. I would also argue that Twitter has BETTER interest data than Facebook b/c you are constantly interacting with thousands of tweets a day across multiple dimensions. Facebook tends to be your family and a couple pages you happened to like. If they get your phone number, they get all of the available "data in the cloud" about you e.g. income, purchasing preferences etc. Cross reference the interests with that cloud data and you have a very precise target profile to sell to advertisers.
    - wyclif 5y ago
      Twitter doesn't have the purest of intentions in harvesting user phone numbers, that's true. But the flip side of this, especially when I see people getting angry about apps that ask for phone number, is that it's not like 1990's or even 2000's anymore where you wanted to keep your phone number private. It's trivial to get a new phone number now and Signal makes it easy. There's also VOIP services like Google Voice (not sure if Twitter allows the use of VOIP numbers, though).
- Terry_Roll 5y ago
  Because even a phone number is not enough to keep out bots. Some VoIP providers do a PAYG model, so you can choose from any number of phone numbers, regional, local landlines or from mobile numbers for free and only pay when you make a call or answer their answerphone. Now obviously Twitter will send text messages so you never incur a cost from the VoIP provider. So how does a phone number solve bot activity?
  - shmatt 5y ago
    its a cat and mouse game. lately I've found many websites show an error when I put in my Google Voice number for sms verification I don't know how the implementation works, if theres a way to check for virtual vs. real number, but some sms verification service provider seems to have successfully implemented a filter on Google Voice
  - koolba 5y ago
    Don’t you have to seed the PAYG account with a non-zero amount of money to initially get the number? Even a few dollars multiplied out becomes a significant spend if it’s a unique number per bot.
    - Terry_Roll 5y ago
      Totally free and that's just one VoIP provider. https://www.sipgatebasic.co.uk/ https://www.sipgatebasic.co.uk/
- IncRnd 5y ago
  If Twitter asked for the phone number at registration, they would have fewer signups due to people opting not to complete their registrations. Delaying the ask for a phone number increases the number of accounts they are able to claim.
winternett 5y ago
The junk calls I ritually get whenever I need to use the app, specifically after about 1 minutes of opening the app while I am reading says otherwise. Implementing (no opt in) 2FA on sites where that level of security is not really warranted is just a ploy to get data that can be resold in my opinion.

userbinator 5y ago

but don’t want you to bounce right at registration. Instead, they end up filling their database with countless unused accounts created by those who gave up?

adrianN 5y ago
Space in databases is essentially free.
- gaius_baltar 5y ago
  ... and they can say to investors "we have N million accounts".
pseudo0 5y ago
What are the odds that they still count those unused accounts towards that crucial user growth metric?
- ThalesX 5y ago
  Worked for a CEO that used to require his Customer Service to create new accounts whenever a user would request their account be deleted. You can imagine where the company ended up when the CEO's solution to people wanting to delete their accounts is to replace them with fake ones for the vanity metrics.

tehbeard 5y ago

Microsoft also do this. I had to make a new MS account to migrate a 2nd minecraft account. The account has only ever been used from the game launcher, and they have the analytics that the account was created for the migration. But apparently there was "suspicious activity" that violates TOS and they auto locked it, and rather than contact the gmail address I used for the account, they demand a phone number. Tbf, I'm considering just raising this with the authorities, given a lot of relevant authorities, as not everyone migrating an account will be ab adult, and asking for kids phone numbers seems like a GDPR slamdunk.

verve_rat 5y ago
Do it.
brimble 5y ago
Wrangling MS accounts for Minecraft is weirdly hellish. I don't know if they're trying to get people to stop using the Java edition, or what. It feels like they don't want your money.
- tehbeard 5y ago
  They already have my money, twice, and the second account was after release so "full price". Its weird because they have to know that hurting Java edition is just stabbing the most evangelical members of the community. The ones that built it up and developed so much of the word of mouth marketing.
  - brimble 5y ago
    I hear you. I'd have already bought two more if buying the first (post-Microsoft-acquisition—family has two from before that already) copy hadn't been been such a pain in the ass. My alternative isn't switching to the non-Java edition—it's finally getting around to looking into open source clones. I'm riiiiight on the edge of pushing my kids into one of those instead.