After Data Leak, Don’t Give Facebook Your Real Phone Number

It’s time to stop giving up Your real phone number on the internet. If you can avoid this, do not link your phone number to your various online accounts because these services (or when) violated – ditto it happened Facebook and, almost, TikTok– your number will hang open for everyone to deal with. Worsewill likely be associated with other information about you, which could lead to spam and annoying phishing attempts.

This gives you two options for you to consider. First of all, if you omit your phone number from your online accounts, For 2FA, you should move away from using less secure (but better than nothing) text-based authentication. This is actually a good thing-but you will need to purchase an application like the one below. Authy or Google Authenticator meet your two-factor authentication needs going forward. It’s super easy to install and for any service that supports them, you should already be using them. Stay full.

If you can’t remove your phone number from a service – because requires you to submit a phone number to create an account or to verify your account. account – make all you can do to avoid give up on you real phone number. For most people this is free install Google voice number, forwarding your messages by sending your real phone number and Google Voice number when you need to provide one for access an account or service.

While this won’t stop a sea of ​​spam coming your way when the phone number leaks or leaks, Google’s service includes: plenty of built-in anti-spam tools. And you can always change your Google Voice number if you find yourself inundated as a result of a future leak or Stop using Google Voice as a forwarding service altogether and it simply You can make calls you don’t want to receive go to death.

As for Facebook …

Since most people using Facebook probably link their own numbers to their accounts, Facebook’s do this – recommended being a little more suspicious of anything unexpected texts or phone calls you receive. Even if they call you by name or seems to have about you normally their legitimacy, be vigilant.

While I am willing to bet you won’t receive any increased spam beyond the normal amounts you already receive via text and phone, it never hurts to be extra careful when one of these data leaks occurs. In the meantime, go ahead and remove your phone number by visiting your Facebook page. Mobile Settings. Then install 2FA no matter what application selected and repeat the process for other major online services where you provide your numbers.