If you enter your phone number on Facebook to protect your account, for example, it will no longer be possible to hide it. Mark Zuckerberg’s social network makes it impossible for users to be completely untraceable.
This is reported by Jeremy Burge, who is mainly concerned with the development of emoji. In a message on Twitter he writes that for years Facebook claimed that the possibility to add your phone number was only linked to two-step verification. According to him, this is not true: people can also be found on their telephone number. There is no way to disable this feature. You can only choose to be found by ‘everyone’, ‘friends of friends’ or ‘friends’ with your phone number.
Search by phone numbers
Although it is possible to hide your phone number on your profile, it is still possible to search based on your number. This happens according to an article on the Facebook site, for example when someone uploads your contact details to Facebook via a mobile phone. So it is possible to hide your phone number from others, but it remains a search parameter.
It’s somewhat remarkable news, because for a long time Facebook has been claiming that it only used telephone numbers to enable two-stage verification. The latter means that if you log in with your username and password, Facebook will also send a text message containing a unique code to your smartphone. This makes it easier to check whether you really are who you claim to be.
Last year, however, it became clear that Facebook also uses telephone numbers for other purposes. The company also uses them for advertisements. Advertisers can upload lists of email addresses and phone numbers. Facebook then actively displays ads on the accounts associated with those addresses and numbers. This policy was also the subject of a great deal of criticism.
About this particular case, spokesman Jay Nacarrow informs the TechCrunch site that it is nothing new. The network will take into account the feedback we have received. What this specifically means is not clear, as the social network does not deal with plans for the future.
This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.
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