[Chat] Now you need to give a cell phone number to have a Yahoo email account

[Stephen J Gewirtz]

I just tried to reinstate an old Yahoo email account that I have not 
accessed for ages.  It told me I needed to give a mobile phone number.  
At that point, I quit trying to recreate my account.

I tried to recreate my account because my wife had suddenly lost access 
to her Yahoo email account.  I got emails (since she had given my email 
as an emergency contact) telling her to verify her account.  It turned 
out I think that what they wanted was to verify her mobile phone 
number.  This they did, and hopefully her Yahoo email account will work 
again.

Big Brother is watching!  My guess is that Yahoo wants to sell mobile 
phone numbers to advertisers.  And I have now twice received calls 
soliciting money on my cell phone, so I know that that is the next big 
thing, especially to reach the younger folk who do not have landlines.  
It was illegal to telemarket to a cell phone,  but maybe that is 
changing.  And I get enough junk telemarketers on my landline, 
especially the phishing calls telling me I can get a better rate on my 
credit card and ones trying to market emergency call devices to seniors.

Big Brother is not necessarily the government.  We are very much seeing 
how Google, Facebook, Amazon and Yahoo track us.

Steve