Softpedia
 

NEWS CATEGORIES:



NEWS ARCHIVE >>
SOFTPEDIA REVIEWS >>
MEET THE EDITORS >>
TRENDING TODAY
Home > News > Editor Blogs > Web

June 15th, 2012, 15:41 GMT · By

BLOG

Facebook Wants Your Phone Number, It’s for Your Own Good

SHARE:

Adjust text size:


Facebook wants your number to keep you safe Enlarge picture - Facebook wants your number to keep you safe
Facebook is stepping up efforts to get people's phone numbers. It's not part of its usual quest to gather up as much info on people as possible, at least not on the face of it, the site wants your phone number in case your account or even Facebook itself is compromised, it's a security feature.

Unfortunately, it's a needed security feature. Passwords alone are no longer enough to keep people secure. On the one hand, many people use the same password everywhere so once it's compromised attackers can use it on dozens of sites.

The flipside of this is people who use so many passwords that they tend to forget them. Granted, most people tend to visit Facebook often enough, but plenty still use the "forgot password" button quite frequently.

With your phone number on record, Facebook can send you a message with a new temporary password in case there are problems so the site is notifying users, all of them, that adding this info could be useful.

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK:

1,295 hits · 1 comment · Link to this article · Print article · Send to friend · Subscribe to news

MUST-READ RELATED ARTICLES:


Vimeo Blocked in India Along with BitTorrent Sites

Dropbox vs SkyDrive vs Google Drive: the Best Free Choice

Facebook Said to Be Interested in Opera, but Don't Hold Your Breath

Who Got Rich in the Facebook IPO

Yahoo Complains That Facebook Bought Patents Just to Attack It

READER COMMENTS:


Comment #1 by: fred on 15 Jun 2012, 16:23 UTC reply to this comment

time fer random rolling phone number changes...just to screw up the data they mine

Copyright © 2001-2013 Softpedia. Contact/Tip us at

WindowsGamesDriversMacLinuxScriptsMobileHandheldNews

SUBMIT PROGRAM   |   ADVERTISE   |   GET HELP   |   SEND US FEEDBACK   |   RSS FEEDS   |   UPDATE YOUR SOFTWARE   |   ROMANIAN FORUM