I have a question, what do companies do with your phone number ? can they trace who you are and what you do ?

  • sirlington@lemmy.world
    cake
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    20
    ·
    1 year ago

    Many companies sell your data to data brokers, and a phone number can act as a unique identifier across several data sources, allowing brokers to merge several data profiles together into a mega-profile about you.

      • Em Adespoton@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        1 year ago

        In many places companies are already required to do so on request. Which is why data brokers regularly change their names. If you don’t know who they are, you can’t request your data or ask to have it purged.

        • miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Exactly, on request. But what if we forced them to do so automatically, without it having to be requested?

          They’d come up with the most wild and hilarious excuses, wouldn’t they