Ask HN: Twitter account stolen by presumed vulnerability

Re:Ask HN: Twitter account stolen by presumed vulnerability by rrix2 on Saturday June 15, 2019 @12:06AM (#20188342)

> I was referring specifically to Twitter -- it's been a while since I checked, but doesn't Twitter require an email address for every account on signup?

I see, I misunderstood. it does not require an email address on signup, they’ve been pushing more and more aggressively to force new accounts to have numbers tied to them in fact[1]. https://mobile.twitter.com/i/flow/signup in a private browser tab in fact defaults to phone number and the email flow is deprioritised.

I agree that it should never be required, much less the only factor. Nothing good can come of it but these companies get to lean on Trust and Safety as an excuse to collate this information for nonconsensual purposes.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/8e5m73/twitter_is_... and some other stuff that I’m too tired to search hn for

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Re:Ask HN: Twitter account stolen by presumed vulnerability by danShumway on Saturday June 15, 2019 @12:21AM (#20188382)

Oof. That's disappointing to hear, but I appreciate the heads up.

My more cynical side agrees with you that the shift is probably mostly explained by data collection and user monitoring. I would like to give Twitter's security team the benefit of the doubt, or say that they're expanding into different markets and it's an accessibility thing, but... I dunno. I'm not sure I actually believe that.

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