Re:Twitter API hacked, user database being sold online
by Eisenstein on Sunday December 25, 2022 @02:47PM
(#34130524)
How did twitter start as an sms system without requiring phone numbers?
Re:Twitter API hacked, user database being sold online
by whywhywhywhy on Tuesday December 27, 2022 @11:02AM
(#34149803)
They pivoted away from being an SMS system and that became a legacy part of it, that still worked but wasn't essential.
The part where Twitter was SMS only is like a footnote in its history.
Re:Twitter API hacked, user database being sold online
by O__________O on Tuesday December 27, 2022 @12:57PM
(#34151454)
Point is that generally speaking databases rarely delete fields once added, especially field as valuable as a phone number; as such, my assumption is Twitter has had a field in their database for a user’s phone number since it was first released.
Twitter’s been collecting phone numbers since at least late 2006:
https://web.archive.org/web/20061103054924/http://twitter.co...
Re:Twitter API hacked, user database being sold online
by Eisenstein on Wednesday December 28, 2022 @01:24PM
(#34163995)
So what you are saying is that when they started they required phone numbers? As in, what the commenter I was replying to wrote was not true? The 'footnote' in history seems pretty important when the whole point is that ignoring it leads you to assume things that are wrong.
You used to be able to sign up with just an email address then they started forcing phone number verification by lying and saying they caught your account acting like a bot so you needed to verify you’re human using phone number (you got the message even if you did nothing or just followed a few people, total lie)