Facebook users may want to think twice before adding a phone number to two-factor authentication. Users are complaining that there’s no way to delete the phone number from the account or prevent friends from looking you up by phone number. And Facebook has been doing it for years.
Setting up two-factor authentication is usually a recommended move to keep important accounts secure — but on Facebook, adding a phone number could impact privacy. After a tweet from a user complaining that Facebook required a phone number for two-factor authenticatio n, Facebook’s iffy data practices are once again in the spotlight, this time with what actually happens to your phone number when adding two-factor authentication.
The practice coming into question isn’t new — just highlighted by a new round of complaints. Facebook has offered two-factor authentication since 2011. The company says that phone numbers added to an account, including areas outside of two-factor authentication, are then linked to the account.
