Want Gmail? Best have your mobile handy
Found on The Register on Tuesday, 28 July 2009
Users signing up for a Gmail account are now being asked to provide a mobile-phone number in the continuing war against spam, though Google will keep it handy just in case anything else turns up.
"Your number will also be associated with your account to avoid unnecessary future verifications for other Google services", though the Do-No-Evil company does clarify: "your number will never be sold or shared for marketing purposes without your permission, nor will we contact you using this number without your express permission".
Guess that means my Gmail account will be killed once they start re-authenticating existing users like that. Not that much would be lost: three mails in five years hardly makes it an important account. At least not important enough to turn over my cellphone number (something I don't have anyway) to Google.