Re: Codes sent by text message

"Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote

| >     An actual person with a phone contract? So you're saying that
| > having a cellphone is more proof of ID than my drivers license? You've
| > been drinking the kool-aid.
|
| You can not send the drivers license online.
|

  You said the reason for a cellphone code is to confirm
that you're "an actual person with a phone contract". When
I signed up for crypto I had to scan and upload both sides
of my driver's license.

  We seem to be talking about two different things here.
If your identity needs to be checked then a cellphone
number is meaningless. If you want secure login, a cellphone
number is not necessary.

| >
| >    So it's pure bullshit for them to talk about security and even more
| > BS to talk about confirming who you are. The only credible reason to
| > require 2FA via cellphone is to track you.
|
| What on earth are they going to track?
|

  Where have you been, Carlos? The Internet runs on spying and
ads. Google's whole business is giving away convenient services
in exchange for spying. Did you think they were a non-profit? Banks
are no different. Not all online businesses spy, but if the product
is free it would be naive to think they're not spying.

  Most online brokers are offering trades for free. So how do they
make money? They may just hope that you'll get rich and use their
paid services later. But it's likely that they're also collecting personal
data as a source of income. Datamining. Did you somehow not
know that's an industry now? Ostrich logic never ceases to astonish
me. So many people get angry about even being exposed to the truth.
Instead they shoot the messenger, screaming about paranoia and
tinfoil hats. That's exactly what makes the datamining industry
feasible.

  In just the past week I've come across this:

'Meet the guy who taught US intelligence agencies how to make the most of
the ad tech ecosystem, "the largest information-gathering enterprise ever
conceived by man."'
https://www.wired.com/story/how-pentagon-learned-targeted-ads-to-find-targets-and-vladimir-putin/

  For a more in depth survy there's this app spying report by the
Norwegian Cconssumer Council:

https://storage02.forbrukerradet.no/media/2020/01/mnemonic-security-test-report-v1.0.pdf

How about Avast selling your browser history? We've got that, too:

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ftc-to-ban-avast-from-selling-browsing-data-for-advertising-purposes/

   I come across these articles almost daily. I come across websites
that block me reading their articles unless I enable javascript. Why?
Because it's hard to spy without javascript.

| A real actual mobile phone with a "real" number. Not a modern
| fangled googlesomethingnumber.

  I have nothing against you using your "real" number, on your
"real" cellphone, for online 2FA. I only want to not have to use
and keep a cellphone in order to do business online. The US
Treasury has no problem with that. Nor does either of my email
servers *require* 2FA, much less a cellphone. Why? Those entities
are not providing a free service.

| Banks. Tradition! Stability! Not modernity.

  No one was talking about banks. But I agree with you there.
I don't doubt that all banks are run by Jimmy Stewart. Like...
oh... Silicon Valley Bank, for example:

https://www.npr.org/2023/03/10/1162599556/silicon-valley-bank-collapse-failure-fdic-regulators-run-on-bank

  Then of course there were the bank failures of 2008. Banks
in the US survive as an institution only because the US gov't
insures deposits.

  There was an interesting talk given in Canada by a 12 year
old girl about banks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae7h8FioX0
She explains how banks are generally only required to actually
hold a tiny fraction of the money they lend. In other words, a
bank charter is a license to print money. What could go wrong,
right?

  Personally I don't and would never use online banking. I had
to call my bank's office to specifically block it. My bank's local branch
is a few blocks away. A pleasant walk. An easy drive. I mostly go
there only to get cash from the ATM.