He lives in Hillsboro, Oregon. You don't have to. Hackers ruin everything, once again. What are us non-hackers supposed to do now? Join the How-To Geek Club! What do you make of Google mail doing much the same thing in asking for mobile no. Have to say I'm pretty reluctant to hand it over. Google have been nagging me for months to provide them with a number every time I have to login, and they won't leave me logged in for more than a couple of weeks.
I just use the Skip option. If they get to the stage where it becomes mandatory, then they'll get a fake number.
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If I forget my password — which is the only reason they think they need it — then it's my problem. I distrust Google only somewhat less than I distrust Facebook. Their motto, "Don't be evil", conveniently avoids any definition of what they mean by "evil", and in any case it's a far cry from "Be good". They used their street view cam as a pretext for mapping the location of wireless routers.
Method: Reverse search a phone number on Facebook
How do I know they're not tracking the location of mobile phones? You know, this business about offering so-called "free" services that aren't free at all really bugs me. I understand that Google is in business, and that it's not reasonable to expect them to provide services that are really free. What bugs me is that they hide what the real cost in privacy actually is.
If they were honest and open about it — "Here's the deal. We'll provide you with this, and in exchange, you let us do that. But that's not what they do. Read their terms of service. It's a monument to ambiguity.
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And how about this one: We may process your personal information on a server located outside the country where you live. Google will never get my phone number. If giving them a phone number becomes a requirement of having an account, then I will not have an account.
In that case, the price of their "free" services will be far too high. I don't have a cell phone. I have 2 people that I chat with.. I tried phoning facebook but, but they aren't answering the phone.. Yes, that security screen saying that you need to add a mobile phone number to make your account more secure is confusing to some. And it says your security risk is high if you don't enter it. Some people think they HAVE to enter their number just to get past this screen.
If you have never been asked for your phone number, perhaps they already have it? Possibly you gave it years ago, and don't remember? I get this security screen whenever I log out, and back in again. It pops up just as soon as I click enter after entering my password. Don't give them your number. My daughter said all of us with old accounts can get away without them having our phone number. But she said it is mandatory now to give FB a phone number when you create a new account.
You can't create an account without one. So maybe a throw-away number would be good for this.
Just make a number up. As long as you remember it in case you get asked to verify it, then it's fine. I do that with websites all the time, making something up to fit the formula when I am forced to give them information I don't think they need but that they have made a mandatory field. It is rare for such sites to test the number to make sure you haven't given them an old one.
Hmm, so you cannot comment in here about unnecessary requirements for personal details without giving your name and a valid email address…. A real email address is optional — but does obviously help us if your comment warrants private follow-up. This used to be worse. Years ago, you could enter a partial phone number into the FB search field and get returns for everyone whose number started with those digits. This could end up providing you with a phone number for a somewhat random person in your area with this approach:. Enter the area code, a known common prefix for your area code and a couple of random digits.
Start adding or changing the next digit to get a set of search results that includes a profile pic that you like. Cycle through the possible last digits until it returns that person.
Your phone number may not be as private on Facebook as you think – and how to fix it
After it's uploaded, Facebook presents the hacker a list of "Friends" to add from the list. They would then search for their target inside that list. My target doesn't seem to be here, so I know they aren't in this half of our batch of numbers. Next, instead of testing the next , I split the next in half and check one of those halves.
This is because I already know the target will be on the second list since they weren't in the first half. The hacker can continue searching in this way until the target appears on a phone number list. From there on out, the hacker would test smaller and smaller batches of numbers until they have only a handful to test. I stopped when I had it down to about 30 numbers. Obviously, this will take longer if the hacker has less information about the other digits of the phone number to begin with, as they will have a larger number set to search.
Facebook will rate-limit the hacker to five attempts per day but they can get around this by signing into another account. Once that hacker has it down to a handful of numbers, they can go to the Facebook search bar and type them in one by one. To do so, just type the number into the search bar with no hyphens. In total, it took me around 30 minutes to an hour to find the target's number, and these same steps could be used on anyone who has their phone connected to Facebook. The simplest way to protect yourself is to never connect your phone to Facebook.
If you still want to use two-factor authentication, Facebook allows you to use a USB U2F device without having to rely on your phone. If you absolutely must have your phone connected, navigate to Facebook Settings , select "Privacy," then "Who can look you up using the phone number you provided? On a mobile device, you would tap on the three-line menu icon, select "Account Settings" iOS users will have to select "Settings" first , then tap on "Privacy. While this still will not provide absolute protection, it will make the hacker's life much more difficult.
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This is an amazing article. I do have one addition. Instead of brute forcing every single possible number, use this website: Then grep out everything that is wireless and you have all the wireless possible numbers in DC on a single list. This will be a much faster way at discovering the number. Thanks for the tip Jimothy, I was thinking of something along those lines but didn't ever getting around to testing it. There is one potential problem with greping out the wireless central office prefixs, the categorization on that site seems to not be super accurate as the target's number falls on a landline prefix.
Keep in mind that anyone can transfer a landline number to a cell phone or vice versa and that has likely muddied the waters over the years.
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That being said I think what you propose is a good plan to quickly cut down the list of numbers if you're willing to accept the small risk that the target will be excluded.