yes facebook forces you to put in phone number for example, for "backup authentication" "verification" purposes, and if you don't want to show that to your friends or the public you must set it to private. The default is something like "show to all friends"
There are many preferences in facebook that are like that - unavoidable/impassible fields that ask for info, and then you set it to "private/only yourself" to prevent information leakage, but are set default to world or friend visible.
It's a dark pattern that's all over facebook - you will see it if you install the facebook mobile apps - you can't proceed to surf your timeline without clicking through and answering questions sometimes - best thing is to fill in blank/gibberish info, but sometimes phone numbers, etc can't be avoided.
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[ 4.1 ms ] story [ 13.4 ms ] threadThere are many preferences in facebook that are like that - unavoidable/impassible fields that ask for info, and then you set it to "private/only yourself" to prevent information leakage, but are set default to world or friend visible.
It's a dark pattern that's all over facebook - you will see it if you install the facebook mobile apps - you can't proceed to surf your timeline without clicking through and answering questions sometimes - best thing is to fill in blank/gibberish info, but sometimes phone numbers, etc can't be avoided.