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WTF Amazon: using my phone number for automatic 2-factory authentication

2 points by thepra ↗ HN
Today I was displeased finding out that not only Amazon did took my phone number from my addresses provided only as an easy way to reach me for shipping companies but they did also enable an automatic 2-factor authentication(SMS) at login with that phone number, something that I never enabled or agreed to do.

Here comes another creepy facebook, where your phone was only supposed to be only used in a given context but was proven otherwise.

5 comments

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picardo
There is nothing creepy about 2-factor authentication.
thepra
True, but I was alleging it's creepy automatic use without any notice/permission given that I didn't even had before my phone number in the account info.
picardo
I wouldn't call that creepy, either. You were opted-in to a feature that makes your account more secure and it is better for you to have more security than less security. It's for your own good and protects you against real creepy actors, like hackers and data harvesters. It's not really lining Amazon's pockets to give you more security. They're opting you in by default for your own good. Some people find that kind of nudge paternalistic, so you can easily opt-out from your account page. It's not mandatory.