While I share the sentiment, I think I should be fair to HN: according to a quick search I've just performed, I brought up the topic 4 times in comments over 3 years, and those comments have scores of 7, -4, 16, and 3 [1][2][3][4]. So saying that I was "hushed and called tinfoil" would not be fair to HN.
People still do that when you point out that using a phone number as a required identifier (WhatsApp, Signal, etc.) gives every 'free' service a near perfect unique identifier that's the same for all services used by that person. Ideal for cross-service collation.
Who wants a social security number when you've got someone's phone number?
