> "the only protection is to not give them your phone number in the first place."
That has its own risks. If you don't provide it to google and your account gets hacked, it's extremely hard to get it back. (My wife lost her original gmail account that way about 2 years ago. And of course there was no way to get any live support to try & fix it)
Basically if you don't provide your number, you're more open to the more prevalent traditional hacking. If you do provide a number, you're more open to a slightly less prevalent type of hacking. It doesn't leave much to choose from.
I've read of many cases of folks losing access to their personal Google account through no fault of their own, and winding up helpless to get it back. Almost happened to me after I was victim of a SIM Swap.
From the article, even the Twitter CEO has this problem:
While he has managed to get back his social media accounts, he has not regained access to two Google email accounts that held years of communications.
If anyone with directional authority at Google is out there: It would be really decent of you to provide some means of customer service for consumers stuck in this catch-22.
I can't accept there's no reasonable way to perform an identity confirmation beyond the laughably limited self-help measures currently in place. If it's a matter of economics, make it pay-per-use.
With Google anyway you're down to 2FA using an authentication app (possibly U2F but I haven't checked on that recently) and backup codes which should also protect you from traditional hacking.
That has its own risks. If you don't provide it to google and your account gets hacked, it's extremely hard to get it back. (My wife lost her original gmail account that way about 2 years ago. And of course there was no way to get any live support to try & fix it)
Basically if you don't provide your number, you're more open to the more prevalent traditional hacking. If you do provide a number, you're more open to a slightly less prevalent type of hacking. It doesn't leave much to choose from.