Path: ...!news.mixmin.net!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Newyana2" Newsgroups: comp.mobile.android Subject: Re: Codes sent by text message Date: Sun, 10 Mar 2024 10:09:46 -0400 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 58 Message-ID: References: <1w4pvoyf4iu0k.6b8awc049ol6$.dlg@40tude.net> Injection-Date: Sun, 10 Mar 2024 14:09:52 -0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="574de7888dc9221a7fc3aca0a8465ef1"; logging-data="3158764"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+TTrP+/Zy7C/f4JBa04GU7HN6JpnHtJh0=" Cancel-Lock: sha1:on6T0MZ9eCd3IaBU0usHpKalohs= X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.5512 X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.5512 Bytes: 3791 "Bob Henson" wrote | > At one point I played with crypto a bit. I had to upload a picture | > ID (drivers license), as well as giving them my email address and | > access to my bank account. As I recall I think they sent a voice | > message code to my landline, which is a lot more security in terms of | > proof of ID than a cellphone. The lamdline is registered to -- and | > wired to -- a physical address. | | They will struggle in the UK soon, then. All landlines disappear by the end | of 2025 - there will only be VoIP. | That's a technical distinction. In the US I used to have a landline over copper wires. They don't want to maintain those anymore. I then had a landline over cable Internet. They started pricegouging. I switched to VOIP. It's still a landline. It's still running over wires provided by my cable company. I'm just no longer paying them an extra fee for the phone service over the same wire. I'd call all of those landlines. They're all anchored to the physical address, they all use landline phones that don't support texting, and they're all running direct over wires. No cellphone/radio towers involved. So maybe the situation is not so different in the US, though that's no excuse for requiring cellphones for 2FA. It may be decades before landlines are gone in the US. People I know in rural areas have limited cell service. Many don't have cable TV. But they all have phone lines going to their houses, on the same poles as electricity. I have a brother who's never had cell service at home and only recently bought a Musk satellite antenna for Internet. (He used to have a dish that went out in the rain. :) Much of the US is similar, with rural populations that the phone companies simply don't want to buy towers for. It's not worth the investment to them. I think that people living in cities and suburbs often don't understand that the ubiquity of cellphones is not universal. Europe is different. People are closer together, in a landscape that's been stable for centuries. And governments are more likely to be reining in corporations for the public good. There was a good example of that just this week. The EU fined Apple $2 billion and is forcing them to stop the monopoly scam of charging a 30% cut for their app store. Apple then revoked the developer license of Epic Games, to stop them opening a now-legal iPhone app store that taakes a 12% cut. Epic complained to the EU. Apple is now restoring their ability to run their store. In the US? It's unlikely that any such control over Apple will happen. If it does, it will be thanks to the EU.