Facebook moves to keep phone numbers for two-factor protection private

Numbers used for additional security are no longer in a new reverse 
lookup database.

by Dan Goodin
Oct 14 2012
Ars Technica

Facebook engineers have modified a controversial feature to prevent 
it from exposing the phone numbers users must provide to receive an 
additional level of security against account takeovers.

The change, made over the weekend, tweaks a recently added reverse 
phone number lookup service (which, as you'd expect, allows users to 
enter an unknown phone number to see who it belongs to). The service 
no longer includes phone numbers users provide when signing up for 
two-factor authentication protection known as login approvals. Login 
approvals require users to provide a one-time password sent to their 
mobile device when logging into their accounts from new computers or 
smartphones. Previously, those numbers were automatically included in 
the reverse lookup database. Users who wanted to avail themselves of 
the two-factor protection ran the risk of exposing their phone 
numbers to the world at large or their Facebook friends, depending on 
how privacy settings were configured.

...

http://arstechnica.com/security/2012/10/facebook-moves-to-keep-phone-numbers-for-two-factor-protection-private/

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