You've heard all the hype about ChatGPT by now. It sounds like a pretty awesome tool to have at your disposal. However, it requires an account. To create an account, the ask for some really personal information like:
If you are hesitant to provide your mobile phone number to a research company, that can be a little intimidating because you are not sure how they can use your information. Sure, at the moment this is the official response why they ask for your phone number. - To keep their service secured. While yes, its a way to secure user subscription many tech companies have abused this information from users in the past. Companies use your information to for ad targeting.
This month, there was news that Tmobile had a data breached. 37 million users where affected. This happened January 5th, 2023 only now they are informing their customers. Why do you think hackers spend a lot of resources to obtain this data from large companies, because its a commodity, this information is sold to telemarketers to call you or text your at three in the morning. It happens to me all the time.
With all this caution in mind, beware not to give your personal information to just anyone. A good question would be, do you trust OpenAI? A research company. Think about it.. If you are one of those people who say, no! Then maybe this will be your solution.
Instead of giving your real personal cellular phone number, you can sign up with many carriers that provide VOIP services, one such service is Google Gvoice, they will provide you a phone number and you can make calls and even text SMS.
In summary, be cautions when giving your personal information.