World’s
most popular free email providers Gmail and Yahoo have made telephone
number mandatory for creation of new email addresses in a bid to check
spam.
Any person wishing to create a new email id needs to provide a telephone number which Gmail and Yahoo use for verification.
Google
India spokesperson claimed giving phone number was optional but
repeated attempts to create a new email address on Gmail by skipping the
mobile number requirement failed.
The Gmail website said that move to seek phone number is to check spam email senders.
“In
an effort to protect our users from abuse, we sometimes ask users to
prove they’re not a robot before they’re able to create or sign in to
accounts. Having this additional confirmation via phone is an effective
way to keep spammers from abusing our systems,” the website said.
Google
has also limited number of accounts that a person using one telephone
number can create but the website did not specify the maximum number of
email account it will allow.
While
for Gmail a person can give either telephone or mobile number, for a
new Yahoo it is now mandatory to have a mobile number.
“At
Yahoo, we are committed to the security of our users. We ask our users
to provide their mobile number at registration as a secondary means of
authentication, in addition to their password. We would only use the
number if we see any unusual activity on the account,” Yahoo
spokesperson said.
Internet
Service Providers Association of India said that there is no regulatory
requirement for making telephone number mandatory for having an email
address and condemned the move as such practice could expose privacy of
an individual.
“This
is an attack on user’s privacy. This should not happen. If they (Gmail
and Yahoo) are doing such a thing, then this must be recognised by
Indian government on how they are collecting phone numbers,” ISPAI
President Rajesh Chharia said.
Internet
companies have been advocating at global level that there should be no
kind of restriction on use of Internet and if there are any regulations
on Internet, then the cost associated with compliance of those
regulations should be such that it should not check proliferation of
Internet usage.
Though
number of telecom subscriber is over 90 crore in India, a survey
conducted by research firm Juxt in 2013 showed there were only about
55.48 crore people in the country who actually owned a mobile device.
Posted by : Gizmeon
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