r/Android • u/Nanosinx • 1d ago
Rumour Google is now self-Verifying Phone Number without user CONSENT
WARNING: Google Play Services is quietly "Self-Verifying" and linking your phone number to ALL signed-in accounts without explicit permission.
Just a heads up for anyone who values basic privacy on Android.
Check your inbox for emails from noreply-phone-verification@google.com.
Without asking for my confirmation or giving me an opt-in prompt, Google Play Services performed a silent background "Self-Verification."
It exchanged SIM card identifiers and device metadata with my mobile carrier, grabbed my phone number, and automatically attached it to EVERY Google account logged into my phone.
No prompt. No "Do you want to link this?" button. Just a silent background action followed by a notification email telling me it already happened.
How to kill this setting on Android immediately (for now) but it will self verify even if turned off Go to Settings > Google (or Google Services) > All Services > Phone Number Verification
Find Phone number verification (or Device Phone Number Verification). (Ah, and lovely it automatically appear my phone number even WHEN IT WAS NOT THERE BEFORE!)
TOGGLE IT OFF.
Don't forget to purge your accounts:
Once Google steals/verifies the number, it pushes it to your Google account profiles.
You need to log into myaccount.google.com/personal-info, click on Phone, and manually delete the number from every single account where you don't want it stored.
Modern "self-verification" dark patterns are completely out of hand. Check your settings before Google silently grabs your data too.
NO ANDROID IS SAFE: Happened on my Android 10 Huawei, Android 14 Xiaomi and is now requesting on my emulators too...even my tablet... Beware...
Edit1: Maybe dont work, i sent a mail to data-protection-office@google.com, literally asking ARCO rights and anything i can think about it, for such privacy invasion on the behalf of my and all accounts i have to "care" and so on...maybe this bring pressure
Edit2: u/AppleBites reports this "Google did the same to me when I got a 2nd number from another carrier, due to coverage. Even having GrapheneOS did not prevent them from linking the number to my Google account automatically."
Meaning even Graphene OS+GServices probably is unable to protect with this, a serious oversteeping in this messed thing
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u/Arinvar 13h ago
When Google or Facebook ask me for my number I laugh and think "stop lying cunts, you already know" then I deny the request. The only surprise here is that it took this long for them to take the mask off.