It’s not authentication. They are specifically requesting access to cellular information that my service provider can’t sell to them unless I give them authorization. Authorization to obtain my most intimate data (communication usage) in order to complete their data profile on me is not the same thing as authentication.

This happened on annualcreditreport.com.

Hey, now. Don’t go blaming the person who is calling attention to negligence of another. 5 years ago, ADP had user support service to handle login issues. But with the diminishing right to privacy in recent years, it is much more convenient for them to simply give the information away.

That is good advice, thank you! Is there a particular brand you’d recommend (DM me if you don’t want to share publicly). I was looking into a few major retailer flip phones but they both required the retailer to scan it for activation and I wasn’t entirely sure what that does tracking-wise, so I stopped to do some more research.