It’s painfully obvious why businesses want to go “passwordless” for their websites. And I’m not willing to accept the answer that it’s “less expensive”, or “easier for customers”, or “more efficient”. The real reason is because businesses want (more of) your personal information. There’s an argument to be made for SOME websites to send you txt messages to verify it’s you, but not many. And yes, as a software tester, I understand how easy it is for spammers/scammers to create profiles on websites using fake email accounts, which has its own issues on the server side. But, there are other options that don’t require sharing even more personal data.
“Passkey“, Chrome Password Manager, Apple Passwords / iCloud Keychain, 1Password, LastPass, and many other password vaults do a very fine job of saving and syncing your million-or-so website usernames and passwords. 1Password even has a fantastic built-in Authenticator app that can scan 2FA QR codes in the browser, and seamlessly integrates with login pages. Thankfully, about 40% of users already use one of these methods to store their sign in information – with one big benefit: you don’t have to give your phone number to the websites to sign in. But many companies are going to keep pushing their way into your personal space by demanding you give them your mobile number. But why?
Why – primarily because they want to send you txt messaging ads to promote their products. Sure, you can reply ‘stop’ to junk / spam txt messages, but most people are just too lazy to do it. Instead, they ignore or delete the countless messages that come through their phones. I suspect businesses also want to try and force users into a “passwordless” login to build their customer database so they can sell your phone number to robo callers and other marketing companies – who pay very well for verified customer phone numbers.
I haven’t ordered from Pizza Hut for many years, and I won’t be giving them my phone number. They’ll either have an alternative, or they won’t get my (online) business.
TIMELY ACTION REQUIRED: Pizza Hut is going Passwordless!
Hi, Dave!
BREAKING NEWS: Pizza Hut is kicking passwords to the curb so you never have to hit that “Forgot Password” button again–in 60 days!
To make this transition as seamless as possible, you’ll need to update or confirm the mobile phone number associated with your Hut Rewards account. By providing this mobile phone number, you are confirming that this number belongs to you, and you agree to update your number if that changes.
CONFIRM MOBILE PHONE NUMBER
If you don’t update or confirm your information within 60 days of this email, you will lose access to your account. If you need to contact us to update your information after this time to reactivate your account, please email ContactUs@pizzahut.com.
Thanks for being a part of our Pizza Hut family.
