Companies need to stop treating knowledge of this information as proof that you are who you say you are. I would have no problem publicly posting my name, social security number, birthday, mother's maiden name, etc., if not for the fact that someone can actually use this information to open a bank account or take out a loan in my name. It's ridiculous that this is all it takes in most cases.
> Companies need to stop treating knowledge of this information as proof that you are who you say you are.
If we assume that isn't happening in the very immediate future due to the latency of introducing new legislation...
Do we have any other options to protect ourselves?
I've personally worked myself in to a bad credit rating. I have a home loan and a credit card, but any new credit applications auto-reject. Not the ideal scenario though!
So depending on how the "anonymous" phone number was used, it's plausible that the number can be connected with other PII.
In fact I wonder if there is any such thing as non-PII, given the existence of such companies.