Both :)

Though I've gotta say that as a french speaking gogger, it may be easier to reach our specific support.

works until it doesn't. then you get exploded.

and it doesn't really matter because you're one of, what, 80 million or so now?

it's a problem.

even if the problem is on this guy's end and he got phished or something, when you have a big prison-like-structure like Steam essentially is, you need it to work when something goes wrong. otherwise, the whole thing shuts down for somebody.

works great til' something goes wrong. then you're fucked. it's a problem.

I've never had problems with Steam. I sure don't want to.

I also had the same experience with Steam you had with GOG. I know GOG support won't tell us anything, but I bet their tickets are in the same line with what the dude from Valve explained: scams, people who don't understand system requirements, mostly stupid stuff.

And who's forcing you to give real data? Just give them bogus!
There are alternatives, you know ... when some shitty email provider is asking for my phone number, I choose to look arround for other(s) that don't want my number. Plenty of fish in the sea.
Gog? just make a bogus email and pay with paysafe or some contained paypal and they won't know shit about you. If you're really strong about privacy then you could go vpn-ing that you paid with bitcoins and nobody would know shit about you.
etc

Just don't give your real data imediately when you're asked and search for alternatives. In most cases you can do it in real privacy.

Unfortunately the law kind of preserves the freedom of the companies. I think they should tell you what they do with your data, but they still can "share" them with anyone they want as long as they tell you somewhere, somehow, .... This is really bad but unfortunately the only way out is not making business with them at all.

And since practially everyone does it I wonder how for God's sake I'm supposed to spent my money without compromising my privacy anymore? Seems like there is a force naturally restraining me from spending too much. Very ironic.

You do realise that phone numbers are usually connected with two-way verifications, right? Even now people are requesting to have such a feature on GOG.

Here is the problem I have with this: When you use your email on various sites for various accounts, then it is only a matter of time until your email address gets into one of those spam mailing lists. So when everyone wants your phone number, it is only a matter of time until your number gets to one of the telemarketers calling lists.
Spam by email is easy to handle, but spam via telephone is very annoying.

And a german and russian too, I suppose.

I know that, but thats bullshit. In most cases, that phone number WILL be used for spamming/advertising.
2-way verification can be implemented with another email address, as currently outlook.com (and I believe gmail.com also) does it.
I'll never ever give my phone number to those sharks. Sure, I can get another relatively cheap SIM for using it only on these 2-way verification services, but that defies the principle itself, first privacy and second paying for a free service ...

How is it bullshit? Do you have any source to back up the fact that the numbers will be used for spamming / advertising?

Google and Microsoft both are huge privacy offenders.
As far as I remember NSA even got access to Outlook at one point. Can't remember if it was similar with gmail.

Trying to protect your privacy is almost impossible in this day and age. Especially if that avoidance comes at the cost of security.

I don't have to, use common sense:

-by not giving my phone number or any other data, I'm making it 100% sure that i'm not gonna be spammed or my data won't be sold for advertising purposes. They don't my data (because i'm not giving it) so they can't do jack shit. The ball is in my court, I have total control.

-by giving my data I lose total control, the ball is suddenly in their court and they have total control over my data, they decide if they spam me or not or if they sell it for advertising purposes.
Why the hell should I trust some bullshit corporation?

So evidently, not giving your data is the better and only reasonable choice.
Some corporation makes it mandatory to give them your phone number? Renounce their services and look for alternatives, in 99.9% cases there are good privacy alternatives out there.

Common sense doesn't constitute as a fact. You made the claim that MOST (>50%) numbers will be used for spamming / advertising so you need to have facts to back that up.

I'll repeat. It's almost impossible to keep your privacy intact in this day and age. Giving phone number as an added security measure is the least of your worries when it comes to your privacy.

With email the preferred solution is to get a domain and then use aliases for each registration and if in need you just block an alias if spam becomes a problem.

Wouldn't it be cool if one could do the same with the telephone number - say you can add an arbitrary 4 digit number to the end and all the calls still reach you but you can block certain 4 digit endings if you get annoyed by them.
I think this is also just an opinion and not a fact. I think it should be possible to keep your privacy intact even now.

For example Valve or CDP or just about anyone else could promise that they use your personal data safe and with them and only use it for the specific purpose of handing me over my games and only collect the minimal amount of personal data necessary and never share them with anyone else and delete them as soon as they not needed anymore and in case they get lost pay a huge compensation fine.

One could for example only make business with companies that promise such. Shouldn't that leave the privacy intact (or as intact as possible)?

Then you go and give your data to companies, it's your problem if you're not gonna put your common sense at work.
Guess who'd have his privacy intact: you giving your data or me not giving my data? exactly.

It is NOT. You can still have your privacy intact if you really want it.

and you use that to justify the lose of even more of your privacy by giving away even more of your data! that's really funny :)

of course it is.
just some folks use this mantra (that you can't keep private nowadays) to justify giving away more of your privacy! it's nuts.