[esquivalience]

From the article:

> Nearly half of all phone numbers that appeared in the 2021 Facebook data leak of 500 million phone numbers (caused by a scraping incident in 2018) were still active on WhatsApp. This highlights the enduring risks for leaked numbers (e.g., being targeted in scam calls) associated with such exposures.

Fascinating to me as this seems to imply that a phone number has a half-life of about 4-5 years (unless the fact of the leak persuaded a significant number of people to change their number, which I suppose is unlikely?)

[baby]

I was always amazed when discussing with Americans who have kept their phone numbers since they were kids, there was a time I would change phone number every year

[zahlman]

Keeping the same number is more convenient for the people that you do want calling you.

I imagine that for some, it also contributes to a sense of identity, much the same way that a mailing address might.

[pavel_lishin]

I'm one of those, as far as I can tell, I've had the same cellphone number since at least college, possibly high school.

Where do you live, and why do cell phone numbers cycle so quickly?

[rPlayer6554]

Swapping my phone number every year in the US would be an annoying as hell. Tons of services use phone number as 2FA or a backup recovery. (Including a lot of banks) I use SMS with some people and that would cut contact with them. Same direction if they changed numbers.

[jorts]

Yeah, I've had the same number since about 2001. It's nice as I've moved since then so any number that calls from my area code is definitely spam, although that's not really an issue now that my phone doesn't ring for unknown numbers.

[hulitu]

Changing phone numbers is like changing email. You risk losing access to some services/friends.

[epolanski]

I'm 38 and have the same number I had since 1999.