Why ChatGPT uses your phone number

Growing uncertainties in the internet world have made most people take precautions about revealing some personal information about themselves. While creating an OpenAI account to access ChatGPT, there are certain verification steps which require the subscriber's email and phone number. In order to get registered, you must complete this step, thus the question of why ChatGPT needs your phone number.

Like many things you sign up for online, ChatGPT rightfully requires some proper identification of its subscribers.  The company performs two verification steps: the first is through email, and the second is via an SMS text message sent to your mobile. The reason why they require your phone number is to ensure that you are a real person, and for security purposes, which is to ensure that your account has not been hacked.

ChatGPT also uses phone numbers to dictate the country the subscriber is coming from, owing to the fact that the service is limited to some countries. Though the service is available in most developed countries, you cannot access it in places such as Russia, China and Egypt, among others.

Speculation has it that ChatGPT requires a mobile number to limit the number of accounts users can make. It is possible to have multiple emails created with one phone number, but it is rare to have multiple phone numbers. ChatGPT probably thought it right to use this medium to checkmate account openings.

Note that chatGPT doesn't require two-factor authentication while logging in each time but just during account opening and other possible authentication requests. It's right to be concerned about giving ChatGPT your phone number, however, OpenAI promised not to use your personal information for other purposes in its privacy agreements and warns against sharing personal information with the chatbot because it automatically saves it even if you clear the chat.