If I can make a blanket recommendation, you should be using two-factor authentication for any website or online service that provides it. No matter what that second factor is, be it SMS, one-time passcode, or security key, it decreases the likelihood of your credentials being compromised.
Unfortunately, the majority of services only provide two-factor authentication (2FA) using the SMS method by texting you the temporary code. By having your phone number be one of the critical pieces to get access to parts of your digital life, changing your phone number becomes a terrifying prospect.
I would wager that taking a shower and brushing your teeth are not something you think about. They are autonomous and there is no chance that you would forget to do them.
If you listed the things you do each day that are recurring tasks but aren’t autonomous, you would be surprised how many things you have to remember. Unlike taking a shower, the same can’t be said for taking out the trash.
This is the first in a series about self-hosted services that you can run yourself in order for you to be less of a product of other companies. This means you will be creating less marketable data for these companies and likely saving money in the process.
The shutdown of Google Reader years ago sent ripples across the internet as there was now room for competition in the form of small, paid feed reading services like Feedbin. Having been a customer of Feedbin for several years and being happy with it, I nevertheless decided to explore options for self hosting an RSS reader service as an exercise of being more self sufficient. It is even more incentive that as more apps and services become subscription-based, I wanted to reduce my growing number of recurring software subscriptions as much as possible.
Years ago many pundits and technophiles lamented the lack of a data-only cellular carrier. Because the carriers could price different modes of communication, be it voice, data, SMS, differently it means they could adjust their profits over time as usage of these different channels shifted so they could stay ahead of any curve.
The argument for a data-only provider is that all communication can be transmitted over data and we can have one single method of communicating on a mobile phone and thereby turning providers into dumb pipes like a cable internet connection. Why count our minutes and SMSs being sent and received when they can all go over the same connection and we can be charged for our cumulative usage?