Not once was I asked if I wanted 2FA (two-factor authentication) for my Apple or Amazon accounts.
I don’t want 2FA, because, being homeless/poor, you frequently lose access to phones and the like. That’s why a lot of homeless people will have like a dozen abandoned FB accounts (I have 3), because we just haphazardly use the suggested “secure password” to log in, and then someone steals our phone, or we lose it, or drop it in the toilet.
So no, Apple, I don’t have that device anymore. I don’t have that phone number either. Or access to that email address. The last four digits of a debit card I’ve used? b0i.
The one thing I do have?
MY FUCKING PASSWORD
I’m getting locked out of accounts I have the fucking password for! What the FUCK?
I had a long period of time where using the mandatory government 2FA system was virtually impossible for me because my phone was too old and fucked up to keep the browser session and the 2FA session alive simultaneously. I was effectively barred from using any of the useful banking and healthcare apps because I couldn’t sign in. Reading government mail or ordering meds online became so logistically complicated that I simply didn’t do it. Their official support consisted in a condescending website treating you like your problem was that you were too stupid to read the text on the screen and where there possibility of technical hiccups on their post was never considered. Calling or writing their support essentially got me the answer “just buy a new phone or get fucked”.
that sucks yeah but we can’t keep supporting shit forever in the current context. internet explorer 6 was an anchor on all of webdev for far too long, for example.
If the government can’t guarantee universal access to it’s digital programs than it has to offer equivalent access through analog channels.