Cynical me believes this is another way BigTech go around trying to collect more data on you.

I have seen this pattern many times - the modus operandi is to allow you to use the service and get you hooked, and then decline the service to you unless you give them more personal info. Remember when Gmail and Microsoft email services were happy to allow you to signup with email, but one day suddenly started demanding your mobile numbers to continue using their service? We Asians do. (Quite recently, Facebook is still in indian courts and facing regulatory scrutiny after it suddenly decided to deny WhatsApp services unless indian users accepted their new privacy policy that allows WhatsApp data to be shared and / or integrated with Facebook data.)

Three other examples immediately come to mind - when I bought a Tizen OS phone from Samsung, it allowed me to skip creating an account (like Google Account or Apple ID does with their phones). I happily used the phone for a few months till I updated the OS. The updated OS now didn't allow you to skip creating an account, as it had been made mandatory. And now I was a hostage as I couldn't use the phone at all unless I created an account! Ofcourse, as soon as the account is created (which needed my email and phone number) it immediately started "grabbing" (syncing) all my personal info like contacts and other data as everything was "opt-in" till I changed the settings. (Have never bought a Samsung product since then).

Another incident was with an ISP that I was happy with. I always paid the bills online on time. But after a few months, the payment method that I preferred (net banking) started having issues. I wouldn't be able to pay on time and they'd tag "late fees" penalty in the next bill. I would call support, and they'd ask me to try with a different bank account. At first, I conceded and would then use my friend's or relatives account to pay them. But when this issue became more frequent, and I complained, they'd ask me to try paying with alternate methods like my debit or credit card or UPI (these offer less privacy protection). I refused to do so, and would threaten to disconnect - then they'd send me a link by email where Netbanking would work fine perfectly as it is supposed to. The last few times it happened, they told me they had a wonderful new feature to "help" people like me - they now had a "wallet" and I could put money it and pay them from it without any issues. I refused many times, and finally just got fed up with them and ended our business relationship and switched to a smaller ISP with equally good service.

A more recent incident is with Amazon. Long time user, I don't use their App but only shop on their website. Also don't have 2 factor authentication enabled as I don't use Amazon Pay or have any debit / credit stored with them. From last year on, every time I would try to login to Amazon (from the same two bloody device that I've been using with Amazon for years), I'd get a notice that I needed to click on a link sent to my mobile phone for "security". (Yes, I agree it is a nice feature - when you don't have to do it every time! If I wanted that, I'd enable 2FA. Note that they don't send an OTP but a link by SMS - this allows them to now collect some data about your phone through the mobile browser, and even leave a few cookies there to track your mobile browsing data). When this became irritating, and I complained to Amazon about it, they said the "best and safest" way to use Amazon is through their app and not their website. I just told them to delete my account, as I would prefer to switch to their competitor instead. It's amazing how that request immediately fixed all my issues.