google becomes uncool

okay, so when someone says "sign up for this service using your phone" it seems reasonable to assuming the service uses your phone, not that as part of the signing up you will be required to provide your phone number. This is, to me, the first sign that Google is asking for personal information that it clearly doesn not need to provide a service - it's just looking for something personal and revealing that it is giving nothing in exchange for. I'm sure down the road they'll have some fancy app but why not wait until then, just for PR's sake - it come across as scummy and dishonest. Bad move that I hope doesn't portend future bad moves in the same direction.