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I don't think you need to get them a phone number. I use Google Authenticator app on my iPhone, and didn't give them anything. It just scanned a barcode on a webpage IIRC.

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The bar code was actually just a code to initialize the code generation (I think it is based on that randomly generated seed and the time, so that then server and client generate the same keys). You could have also typed in the code by hand.

You're absolutely right. My parent was talking about giving Google his/her phone number, which I was responding to :)

How do you get 2-factor auth enabled at all without entering a phone number? Their help page says that you can switch from phone-based to Google-Authenticator-based authentication after enabling 2fa, but I can't find a way to skip the phone step for turning it on in the first place. This is the screen I get when I click to enable: http://i.imgur.com/cm6Km.png

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