Starting a couple of weeks ago I have been prompted to provide my phone number in order to obtain a so called better protection of my account. Naturally, I have clicked "Next" and ignored it. Now my account is blocked unless I provide my phone number.

I have two questions:

1. How do I access my account again without providing my PERSONAL (and I emphasize PERSONAL) phone number?

2. How do I avoid providing my phone number to Microsoft in the future?

So, please let me know how do I access my account WITHOUT providing my phone number or some additional e-mail which, by the way, are not your business to know.

In case that you will not agree to let me bypass this "security" question for the future, please just provide me an access to my account in order to recover any data and addresses I have there and close it.

Thank you,

Ioan