[dredmorbius]

I'm totally with you. I stopped using G+ under my given name after a couple of weeks in 2011. I've since found it's barely to be trusted even pseudonymously, and the same phone number issue you mentioned is one that I looked at and bailed on when presented it for: password recovery, two factor auth, and later as a sweetner for a personalized URL.

I'm clearing my posts from G+ and largely using it as a glorified Twitter. May nuke it altogether. My trust in the company is now zilch for precisely the reasons you state.