Ask HN: Why is Netflix actually requesting the phone number?

I noticed that Netflix started to ask for the phone number (in my country at least).

Their pretext is that this is to restore my password. I find this is ridiculous.

I have restored my password several times already without a phone by using my email address. So I do not have to give my phone number for that (side note: suggestions like this make some users feel that they are treated like full idiots).

So I am wondering why are they doing this.

Are they trying to con out my phone number for what ever reason? That would be pretty low I think and I would like to assume that company like Netflix would not do that.

Also they do not have to prove that I am a real person. They already have my billing information.

Are they really trying to somehow "improve" the password restoration? I think that the restoration procedure over the email works also pretty well. So what would be the improvement? Would I have to manually enter some additional number to annoy me more over the fact that I choose a bad password and how it would improve my security?

Or is this just another example of their bad UI? Like not having an option to automatically remove movies from "My List" after I have watched them. Or showing a special notification for the new movie that I just watched.

So what advantage would having my phone number give to the Netflix? Any ideas?