Phone numbers are collected during the registration process to help verify that you are a human. The privacy policy can be updated at any time, but you will have the chance to agree to it again when it is updated. This is pretty standard for website privacy policies in general. The privacy policy and terms of service are specific to using steemit.com ('The Service') and not the blockchain itself, or other interfaces that use the Steem blockchain. If you want to create a Steem blockchain account on your own please see the notice and instructions for paid signup at https://signup.steemit.com/
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I never gave my phone number.
Phone number verification may not have been part of the signup process on steemit.com when your account was created if it was a long time ago. If you use another service to pay the account creation fee yourself for a steem blockchain account, you can still create an account without a phone number (or even an email). See https://signup.steemit.com for more information on that.