Worse, it's not even a snarky aside like Engadget of old, the whole damn article seems intended to illustrate the writer's disdain for the subject.

Yeah, all he had to do was change Google to Nokia in this article and he would have been fine.

Is it possible to unsubscribe?

Yes, by using the Settings applet on an N900 itself or via the web.

What about those of us with a greyed out unsubcribe button (see above) and who never received any login data for My Nokia...?

Not being in that situation, it's difficult for me to test. Have you tried using the two "Forgotten password?" options on the My Nokia web page? If neither of those has worked, have you tried creating a My Nokia account on the website using the phone number of your N900's SIM?

Oh, great - just wanted to reply that I don't have a username, since I never got my login data, but then I looked at the login page. So they use my private phone number as my "username"...? What's next? Publishing my credit card details on their homepage?

Thanks for the reply, sjgadsby! But I won't try this right now - I'm not at home, and I won't risk sending another couple international messages just so I won't get notifications of new software (2 days ago - and the "new" software actually was PR 1.2).

I don't see the equivalence. There's no My Nokia forum, social networking area, user profile section, or other (non-cracking) means whereby other My Nokia users could search for and learn your phone number. The only people who have access to your phone number as your My Nokia username are the same ones who have access to it anyway: the Nokia employees allowed to access the My Nokia database. I agree it's unpleasant that Nokia has forced the submission of that information with PR1.2, but I don't see how being able to log in using it on the My Nokia website makes the situation worse. The My Nokia login page is SSL encrypted, so your phone number in transit to My Nokia is as safe from Malory as your credit card number on its way to Amazon.

Other than the first part (the one about me not approving of Nokia sniffing my phone number), here's the problem I have with my personal number being my username:

There's a reason credit card numbers are NEVER to be stored in plain text. No matter how secure you make your web interface, there's always a risk of someone hacking into your database (sometimes even from within).

Now imagine someone hacking the My Nokia database, where millions of phone numbers (and who knows what else - for all we know Nokia might have a database of our contacts, locations, URL history and what not by now) are stored IN PLAIN TEXT.

I'm not much of a privacy guru normally, but this is even crossing my line by now. That "contract" we "signed" by installing 1.2 would give them (and any of their "partners") the freedom to do whatever they want with any information they get by whatever means they see fit. Though I'm pretty sure this is contra bonos mores on EU territory.

Yes, but given the entire point of the My Nokia service is text messaging tips to phone numbers, you know your phone number is stored in a readable manner in their database whether they allow it as alternative login name or not. As I wrote, I understand not liking My Nokia, and I understand not liking being forced to sign up for it. I don't understand how allowing login via phone number makes the situation worse.