I did not know that about Youtube. I guess my account is grandfathered in or something?
Yeah, I don't think I ever gave Google my phone number either. It's hard to say because I know YouTube and the Gmail account linked to it don't have it, but I connected another Gmail to that other Gmail (well, so I can toggle between them) and that one
may have it. If they do have it, they aren't abusing it for anything because the only real spam I ever get is from Time Warner Cable.