Have you tried Firefox Relay? They have a paid tier that gives you a phone number and unlimited email masks. Yes, you have to provide a number, and yes you have to pay, but you wouldn't be giving Meta or Discord your contact info.
I'm not OP but thanks for the recommendation. I'll be looking into this
Is it out for everyone? Last time I checked it said coming soon and I ended up getting anonaddy instead.
I tried making an IG account a couple years ago, and they wanted me to send them a selfie with me holding up my ID. FOH with that shit lol.
Had the same thing, really crazy
Lmao for ig wow
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A second sim is the only options for some. Either ChatGPT or one of those requires a real-world mobile number. Anything on a VoIP is blacklisted. I literally can’t sign up for it or a couple other oddball services (like the Dunkin’ app*) because I refuse to divulge my carrier number to anyone but my family and 2-3 close friends. I have a (former) mobile number and two former landline numbers on VoIP that are my real, active numbers but some services simply refuse to use them.
* I’d use my freebie backup sim for registration, but many use that # as their required+sole 2FA “security“ so signing up with it is useless as I’d have to use that phone every time I interacted. Maybe it’s time to look into eSIMs.
https://kycnot.me/search?q=sms&type=
Here is a list of services that accept crypto payments to give you sms receive access to a phone number. This way you can sms verify your account, with a throw away number.
Once you create the account setup passkeys or use a fido2 key as your two factor verification. That way you can validate access's to the account in the future without sms.
Been using jmp.chat. I didn't have to give any personal info. It uses XMMP/Jabber to handle text/calls instead of wrapping your existing number. Their in-house client is pretty nice as it integrates with the dialer.
They straight up tell you its not private. That's not what I use it for. I use it to make my online activity less linkable when companies try to KYC me by requiring a TN.
The phone network itself does not encrypt metadata or content. Therefore, if your concern is a state-level actor, exploit of a service provider, or rogue employee, you should consider all the metadata and content of your phone calls and text and picture messages to be not private.
Damn, is it really like that now? I created my accounts for IG, Google, Discord, years ago and without a number. I refuse to provide it when they ask now and never had an issue.
Lately IG won't even let me log in wihout confirming my phone number so I've just stopped using it.
Discord can outright block you from using it if it decides to ask to connect a phone number post-registration.
Yep it is very aggressive nowadays, simple services asking for sensitive information.
If in the US, Prepaid sim with fake info. Mint's trial sim gives you 7 days iirc for 2$ Edit: thought it was obvious but just to be clear, setup another form of 2fa after, like totp
My experience with the app Burner was pretty good because the app can accept texts from new numbers, unlike a lot of free online phone apps. It's not free, however.
You can create an instagram account with Tor for example, but it's extremely difficult. First try creating and Facebook account with their onion address. If not possible, try with the clearnet one. Then login to insta with that FB account. Your account might get restricted and you have to wait for a few months to lift it. You can also appeal to them.
Honestly those services are bad for privacy anyway. Its a good excuse to look for alternatives
I think it was from one of the many communities here that I found out about juicysms.com
Haven't had the need to use their services yet but they look legit.
I find that interesting, as there should be ways to only use email.
I'd say your IP or DNS is freaking them out. Sometimes when you have really good opsec on a browser, they can tell and will ask for weird shit like that.
I'd use a different browser, like maybe download Brave or Chromium or Librewolf (leave it out of the box) specifically for this stuff, assuming you use FireFox.
You can also download 3rd party clients for Facebook on Android, Insta is kinda a lost cause tho.
Edit: It's not on F-Droid, you gotta hop on Github, but there is a client for Discord known as Aliucord on Android.
Just yesterday wanted to create a new Gitlab.com account to add an issue to a project, the stupid thing not only required an email and a phone number, the bastards wanted a credit card
Just closed the site and went away instead. How is this considered okay to open a damn free account?
Credit card sounds real shitty but they probably require a phone number to make sure people don't just create more accounts for free CI minutes.
Yeah is insane lately
Unless you in an area that requires an ID to purchase prepaid SIM cards you could go that route. The issue would be when you need to log back into an account, it gets flagged, and you need to reuse that number for verification purposes.
This is why it's critical to set up two-factor on the account once you register. Pass keys, fido2 keys, etc.
This is so you can authenticate the account without the phone number. Just remember all of these systems are designed to the people can change their phone numbers, or when they lose their phones, etc you just have to provide enough factors so that they're confident it's actually you logging in.
just dont use those services? even if you find a way to bypass this, you wont get anything out of it, they will still collect all of your data such as your location, device information etc.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
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