Hi, so often these days, when signing up for a service your mobile phone is requested. And half the time it's not even needed, but you're required to enter it.

For most folks, we keep the same mobile number, so it becomes yet another kind of digital identity. I've recently come across 'burner' phone type apps, which give you another number that you use instead of your 'real' one. Though they seem dubious. Anyone with any knowledge/experience of these?

    phrentic Just be a cool modern-man and have 2 actual numbers. One no one has, and one people have. But you at least aren't sacrificing potential data leakage by trusting temp apps or services. A year of a text/call only sim shouldn't run you more than $100 from a respectably sized carrier.

    If data segmentation is your goal, prepaid cash sims are your best bet-- but the longer you hold em, you're gonna eventually have it tied back to your actual identity.

    Ha. Yeh, I did think about acquiring another number. The price of privacy...

    phrentic
    I think the solution you're looking for is VoIP. There are many legitimate services that provide VoIP numbers that in many cases will work. Michael Bazzell's "Privacy, Security, and OSINT" podcast has lots of content on the subject that you would benefit from.

    There's a lot of "free text verification" services on the web for signing up to stupid crap. If your goal is to be anonymous, just use those. The verification response comes in such that everyone in the world can see it, but they don't know what its for so nothing to worry about.