As the tittle sais, i was trying to create an instagram account and it is not possible without a phone number. Same with discord. Obviously i dont want to provide mine. Any working solutions to bypass this? not looking for alternative private service, i already use them.
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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You want privacy and also use instagram and discord? Not even considering to switch? I guess you are mentally impaired in some way
I get sexually exited when the corporations steal and gather my personal information. Is like an orgasm…
Ok…
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?
Yeah is insane lately
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.
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.
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.
Google Voice or Firefox Relay if sign up is insisting.
Also, after you create a Discord account, you can remove the number visiting account details.
Oh but do they keep it backed up? Guess you’ll never know!
But does it matter when it’s from G Voice or FF Relay? You can just delete the numbers from your account and get a new one.
Ah, I see what you’re saying, and that’s a good point
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.
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.
Yep it is very aggressive nowadays, simple services asking for sensitive information.
Discord can outright block you from using it if it decides to ask to connect a phone number post-registration.
No they don’t. Lol. I’ve been using my discord for years without a number.
I didn’t say they always do it. I said they can, and they do sometimes. Happened to a close friend of mine after she logged in via Ripcord, though it may be unrelated.
Third party client. That’s why. It’s to combat spam and bots.
Has more to do with using a third-party client then, which they don’t like
We can only speculate. Many have used those without issues for years.
And many didn’t, including myself. Never did anything that violates their terms before, but one day after I started trying out alternative clients, access to my account got terminated.
That was two years ago though, I’ve heard they’re a bit less strict now.
Lately IG won’t even let me log in wihout confirming my phone number so I’ve just stopped using it.
Same here, even worst if they detect you are using a VPN, they tag the account directly. This is the main issue in all services nowadays
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.
The acc is more likely to be flagged the more ‘generic’ your fingerprint is. Accounts made using Mullvad Browser (Torbrowser without Tor network) on VPN was insta-flagged and disabled. When I did it from the official ‘lite’ app using a burner android phone, it went fine for weeks.
I have one that was created with the way I posted. It’s still running.
Really? Mine was banned within 15 min or so. I wasn’t very lucky.
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.
Lmao for ig wow
Had the same thing, really crazy
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.
https://jmp.chat/privacy
Give your phone number to these shady crypto bros instead! 🙃
As I understand you receive the message on a website this way
Yeh I was being facetious. They are transparent about which service requires what, and what they are capable of (not all accept codes). And you pay in crypto (they only support established ones), which is by definition anonymous.
The whole point is you’re not giving your information to anybody. You don’t give any information to the temporary number people.
Pay cash at walmart for a burner phone.
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This is the way. I got my phone set up in eSIM and just pop SIMs like Pez
How does that help? Anonymous SIMs haven’t been a thing for years.
Not everyone is trying to run from total government surveillance. Sometimes, having an extra phone number, like having a pseudonym, is enough for them.
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Anonymous Sims still exist in abundance. Cash for SIM cards is a big thing everywhere I’ve been.
But the IMSI doesn’t change so it’s not really anonymous if your phone is tied to identity. Just depends on your threat model
First - the thing that is persistent with a phone is IMEI, IMSI is the one in the simcard. Second - “cash for sims” is not legal in many places, like where I live. There are places that sell illegal anonymous ones (not like you can get in trouble for that tho), but idk how reliable these actually are, and I still haven’t learned to find these places consistently.
I can go to Target right now and pay in cash for a mint SIM. Where are you?
In Germany and Spain and I suspect in the whole eu you have to show your id when you buy a sim and they register it to you.
Indeed. It is only really in the US where this is possible.
Target is USA though. A ton of countries have such policy.
In countries other than in the US, this is a major problem (I am aware of this, having spent some time in Asia)
Honestly those services are bad for privacy anyway. Its a good excuse to look for alternatives
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
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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.
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All my main numbers VoIP are Google. I’ve got two others at a large (Canadian, iirc) provider.
Where I’m from you can buy a prepaid SIM card at a gas station which works just fine
You just need a number that doesn’t show up as VoIP, it doesn’t actually need to be a SIM card. So if you have a Google fi number, you can use Google messages to access it over the web, even when the phone is off. Because when Carriers look the number up it doesn’t come over as VoIP it shows up as an actual mobile number.
You can get numbers from twilio in countries that don’t report voip status. That also works.
If you need a number in a country that does report VoIP status, you can use the phone number providers I posted in a different comment in this thread, to get a temporary number that is not VoIP, and receive your SMS verification
Most countries will have what are known as TV numbers, you see them on US shows as 555 numbers. Unless you need a valid number for MFA you can enter tv numbers in those fields and the form doesn’t throw a hissy fit about it.
Unfortunately most (bigger) services that require a phone number will almost certainly want to validate the phone number so you will need to receive a text or phone call.