[weekay]

Depends on the country though. It’s not easy to get a no questions asked w/o having to prove who you are SIM as PAYG in all places. What I feel we need is from the mobile operators a service like “hide my email” option from iCloud you keep your mobile number but give out per use generated or pre generated throwaway disposable numbers that can be used similar to the use case described in the article w/o having to go and buy a new sim. Shouldn’t be that hard to setup from a mobile operator perspective surely ? Also btw if you think your number which you shared with your family and banks are safe and not outed it’s a myth . Even on apps like LinkedIn I have found if you provide access to your contact list they get to harvest your contacts and the numbers.

[edent]

Sure, but I'm not trying to protect my privacy from the phone network or the government.

I just want my delivery driver to stop sending me creepy texts.

And if my pizza place leaks my number, I can throw it away without having to tell friends to update their address books.

[sdflhasjd]

I think we're fortunate in the UK that you can just pick up a PAYG SIM at almost any cornershop. Perfect for these "verification" code SMSs. One of the main reasons I got dualsim phone as well.

[didntcheck]

I've not bought them in a while, but don't most networks still require you to "activate" them, setting up an account with your personal details? It's possible that they don't rigorously check them though

[e61133e3]

I very much like if Apple adds "Hide my number" option to iCloud+.

[NoZebra120vClip]

> no questions asked w/o having to prove who you are SIM

The blogger said nothing about all this. That's totally over the top just to obtain a disposable number. He's talking about a prepaid SIM; but when I signed up to AT&T they didn't ask and I didn't tell, but who cares? That's not the point here.

[yomlica8]

Given that many services do not accept VoIP numbers now and some even reject prepaid mobile numbers I'm not sure how long a service like this would work. Although maybe if Apple made it a default perhaps it couldn't be blocked like with their private relay or iCloud hidden emails.

[Roark66]

Seriously? Who rejects prepaid numbers? I haven't had a contract phone number in 20 years.

[thecal]

I can't complete opening an account with Capital One because I have prepaid wireless. When talking to customer service, they said this happens and there's no fix. Ubisoft Connect (their Steam competitor) also rejects it.

[araes]

From personal experience, if you can in your area, ditch em. There's a bunch of banks and brokers who will not require a permanent phone if you have a physical address or similar. As long as you can prove habitation and/or that you're a real person, there's almost no justification. Mine's fine with me rarely even having a functional phone (I top up pre-pays only when I need them. Most months nobody I care about directly calls me.)

[yomlica8]

It was a F2P first person shooter that uses phone numbers for verification. CoD I believe, but it looks like blizzard does it as well for battle.net.

I remember it because before that I assumed they had no way to determine how the phone number is purchased, but I think they can just blacklist prepaid providers.