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Actually, fb still requires the phone number, if you try to open up a few accounts in succession. You can't use throwaway numbers or Google Voice numbers eithe

Actually, fb still requires the phone number, if you try to open up a few accounts in succession. You can't use throwaway numbers or Google Voice numbers either. So it's actually pretty hard these days to open a Fb (Or Hotmail or Gmail) account without a legit (cellphone) number.

reshie 8y ago
throwaway numbers can mean many things even a 5 dollar sim. some services even let you change phone numbers on a whim cell numbers are mobile in more than one way and very easy.
- 1over137 8y ago
  Many places I've been won't let you buy a SIM without showing id.
  - bigiain 8y ago
    Yeah. I think while not nation-state-secure, you can still improve your PII exposure to Facebook/Twitter/Google et al by buying/activating a SIM/phone-number and only using it one time for the purpose of creating an account. I don't _think_ Twitter or Facebook are doing backroom deals with every prepaid sim vendor to be able to tie that phone number back the the identity used to register the sim card. I wouldn't suggest you use this to register your Dream Market vendor account, but I doubt you'll end up with targeted advertising based on your other real-world web/app behaviour based just on the ID provided for a single-use burner SIM...
  - enedil 8y ago
    Yeah, what's the problem here? Presumably Facebook won't get the data on the legal owner of the number.
  - medof 8y ago
    > Many places I've been won't let you buy a SIM without showing id. You don't need to show any ID in Europe to buy non-contract phone number. You can go into most stores and get free or pay 1-5 euro for a phone number.
    - detaro 8y ago
      And then you typically need to do some kind of identity verification to activate it.
      - richardwhiuk 8y ago
        Possible that's typical, but it's certainly not universal
      - smartbit 8y ago
        In Austria, Belgium & Germany you do, in Croatia & The Netherlands you don’t
      - deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
    - kpcyrd 8y ago
      Germany passed an anti-terror law a few years ago, getting a phone number requires the same level of verification as opening a bank account. Even before that prepaid phones have been a strawman argument, actually maintaining a 2nd number in the long run is quite a bit of work since it usually expires if you don't use it enough.
    - C1sc0cat 8y ago
      Not in the UK you cant.

reshie 8y ago

throwaway numbers can mean many things even a 5 dollar sim. some services even let you change phone numbers on a whim cell numbers are mobile in more than one way and very easy.

1over137 8y ago
Many places I've been won't let you buy a SIM without showing id.
- bigiain 8y ago
  Yeah. I think while not nation-state-secure, you can still improve your PII exposure to Facebook/Twitter/Google et al by buying/activating a SIM/phone-number and only using it one time for the purpose of creating an account. I don't _think_ Twitter or Facebook are doing backroom deals with every prepaid sim vendor to be able to tie that phone number back the the identity used to register the sim card. I wouldn't suggest you use this to register your Dream Market vendor account, but I doubt you'll end up with targeted advertising based on your other real-world web/app behaviour based just on the ID provided for a single-use burner SIM...
- enedil 8y ago
  Yeah, what's the problem here? Presumably Facebook won't get the data on the legal owner of the number.
- medof 8y ago
  > Many places I've been won't let you buy a SIM without showing id. You don't need to show any ID in Europe to buy non-contract phone number. You can go into most stores and get free or pay 1-5 euro for a phone number.
  - detaro 8y ago
    And then you typically need to do some kind of identity verification to activate it.
    - richardwhiuk 8y ago
      Possible that's typical, but it's certainly not universal
    - smartbit 8y ago
      In Austria, Belgium & Germany you do, in Croatia & The Netherlands you don’t
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
  - kpcyrd 8y ago
    Germany passed an anti-terror law a few years ago, getting a phone number requires the same level of verification as opening a bank account. Even before that prepaid phones have been a strawman argument, actually maintaining a 2nd number in the long run is quite a bit of work since it usually expires if you don't use it enough.
  - C1sc0cat 8y ago
    Not in the UK you cant.