What is the proton equivalent of this service if one exists?
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Depending on your threat model, your best bet would probably be to purchase a burner phone at Walmart or something with cash. Then only use the phone for verification purposes.
I couldnt find any sim cards that didnt require a CC to activate. I brought one that came loaded with $40 and still asked for a CC to activate which sucked. My threat model is not existent I just believe think every service I sign up to needs to know who I am.
Have you tried prepaid sim cards?
Yes. That’s it. They want to know you’re a person.
It prevents a lot of scammers and only a few “privacy enthusiasts” are hurt.
It sucks that privacy enthusiasts have to mix with actual criminals trying to hide.
How else would you propose they cheaply confirm that you’re a person? Get a picture of your ID card? That’s more invasive and unnecessary.
There are more modern methods that will identify you without a phone number. In the near future you will not need to enter a 6 digit code. Your phone will be able to be identified by its sim card and location (even if you have GPS off). Do you like that more or less than giving your phone number and receiving a text?
My issue isnt them texting my number and seeing if im a human. I dont like that they store my phone number and email because if I use my phone number and a random email on 1 site and my phone number and a random email on another site I can be tracked via my phone number in the dataset that these sites sell.
Other than avoiding those services as much as possible, I use a second phone number for “machine-communication”= whenever I’m not giving my phone# to a person.
I’m in the EU, I found a provider in my country that offered a prepaid sim card (pay-per-use) with no expiry date, but never use the credit on it because it’s free to receive sms. I turn it on in my dual sim phone whenever I need it.
Most plans tend to require use once every six months (i.e. send an sms or something), did you read the fine print?
I’d assume in a dual-SIM the phone’s IMEI is the same?
Did not see any requirement of the sort in the fine print, but even if there were, it’s fine as long as you pick the right provider. If I had to make the occasional call it’d be still worth it. There are also providers that will keep a sim active indefinitely as long as you “purchase” one month (as little as 5€) every 1/2 years (most importantly, they do not charge you into negative credit). So basically free to operate as well.
Honestly I do it mostly to limit spam, if I did it only for privacy reasons I’d have more than two numbers but I fear one might start getting noticed by the autorities at that point :/ sms is inherently unsafe and not private.
Every sim slot has its IMEI
I’d assume in a dual-SIM the phone’s IMEI is the same?
Dual-sim phones usually have one IMEI per slot, so multiple IMEIs in total.
