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Ask HN: How do you ensure phone number privacy?

1 points by dtsdwarak ↗ HN
Just like there are services to generate email aliases or more usernames for a domain, are there services to generate mobile phone numbers on demand that you can use? - like say, a unique number for every service you want to sign up for?

2 comments

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throwntoday
I have two phone numbers on my iPhone. The eSIM is my personal line only family and friends get. The physical SIM is a burner number, a spare call/text only line I use for everything else. I keep a note of where exactly I use it. If I ever feel like spam is too much I just change the burner number making sure to update necessary accounts.

Worked so far, I hardly give out my number to services though so I don't get any spam on either line

jqpabc123
are there services to generate mobile phone numbers on demand that you can use?

Not that I am aware of --- at least nothing that provides a fully functional mobile wireless number. The reason for this should be obvious --- the cost of the required infrastructure is not trivial.

The cheapest sustainable, fully functional mobile number I am aware of is this:

https://www.ultramobile.com/paygo/

You can purchase a Paygo SIM on ebay then $3 per month. I use this on an old spare phone.

There are free VOIP numbers available; however, many online service providers will routinely reject these for signups.