I DO NOT HAVE A FUCKING PHONE PLAN OR FUCKING PHONE FOR THAT MATTER. STOP ASKING ME FOR SHIT I DON’T FUCKING HAVE. EVERY FUCKING MAINSTREAM SERVICE OUT THERE JUST EXPECTS YOU TO HAVE A FUCKING PHONE AND PHONE PLAN THESE DAYS. WANT TO SIGN UP FOR A WEBSITE? VERIFY YOUR GODDAMN PHONE NUMBER. WANT TO TALK IN CERTAIN DISCORD SERVERS? NO SIREE. VERIFY YOUR PHONE NUMBER FIRST. LOCKED OUT OF ONE OF YOUR ACCOUNTS OVER SOME BULLSHIT REPORTS? VERIFY YOUR PHONE NUMBER TO UNLOCK IT. LITERALLY JUST FUCKING EXISTING? VERIFY, VERIFY, VERIFY! FOR THE LOVE OF FUCK, STOP PROMPTING ME TO VERIFY MY FUCKING HUMANITY WITH A PHONE NUMBER. I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO LOOK FOR FUCKING WORKAROUNDS AND BYPASSES TO GET AROUND THIS SHIT. EVEN IF I DID HAVE AN ACTIVE PHONE NUMBER, YOU AIN’T GETTING JACK SHIT FROM ME. THIS IS NOT MADE TO PROTECT YOU AND KEEP YOU SAFE, IT IS ONLY MADE SO THESE FUCKTARD COMPANIES CAN SELL YOUR DATA TO DATA BROKERS, WHO WILL THEN SELL THAT DATA TO ROBOCALLERS WHO WILL CALL YOU ALL THE FUCKING TIME! LOOK, YOU’RE NOT GETTING MY NUMBER. IF I HAVE TO FIND FUCKING FAKE PHONE NUMBERS OR SIGN UP TO TEMP NUMBER SERVICES, THEN SO FUCKING BE IT, BUT I SHOULDN’T HAVE TO. I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO POTENTIALLY BREAK THE FUCKING LAW TO GET SOME FUCKING SENSE OF PRIVACY. I LITERALLY HAVE A NUMBER ON TEXTNOW THAT IS BASICALLY FUCKING USELESS AND IS ONLY USABLE FOR MAKING CALLS AND TEXTING. EVEN IF I WAS ABLE TO USE THAT NUMBER TO GET A VERIFICATION CODE IN THE FORM OF A SMS, IT WOULDN’T WORK, BECAUSE “OH, YOU NEED TO SIGN UP FOR ANOTHER FUCKING SUBSCRIPTION (LOCK-IN NUMBER) TO GET VERIFICATION CODES”! FUCK, I CAN’T EVEN PARTICIPATE IN SOME TWITCH CHATS DUE TO THIS BULLSHIT BECAUSE SOME FUCKING STREAMERS SET UP THIS STUPID-ASS ‘VERIFIED ACCOUNTS ONLY CHAT’ BULLSHIT THAT FORCES YOU TO VERIFY VIA PHONE NUMBER TO ACCESS THEM. AND GUESS WHAT? MY TEXTNOW NUMBER? FUCKING USELESS ON ABOUT 90% OF SERVICES ON THE FUCKING INTERNET! WHY? OH, WELL, BECAUSE SOME FUCKING ‘GENIUS’ DECIDED TO MAKE IT HARDER FOR PEOPLE LIKE ME BY BLOCKING VOIP NUMBERS COMPLETELY. AND TEXTNOW IS A VOIP SERVICE. IF I DO TOO MANY ATTEMPTS TO VERIFY, I GET ‘RATE LIMITED’. FUCK. OFF. GIVE ME ANOTHER FUCKING WAY TO VERIFY BECAUSE YOU ARE SURE AS FUCKING HELL NOT GETTING ACCESS TO MORE OF MY DATA! I WOULDN’T BE ABLE TO EVEN “START” THIS PROCEDURE, ANYWAY, BECAUSE I DON’T HAVE A FUCKING PHONE TO BEGIN WITH! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH FUCKING PHONE PLANS COST THESE DAYS? WELL, HUNDREDS, MAYBE EVEN THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS. DO YOU REALLY EXPECT ME TO GO BUY A FUCKING PHONE PLAN THAT IS OVERPRICED AS SHIT, GET A PHONE NUMBER, AND VERIFY WITH IT? OH, FUCK YOU. AND GUESS THE FUCK WHAT? GUESS WHO LOVES PHONE NUMBERS? FUCKING DATA LEAKERS. SHOULD I EVEN REMIND YOU ABOUT THE TWITCH DATA LEAK THAT TOOK PLACE OVER 2 YEARS AGO? PERSONAL INFORMATION ACCESSED. THAT POSSIBLY INCLUDED PHONE NUMBERS. THAT MEANS THAT THE PEOPLE WHO GOT BREACHED PROBABLY HAD A SHIT-TON OF ROBOCALLS. GODDAMNIT, THE INTERNET IS NOT A FUCKING EXCLUSIVE CLUB, YOU GODDAMN DICKWEEDS. BACK WHEN I WAS AROUND THE INTERNET, YOU DIDN’T NEED TO GIVE OUT JACK SHIT WHEN SIGNING UP FOR WEBSITES OR PARTICIPATING IN CHAT. HOLY FUCK, IRC DIDN’T EVEN NEED THAT SHIT. AIM DIDN’T NEED IT. YOU COULD JUST MAKE A FUCKING ACCOUNT ON THE AOL WEBSITE OR YOUR IRC CLIENT, AND BOOM, YOU COULD TALK TO ANYONE IN YOUR CONTACTS. NO STRINGS OR ANYTHING ELSE ATTACHED. BUT NOWADAYS, YOU HAVE TO GIVE OUT A SHIT-TON OF PERSONAL INFO TO ACCESS NEARLY ALMOST EVERYTHING, AND THAT INCLUDES HAVING A PHONE NUMBER, BECAUSE IF YOU DON’T HAVE ONE, THEN YOU ARE APPARENTLY JUST FUCKED, BECAUSE EVERYONE EXPECTS YOU TO HAVE ACCESS TO A FUCKING CELLULAR DEVICE. BACK IN THE 2000S, HAVING A FUCKING PHONE WAS A FUCKING NOVELTY. YOU COULD EVEN CONSIDER YOURSELF LUCKY IF YOU HAD ONE. NOW, EVERYONE EXPECTS YOU TO HAVE ONE. LIKE, WHAT THE FUCK? I HATE THE FUCKING FAKE-ASS EXCUSES COMPANIES GIVE BY CLAIMING THAT HAVING A PHONE NUMBER MAKES YOU MORE SECURE. BRO, THAT IS A FUCKING LIE AND A HALF. WHERE’S MY FUCKING LIE DETECTOR? ALL IT DOES IS GIVES DATA-HUNGRY COMPANIES ACCESS TO MORE OF YOUR INFORMATION, AS IF THEY DON’T HAVE FUCKING ENOUGH OF IT ALREADY. I MISSED OUT ON SO MANY GODDAMN COOL THINGS BECAUSE OF THIS SHITTY-ASS FORCED PHONE NUMBER VERIFICATION. I FUCKING MISSED OUT ON MONSTER HUNTER FRONTIER WHEN IT WAS STILL UP AND RUNNING DUE TO THIS BULLSHIT. NOW, IT IS FUCKING SHUT DOWN FOREVER AND I MISSED OUT ON IT ENTIRELY BECAUSE OF OVERZEALOUS VERIFICATION. I TRULY THOUGHT THAT PHONE VERIFICATION WAS GOING TO BE EASY AS THERE ARE SEVERAL DIFFERENT WEBSITES WHERE YOU CAN RECIEVE SMS TEXTS WITH EITHER ‘REAL’ OR ‘FAKE’ PHONE NUMBERS. NOPE! NOT ONLY DOES THE PHONE NUMBER NOT HAVE TO BE ALREADY USED BY TOO MANY PEOPLE, BUT IT ALSO HAS TO SPECIFICALLY NOT BE A VOIP NUMBER. I MIGHT AS WELL SAY 99% OF THE ENTIRE FUCKING INTERNET DON’T SUPPORT THESE FUCKING NUMBERS. THEY MIGHT AS WELL TELL YOU TO FUCK OFF AND BUY A PHONE PLAN. “DO YOU GUYS NOT HAVE PHONES?” MIGHT AS WELL SUM UP TWO-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION ENTIRELY. DOES IT LOOK LIKE I HAVE A FUCKING PHONE? THEN DO NOT ASK ME FOR A FUCKING PHONE NUMBER OR ASK ME TO USE ANYTHING THAT REQUIRES AN APP! I FUCKING HATE THOSE GODDAMN ‘AUTHENTICATOR’ APPS BECAUSE OF THIS AS WELL, BECAUSE THEY ‘ALSO’ REQUIRE YOU TO HAVE ACCESS TO A PHONE. WE ALREADY PAY FOR FOOD, HOUSING, ELECTRICITY, INTERNET, WATER, AND OTHER ESSENTIALS. STOP ASKING ME TO GET A FUCKING PHONE PLAN AND PUT IN MY FUCKING PHONE NUMBER JUST TO ACCESS NEARLY HALF OF THE ENTIRE FUCKING INTERNET. BESIDES, YOU WON’T BE GETTING MY ACTUAL PHONE NUMBER EVEN IF I “DID” HAVE ONE, SO TOUGH FUCKING SHIT. GO ASK OTHER FUCKING PEOPLE TO PUT IN THEIR GODDAMN PHONE NUMBERS, BECAUSE THAT IS OBVIOUSLY YOUR FUCKING DAY-TO-DAY ACTIVITY.
FUCK. YOU. ALL. 🖕
It’s the principle because EVERY FUCKING COMPANY expects you to have access to a phone. I would rather NOT use a phone than potentially have my phone number get leaked later on because of the company having poor as fuck security.
That’s not the point I am trying to make. The point is that companies use very poor and very bad security to keep your phone number quote-unquote ‘protected’. Data leakers love it when companies have poor security as it makes it easier for them to attack their customers and expose their personal information. 2 years ago, Twitch suffered from a huge data breach that resulted in personal info getting accessed, which possibly included the phone numbers of verified users, because you have to enter in a phone number to be considered a ‘verified account’. Look, I do not trust these huge megacorps with my phone number if I ‘did’ have one. Besides, they will just sell your data to data brokers as it is, in which completely eliminates any sense of ‘privacy’ they claim to provide when you are forced to add two-factor authentication. The thing is, I care about my ‘personal information’ being ‘personal’ as it should be to begin with. The only time that having to give out your personal info sort-of makes sense is when you are needing to complete your taxes/bills, or when you’re entering shipping details on Amazon or eBay. Any other thing is just them wanting your personal information just to be wanting it.
So yes, it’s a principle thing. You refuse to respond to the fact that a single purpose puppet phone exposes you to little to no risk.
I have tried using those in the form of VoIP numbers, and no fucking website supports any of them and they all expect you to use a ‘real’ number. I literally use TextNow to keep my actual phone number secure but I cannot use any form of SMS verification because I have to sign up for this fucking “Lock-In Number” subscription bullshit to even get the SMS code in my inbox. I have literally tried using a puppet phone before and the companies STILL expect me to buy a fucking phone plan and phone number. And most, if not all of the time, my TextNow number is useless because it is a VoIP number and nearly 90% of websites don’t support VoIP numbers.
Very confusing, you stated you don’t have a phone or phone number but now you admitted you do have both.
It’s not an actual phone number? It’s a VoIP number that literally protects your real identity. I mentioned this in the initial rant because no website supports it and expects me to get a ‘REAL’ phone and ‘REAL’ phone number. I literally cannot access half of the entire Internet due to this because companies want you to fork over thousands of dollars on a post-paid phone plan. Overwatch 2 literally was going to make people put in a phone number/phone plan to even access the game, and it had to ‘specifically’ be a post-paid plan. Prepaid plans didn’t work. And VoIP numbers were, once again, rendered useless. And guess what this gave Overwatch 2 a lot of? Controversy. They had to back down HARD on the phone number requirements and make it so any old OW account was exempt from this requirement. And that’s just a piece of the puzzle on how much of a complete nightmare Overwatch 2’s launch was. Endless login queues, errors, people getting booted mid-match and being sent right back in the queue, etc., it was a shitshow. But, why the hell did they even expect you to have a phone number to begin with? I am seriously hating the fact that this whole ‘demand any and all personal information from people as possible’ crap is becoming the norm. Every goddamn service, site, and game just expects you to have a phone number unlike a CAPTCHA like it used to be. God, I hate to say it, but doing these CAPTCHA challenges are much better than being told your VoIP number is practically unusable everywhere and that you have to fork out a shit-ton of cash on a phone and phone plan to even do 50% of things on the Internet.
Bud, are you okay? I mean this genuinely I’m used to people on this site being overly cautious, but you keep responding with massive paragraphs of text to people giving you real and good advice.
A cheap AF burner phone fulfills all your needs. You have the physical phone that they can text or call, and if your number ever gets leaked or you want a new one, you just throw it away and get a new one. Society has centralized around telephones for longer than you or I have been alive. Simply refusing to engage in such a strong societal norm doesn’t fix anything. 99.99999% of people are perfectly fine functioning around their phone, so it’s really either find a compromise, such as one of the ones proposed already, or fall behind.
You shouldn’t have to find compromises like buying burner phones to keep yourself protected, either. You shouldn’t have to look for workarounds to bypass overly strict phone verification. You shouldn’t have to do any of this, but the companies doing all of this shit doesn’t really give you a choice now, does it?
I am sorry if I am coming off as overly cautious. I just want to keep myself protected without needing to do extra steps or any other shit. I literally will never understand why companies expect a very specific plan or very specific phone carrier in some very rare cases. It will just never make sense to me.
Again, I am sorry if I am coming off as being overly cautious. I just want to make sure my data is safe and is not being sold against my will.