Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
[Matrix/Element]Dead
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
What everyone said already works great.
More options, where you can get a sms for one off use (or longer) for a few cents, pay with Monero.
https://kycnot.me/search?q=sms&type=
jmp, smspool, juicysms, crypton, etc, etc all give you a sms endpoint to use.
Firefox Relay has phone masks. I don't know if they actually work though. I never had a need to try them.
If it's for a one-time sign up and you don't need it for anything else afterwards, then try smspool.net . They're pretty cheap. For example US numbers for Google signups are like 40 cents. They've worked pretty well for me too.
I've recently been looking into mysudo. For $1 a month you can get 1 number as well as some extra stuff if you care about that.
You can use it without Google services if running GrapheneOS but it takes a second normal phone and a throwaway Google account to work. Incoming notifications don't work but if used as a spam number that's probably a good thing lol. (https://support.mysudo.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/4414403558555-When-will-MySudo-be-supported-on-GrapheneOS-?page=1#community_comment_4414489480859)
Haven't pulled the trigger on it but seems like something I will probably set up at some point
2nd line, you get a free number to use
Google Voice often works.
A google service doesn't really inspire trust in privacy? I'm trying to move away from Google services as much as possible.
SMS is unencrypted, insecure, and not private to begin with. Your SIM provider can see everything you send plus track you via cell towers.
As someone who is currently de-googling my own stuff I understand but wanting google services but please don't think it being Google is why it's not Privacy focused.
Its simply to avoid handing out my real phone number to companies so they can use it to match data from other datasets that link it to me. If im giving them my real phone number, i might as well also just give them my real email and not an alias.
Then a Google voice number is fine for that. Just create a junk Gmail and had that number out.
This. Works for many, but there are some services that recognize it's a VoIP service and won't allow it (I think discord was one that won't work)
Another option is a burner phone, which are relatively cheap. You have to use them periodically or they'll disable and recycle the number, but you can typically find them for around 25$.
ChatGPT recognizes Google voice numbers for what they are.