As the tittle sais, i was trying to create an instagram account and it is not possible without a phone number. Same with discord. Obviously i dont want to provide mine. Any working solutions to bypass this? not looking for alternative private service, i already use them.

  • dmonzel@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    Have you tried Firefox Relay? They have a paid tier that gives you a phone number and unlimited email masks. Yes, you have to provide a number, and yes you have to pay, but you wouldn’t be giving Meta or Discord your contact info.

  • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    I tried making an IG account a couple years ago, and they wanted me to send them a selfie with me holding up my ID. FOH with that shit lol.

    • sloppy_diffuser@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      Been using jmp.chat. I didn’t have to give any personal info. It uses XMMP/Jabber to handle text/calls instead of wrapping your existing number. Their in-house client is pretty nice as it integrates with the dialer.

      They straight up tell you its not private. That’s not what I use it for. I use it to make my online activity less linkable when companies try to KYC me by requiring a TN.

      https://jmp.chat/privacy

      The phone network itself does not encrypt metadata or content.  Therefore, if your concern is a state-level actor, exploit of a service provider, or rogue employee, you should consider all the metadata and content of your phone calls and text and picture messages to be not private.

  • reboot6675@sopuli.xyz
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    9 months ago

    Damn, is it really like that now? I created my accounts for IG, Google, Discord, years ago and without a number. I refuse to provide it when they ask now and never had an issue.

      • nyakojiru@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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        9 months ago

        Same here, even worst if they detect you are using a VPN, they tag the account directly. This is the main issue in all services nowadays

    • Rose@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Discord can outright block you from using it if it decides to ask to connect a phone number post-registration.

        • Rose@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I didn’t say they always do it. I said they can, and they do sometimes. Happened to a close friend of mine after she logged in via Ripcord, though it may be unrelated.

              • miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml
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                9 months ago

                And many didn’t, including myself. Never did anything that violates their terms before, but one day after I started trying out alternative clients, access to my account got terminated.

                That was two years ago though, I’ve heard they’re a bit less strict now.

  • Extras@lemmy.today
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    9 months ago

    If in the US, Prepaid sim with fake info. Mint’s trial sim gives you 7 days iirc for 2$ Edit: thought it was obvious but just to be clear, setup another form of 2fa after, like totp

  • Hairy_MacBoon@monero.town
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    9 months ago

    You can create an instagram account with Tor for example, but it’s extremely difficult. First try creating and Facebook account with their onion address. If not possible, try with the clearnet one. Then login to insta with that FB account. Your account might get restricted and you have to wait for a few months to lift it. You can also appeal to them.

    • neutron@thelemmy.club
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      8 months ago

      The acc is more likely to be flagged the more ‘generic’ your fingerprint is. Accounts made using Mullvad Browser (Torbrowser without Tor network) on VPN was insta-flagged and disabled. When I did it from the official ‘lite’ app using a burner android phone, it went fine for weeks.

  • buzz@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I just get a second sim and phone number and just use that for these junk services.
    So far only for telegram and chatgpt.

        • EngineerGaming@feddit.nl
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          9 months ago

          First - the thing that is persistent with a phone is IMEI, IMSI is the one in the simcard. Second - “cash for sims” is not legal in many places, like where I live. There are places that sell illegal anonymous ones (not like you can get in trouble for that tho), but idk how reliable these actually are, and I still haven’t learned to find these places consistently.

      • neutron@thelemmy.club
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        8 months ago

        Not everyone is trying to run from total government surveillance. Sometimes, having an extra phone number, like having a pseudonym, is enough for them.

      • buzz@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Anonymous SIMs haven’t been a thing for years.

        I dont know what you mean by “Anonymous SIM”. if you are trying to hide from the goverment- you wont be able to get a totally anonymous sim, no way. dont even bother.

        this is just so the end company like telegram/chatgpt wont be able to match your stupid posts to you by your permanent phone number. btut gov can always get you if they need to.

  • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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    9 months ago

    Honestly those services are bad for privacy anyway. Its a good excuse to look for alternatives

  • root@aussie.zone
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    9 months ago

    I think it was from one of the many communities here that I found out about juicysms.com

    Haven’t had the need to use their services yet but they look legit.

  • trippingonthewire@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    I find that interesting, as there should be ways to only use email.

    I’d say your IP or DNS is freaking them out. Sometimes when you have really good opsec on a browser, they can tell and will ask for weird shit like that.

    I’d use a different browser, like maybe download Brave or Chromium or Librewolf (leave it out of the box) specifically for this stuff, assuming you use FireFox.

    You can also download 3rd party clients for Facebook on Android, Insta is kinda a lost cause tho.

    Edit: It’s not on F-Droid, you gotta hop on Github, but there is a client for Discord known as Aliucord on Android.

  • Corroded@leminal.space
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    9 months ago

    Unless you in an area that requires an ID to purchase prepaid SIM cards you could go that route. The issue would be when you need to log back into an account, it gets flagged, and you need to reuse that number for verification purposes.

  • ngn@lemy.lol
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    9 months ago

    just dont use those services? even if you find a way to bypass this, you wont get anything out of it, they will still collect all of your data such as your location, device information etc.

  • icedterminal@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Google Voice or Firefox Relay if sign up is insisting.

    Also, after you create a Discord account, you can remove the number visiting account details.

  • jack@monero.town
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    9 months ago

    You want privacy and also use instagram and discord? Not even considering to switch? I guess you are mentally impaired in some way