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Creating dummy Google accounts
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 01 May 2024
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Privacy
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Last time I checked, the biggest obstacle to a new anonymous Google account was their phone number verification aggressively rejecting numbers that aren't issued by well-known carriers. This includes most VoIP services, for example. If you can work around that, I expect signup would be easy.
I've tried a few of the SMS services online now. They either don't work or are paid. I don't mind paying for the service but I find it tedious and cumbersome.
Wondering if perhaps a prepaid sim card paid for using a prepaid credit card would do the trick? I've used prepaid sim cards in the past and was able to get one without providing any real information on myself.
I paid cash for a dirt-cheap fliphone and a prepaid Tracfone card to set up an account with SMS but near-zero data, just for these purposes. It worked for me for google last month, but YMMV.
The thing I wonder about is whether such an account can stay in your possession even after you no longer have the sim. Where I live, the simcards that don't require ID are illegal and thus you cannot guarantee that you'd stay in possession of it permanently. And even if it were legal - you'd have to be adding or spending funds to retain the sim.
Where I am, its perfectly legal to purchase a one time sim card. You can walk into the corner store, purchase a prepaid visa (with cash), and buy a sim card (with cash) at the same store. You can then go online, enter the sim card number into the site, add your prepaid visa as payment and whatever details you want. I've done it before and there is no ID verification whatsoever - I literally put in John Smith and it worked... As long as they have payment up front, I guess they don't care. If I'm just using it for one time account verification, I'm not really worried about keeping the sim card long term.
Many such places will have footage of you making the purchase, and some will have a record of your mobile phone's presence. This might not matter to most people, but whistleblowers (and anyone else who might be targeted by government or law enforcement) ought to think carefully before assuming they're safely anonymous.
I was referring more to ID required for the sim card set up but, you bring up a good point, there will always be video surveillance. I'm also looking at this more from a privacy perspective, and less from a secrecy or detection perspective so I have no real concerns that a government agency will be trying to track me down.
Yea, I got this from your comment. I was wondering about different jurisdictions where this is not as easy - thought someone in the comments had such an experience.