Earlier we said that a phone number is a secondary identifier. From the point of view of common sense, this is so: you can get rid of the phone, break the contract with the operator, or maybe buy 100 numbers, and then the curious will plunge into analytical paralysis, trying to figure it out.
But from the point of view of online platforms, the phone is the most convenient means of communicating with you and confirming your identity. Therefore, almost all use the number as a primary, a unique identifier.
This leads to an obvious conclusion. Almost any website knows your phone number and has its own information about you. The site can exchange this information (and does it!) with other companies - within the framework of services, for money, by barter.
Examples of such sites and platforms:
- Authorization systems in public Wi-Fi (97-FZ)
- Discount and discount cards
- Authorization /verification in social networks and messengers
By combining all the pieces of information on your phone number from different places, you can assemble your portrait. What to do about it?
Almost all of us have work and personal affairs. Therefore, it is worth starting with the separation of these spheres of life.
Most large companies offer corporate communication to employees: either you take a new SIM card from the company, or a working tariff is connected to your personal number.
But even if there is no such possibility, always get a separate phone number. I have several arguments:
- It will be impossible to link your accounts by numbers automatically, except through an agreement with the operator. And this is already a high level of protection!
- With a separate phone, it is much easier to think in terms of privacy. You have a choice of which number to link to SMS banking, and which one on the company's public website.
- Work is work, it should be separated from rest and your personal life. And the second phone will only benefit. :)
There are 3 segments of services that help protect your real phone number.
There are public websites that allow you to receive SMS from any sender. We will not list them, because they are simply Googled by the phrase receive sms online.
They use a small number of phone numbers at the same time, and often they already have accounts on different sites: testers, spammers, scammers. However, they can be used for authorization in public Wi-Fi networks. The only disadvantage of this approach is that you already need the Internet to access the public Internet. 🙂
Of course, it is not recommended to use such services to obtain sensitive information and link it to your personal accounts, since anyone can see the received messages and access codes.
And a little advice: before trying to use a number from any of these sites, you should pay attention to the time of receipt of the last SMS message (the table in the screenshot above). If this time is far in the past, then the number is no longer working, but it has not yet been removed from the site.
The section will be updated
The section will be updated