[tor-talk] OT: twitter account vs. phone number

[nusenu]

Hi,

even though this is not directly about Tor I'm asking this question here
because I assume there are many privacy-conscious people on this list
and maybe someone has a solution for this privacy problem - or some
contact at twitter ;)
(I'm also CC'ing Kate due to a recent news article [1] about the Tor
Project being in contact with Twitter about becoming more
tor-friendly, maybe the phone number requirement can be brought up there
as well).

Also the Tor Project seems to (indirectly) create incentives to use
twitter (with accounts) by requesting DMs if someone wants to get more
details about something [2].

Why would someone have a problem sharing its phone number with twitter?
maybe there is no phone? or maybe the attack surface should be kept at a
minimum by not sharing the phone number with twitter so no one can steal
it from them [3]?

Using google voice numbers for verification [4] does not work
because creating a google account requires also a phone number in the
first place.
Using random SMS receive websites [5] does not work either because these
numbers are usually already used by other twitter accounts and you might
not like giving your twitter account to some random website by using
their number.
Trying to reach out to twitter support seems also pointless since that
is apparently a bot only.

Thoughts?

thanks!
https://twitter.com/nusenu2 (locked)



[1] https://www.dailydot.com/politics/tor-twitter-facebook-privacy/
[2] https://twitter.com/torproject/status/717126806650925056
[3]
https://motherboard.vice.com/read/twitter-told-a-bunch-of-users-they-may-be-targets-of-a-state-sponsored-attack

[4]
https://woorkup.com/how-to-bypass-the-twitter-phone-verification-for-new-account/

[5]
http://sourcedigit.com/3466-bypass-smsmobile-verification-online-website/


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