I do most of the same things. My "randomized emails" all use my personal domain, so it's trivial for people who have access to the email to know it's me, but probably not trivial for dumb ad networks to link my accounts back to me.
The one bit of leaked identity that really bugs me is my phone number. So many services require a phone number for text notifications and 2-factor auth and there's not good way (that I know of) to generate a random phone number that still works.
I was under the impression that relay's phone number masking is voip (similarly to google voice). In my experience, many signups do not allow voip numbers.
> My "randomized emails" all use my personal domain, so it's trivial for people who have access to the email to know it's me, but probably not trivial for dumb ad networks to link my accounts back to me.
This bothered me as well, so I bought a completely unrelated domain to create a new trust ring. I'm sure you could link that domain back to me if you are buying information from a data aggregator, but at least that way I have the satisfaction of knowing people had to pay for the privilege ;)
> The one bit of leaked identity that really bugs me is my phone number. So many services require a phone number for text notifications and 2-factor auth and there's not good way (that I know of) to generate a random phone number that still works.
Ugh, yes. I had an old phone number that I moved to Twilio & set up SMS forwarding that used to work, but everyone seems to use phone verification APIs to block VOIP numbers.
Mandatory phone number has become the latest plague. Not only the phone number is mandatory but many sites now pretend to 2FA without user enabling the setting - or even worse, don’t use password and only send codes via SMS.
Most services that require a phone number don't use it for anything. Unless I know they're going to be texting me about something, I just type random digits.
That hasn't been my experience. Most services that demand a phone number lock you out if you don't cough one up, and reject VoIP and temporary service numbers. Some of them even reject prepaid numbers now.
Microsoft recently extorted my cell number out of me so I could keep using my paid for minecraft account.
I've had my number with GV for years and get plenty of SMS delivered and sent, even with services where I never explicitly asked to use SMS as a 2FA or a method of contact. I guess my service providers don't care enough to block it.
Did you get the number from GV, or port into GV from a standard carrier?
If the former, then you're the first one I've come across who's able to do so. Facebook/Google/Twitter/Microsoft etc. all block VOIP numbers. The providers you use probably aren't hit with enough malicious activity for them to care about it.
The one bit of leaked identity that really bugs me is my phone number. So many services require a phone number for text notifications and 2-factor auth and there's not good way (that I know of) to generate a random phone number that still works.