Comment by wraptile
2 years ago
Here in Thailand it's the same but phone numbers get recycled and expire very aggressively. I just got a new phone number and I can login to many platforms of some 20 year old guy who really likes pc gaming.
Phone numbers should have NEVER became an ID. Incredibly hypocritical of Signal to claim "privacy focus" when the lowest layer of the system is literally the least secure identification method we have.
same in my country.
I had two SIM cards dedicated to online crap - one for important stuff like banking, another for social media and such.
both have expired after ≈ 3 months of inactivity, when my 2 week trip unexpectedly took 4 months. those SIM cards weren't physically inserted into my phone - I used to do that once a month to call someone and get billed a few cents so it would remain active, until that trip.
there's no way to get those phone numbers back and it's been an enormous pain the dick. I hate this fucking system, but I hate the fact that fucking everything requires a phone number even more.