How often do you give out your phone number online without thinking twice about it? We’re so used to companies asking for our numbers that we don’t stop to consider the repercussions of making our personal data so accessible online.
Sometimes, you’ll have no choice but to use your own number. But in this article, we’re focusing on the times when you shouldn’t share your real phone number—and what you can do instead when a phone number is a mandatory requirement.
How Can Sharing Your Real Number Backfire?
When a website doesn’t clearly explain why it wants your number, the safest thing you can do is not give it to them.
It’s become incredibly common practice for platforms to ask for phone verification just to collect your data. The reality is that they don’t care about your security—they just want to sell your number to marketers or link your account to other services. That’s how your number can end up on a shared list, and once that happens, it’s almost impossible to undo the damage.
Legitimate sites can get hacked—just Google “website hacked” and view “news” if you want to see just how often this happens. If your number gets leaked as part of a database, it might get linked to other personal info like your email or physical address, giving more of your private data to people who want to use it immorally.
When You Shouldn’t Use Your Real Number
You should avoid sharing your real number any time you need to give your details to a website that looks sketchy or is vague about why it needs your data. Ideally, you’d just avoid this site outright, but if it’s necessary for your specific situation, you might feel you have no choice
You might also want to avoid using your own number if you’re signing up for a social media account you’ll only use for one project, creating backup email addresses, testing websites or apps, entering giveaways, taking advantage of a free trial, or accessing adult content without tying it to your main identity.
If a service won’t let you in without a number, but you don’t plan on using it often, there’s no good reason to give out your own. The solution here is to use a temporary non-VoIP number offered by a service like , which will let you receive a code to verify your account without having to give up your personal data.
That said, if you’re setting up something long-term, non-VoIP numbers aren’t suitable because they’re only for temporary use, so it’ll probably be better for you to get a dedicated number for this purpose instead of reusing your real one.
Takeaway
Your phone number is essentially part of your digital ID, so don’t be so quick to hand it out unless you know exactly where it’s going and why.
The good news is that you have options that protect your privacy without having to avoid using services or websites online altogether, all thanks to temporary SMS verification services like SMSpool.