Pulled this together after checking the signup requirements of six hosted AI services this month. Two forces are converging in 2026:
From above: the US FCC proposal (docket CG 17-59) would require name, home address, government ID, and an alternate number on every phone line, kept four years after you close the account. Reply comments are open through July 27. 157 countries already mandate SIM registration (Privacy International, 2021), and the US was the holdout.
From below: services reject the usual workaround. Claude's help center, verbatim: "you cannot use VoIP numbers, Google Voice, phone numbers created using apps, landlines." Google Voice now wants government ID too.
The piece lays out a four-number strategy (vault / Signal username / VoIP / prepaid-or-none) matched to four threat models. JMP.chat gets a mention as one of the few number services that still takes KYC-free bitcoin.
phonumber privacy if a fight against windmills.
Maybe you find temporary solutions but they are doomed to fail after a few months or years at latest
Yes. A static phone number is an identifier too tho. Maybe its good to only use short term ones?
Pulled this together after checking the signup requirements of six hosted AI services this month. Two forces are converging in 2026:
From above: the US FCC proposal (docket CG 17-59) would require name, home address, government ID, and an alternate number on every phone line, kept four years after you close the account. Reply comments are open through July 27. 157 countries already mandate SIM registration (Privacy International, 2021), and the US was the holdout.
From below: services reject the usual workaround. Claude's help center, verbatim: "you cannot use VoIP numbers, Google Voice, phone numbers created using apps, landlines." Google Voice now wants government ID too.
The piece lays out a four-number strategy (vault / Signal username / VoIP / prepaid-or-none) matched to four threat models. JMP.chat gets a mention as one of the few number services that still takes KYC-free bitcoin.