Has anyone used this? I’m very curious which carrier(s) they use, and whether it works for signing up with services that are notoriously picky about which phone numbers they like, such as Discord, Instagram, Telegram, Google, and WhatsApp.
100% this. I signed up for a GOOG voice number and then also a Trello number to try and avoid giving my phone number to every damn mobile app that demands one. Somehow, about half of the time, they know it is a virtual number and lock me out. Including, ironically enough, apps powered by Trello. A month to month burner turned out to be much easier.
But if the relay phone number can be used to reach my real phone number, does it matter? Maybe gaps in my understanding of this privacy enhancing feature.
Part of the reasoning behind email masks is that when you don’t give out your real email address, then it’s impossible to cross-reference your identity across multiple online services. No-one knows who’s at the other end of bunchofrandomnumbers@firefoxrelay.com or whatever. I guess the thinking is similar here.
I’m not sure how I feel about all my calls/texts going through Twilio, though. In general I think Mozilla could improve here – they also use AWS’ Simple Email Service to forward all Relay emails. I get that it’s easier than running their own mailserver, but it really highlights that privacy has become a marketing buzzword, IMO.
(disclaimer: I work on a competing service to Relay as a side project)
If you find yourself receiving too many unwanted spam calls or texts, you can easily turn it off for all phone numbers or select the specific ones you want to block.
Sounds like you can disable/“turn off” a relay number, so I guess future calls to it would be dropped(?) without being forwarded to your real number?
Has anyone used this? I’m very curious which carrier(s) they use, and whether it works for signing up with services that are notoriously picky about which phone numbers they like, such as Discord, Instagram, Telegram, Google, and WhatsApp.
Firefox Relay is open-source, so I went to check – looks like it uses Twilio: https://github.com/mozilla/fx-private-relay/search?q=twilio
100% this. I signed up for a GOOG voice number and then also a Trello number to try and avoid giving my phone number to every damn mobile app that demands one. Somehow, about half of the time, they know it is a virtual number and lock me out. Including, ironically enough, apps powered by Trello. A month to month burner turned out to be much easier.
What is “a month to month burner”? Are you talking about a prepaid SIM?
yep! $15 a month or so for the privilege of using online services and apps that have nothing to do with the telephony.
(also just realized I said Trello when I meant Twilio earlier. Friggin startup naming, heh.)
But if the relay phone number can be used to reach my real phone number, does it matter? Maybe gaps in my understanding of this privacy enhancing feature.
Part of the reasoning behind email masks is that when you don’t give out your real email address, then it’s impossible to cross-reference your identity across multiple online services. No-one knows who’s at the other end of
bunchofrandomnumbers@firefoxrelay.comor whatever. I guess the thinking is similar here.I’m not sure how I feel about all my calls/texts going through Twilio, though. In general I think Mozilla could improve here – they also use AWS’ Simple Email Service to forward all Relay emails. I get that it’s easier than running their own mailserver, but it really highlights that privacy has become a marketing buzzword, IMO.
(disclaimer: I work on a competing service to Relay as a side project)
Sounds like you can disable/“turn off” a relay number, so I guess future calls to it would be dropped(?) without being forwarded to your real number?
I thought that at least Android supported both blacklist and whitelist approach?