Why you need a secret phone number (and how to get one)

Privacy Please is an ongoing series exploring the ways privacy is violated in the modern world, and what can be done about it.

Your phone number was never meant to be an all-access pass to your life. 

That 10-digit string has likely followed you around the world and across the internet for years. Over the course of that time, you've almost certainly handed it out — willingly or otherwise — to every person, restaurant, social media platform, or online store that's asked. That's a problem. For someone with the right motivation, that number is a thread which, once pulled, can unravel your entire digital life — crashing down your privacy, bank account, or even your very identity. Read more...