I saddens me that it feels like the multi-billion dollar data harvesting companies are winning, but I no longer know if this is a hill that I’m willing to die on.
It is a very sad thing indeed :(
What are your thoughts on what we have to give up in our lives just to stay in control of our personal information?
I guess it depends whether you want to be reachable 24/7 on mobile or not.
With Signal and with things like WhatsApp and for that matter Telegram a phone number
is only required to sign up. And you do not have to restrict yourself to one phone number.
Actually that is not correct because contacts syncing is another thing.
If you are willing to have a private life without Meta and a second life which includes Meta Zuck it is technically possible. Buy a cheap smartphone with another SIM card for signing up and for syncing contacts and then link it to desktop apps that you can check a few times a day to check in with your friends via the Meta Zuck channels. The cheap smartphone can stay off unless you need to sync contacts.