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Comment by novok | Hacker News Reader

Is it possible without a phone number or other forms of near PII?

Yes, if you control for your source IP address. For example, I couldn't find anything from a quick search on whether Tor exit nodes are blocked (or use requires other PII to be supplied).

All you get asked today (at least in Australia on a residential ISP) is a first name, last name, password, date of birth and gender (includes "prefer not to say").

Years ago I think you were correct, a phone number and SMS verification check was mandated, and each phone number could only be used so many times on different accounts.

[1] https://www.androidauthority.com/gmail-without-phone-number-...

I still need a phone number if I don’t sign up with a residential IP.

No, I'm still required to provide a phone number. This has something to do with my browser/system/ip fingerprint, because a friend of mine can make a google account for me from his googled phone on chrome just fine, yet when I try to log into it from my degoogled phone on firefox from my place, it asks for a phone number.

It's about as awful as discord, who also locks account creation behind providing a phone number when an account is created from my residential IP. It almost feels like I've tripped some prevention mechanisms that all these companies are sharing and I have no idea of how to get my "goodness" score back up.

Yes, I have created several Google accounts without having to give real PII (Google requires a first name, last name, and a birthday)

Have you tried it recently? I believe they require a phone number now.

I've done it within the last year.

And it didn't ask for your phone number?

Maybe it's location specific then or something...

Nope. It is likely dependent on your IP reputation. If your IP has bad reputation they are likely to be more strict.

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