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Comment by stuffoverflow | Hacker News Reader

Why not just make another google account that you solely use for registration in services like these? Use a virtual machine with VPN if you really do not want it to be linked with your real account.

It is a bit of extra work but that's just how it is nowadays.

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I am pretty sure that if any account I own at Google is caught violating policy, all other accounts are subject to being disabled.

Does not google require a telephone number to create accounts nowadays? In some regions there are no anonymous SIM cards by law. (Temporary number services may not work well.)

Midjourney is a paid-only service anyway, you would need to enter your credit card, so no anonymity.

There do exist anonymous credit cards, paid with cash, for fixed relatively small amounts (e.g. ~100u. In Europe there are restrictions to these kind of payment methods - cards must be below, I believe, 150€).

The issue is you have to disclose your phone number to Google, not (just) to Midjourney, AND Google will know you use Midjourney.

There's too much unnecessary connected PII data generated by such mechanisms.

It is very much possible to create temporary credit cards linked to your real bank account for one-off purchases. Apple Card provides that as a service (US only) and other countries have similar systems that every bank adheres to.

Plus, you may not mind not being anonymous to Midjourney but mind not being anonymous to some other service (like Google).

I think the only way to make a google account without a phone number these days is to factory reset an android phone and take the sim out beforehand.

If that even still works...

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