I use a lot of burner phones cuz I'm paranoid, and when you sign up for fb/google/whatever they treat a burner phone you just turned on completely different from your regular, existing phone number. Example: if you activate a burner phone and sign up for tinder with the number, it pauses after you enter the code and then asks for your email address. You have to sepetately login and verify your email. On the other hand, if you sign up for tinder with your normal number you're verified; it doesn't request an email address. They get some kind of information packet about your account that I would guess includes activation date, your approximate age, whether your service is prepaid etc. I should say, I use the term "burner" for a cheap Android phone you insert a bring your own SIM into. Don't worry, it's not that anonymous because they also track/correlate your device IMEI with the services you use. I had an interesting experience the other day. The burner phone service expired, and tinder knew within 24 hours the number was no longer active...... Creepy.

2010-2019 has been the smart phone decade and now it's coming to an end. I'm celebrating by letting my cell service expire. My smart phones leak way too much data. I'll be using my too-smart phones like an ipad, making and receiving calls and texts only when I'm connected to WiFi at home.

I have the same experience with tinder. They build shadow profiles on you, and they're not even discreet about it if you look at their traffic. I get whole phones with sim cheap.

It's the implementation of a "social credit" system. I don't know all the details but they evaluate your "social media creditworthiness" through your phone number.

I don't agree to any TOS with tinder and I really doubt they "delete all my information" when I delete the account like it says.

In fact my guess is they just leave your profile active if it's popular to encourage other people to "match" with you.

> In fact my guess is they just leave your profile active if it's popular to encourage other people to "match" with you.

I wouldn’t go to the extent of saying they don’t do it, but I think it’s very unlikely due to the nature of their service. It’s different of, say, Facebook, that can do it without anyone knowing. If I got into a relationship and close my Tinder account but they kept it alive, a single friend can find it and tell my partner. If this happens too often word will spread that something shady is going on.

Twitter lets you register without a phone number. All you need is a email

I believe recently it will lock your account for "suspicious activity" or something until you verify by adding a phone number.

They've done that for a couple of years.

If you can actually submit a support ticket, get them to agree that a phone number is not required (like it says on their website), and to reply when that's done, you'll get your account unlocked after a few days. (usually)

That's been my experience.