Get an untraceable mobile number?

Jivesinger

angryparcel wrote: »

you missed 1 vital bit of info that people fall foul of.

USE A STRONG PASSWORD

And 2-factor authentication, although that involves the type of links to a phone which the OP isn't keen on.

DavidP24 wrote: »

You may need the mobile phone again if regain access to the account

I imagine this is partly why FB insist on it; it means they have some chance of sorting it out when people lose their passwords (especially a risk when people stay logged in permanently and never need to type it in).

angryparcel wrote: »

The would only have to pay tax on their financial dealings within the UK, so if they have a revenue of 100 billion, but only 1 million is from UK trading they only pay UK tax on the 1 million. HMRC like any other advertiser will have to pay the same advertising rates.

I don't know much about tax but I imagine FB need to pay tax on the profit made in the UK, not the revenue. Which is where it gets interesting; for example suppose the actual servers aren't in country A, how do you apportion the costs of those servers to work out the profit in country A?

It's quite arbitrary and that's why no-one can ever definitively say how much profit Facebook (or any other multi-national) made in a given year.

angryparcel

Jivesinger wrote: »

I don't know much about tax but I imagine FB need to pay tax on the profit made in the UK, not the revenue. Which is where it gets interesting; for example suppose the actual servers aren't in country A, how do you apportion the costs of those servers to work out the profit in country A?

yes my error, but no matter were the servers are They have a UK office with a UK VAT number, so whatever business they do in the UK and have a profit this is all they have to pay tax on.

Yes like google they failed to pay tax on a certain period, which like any business they would only get fined and given so long to submit accounts for that period so correct tax can be calculated and then they would be invoiced for that amount which they could pay in instalments with approval from HMRC

chunter

Apple's wonderful way was to set-up a company called Apple Global in some little island tax haven. Then Apple UK pays Apple Global the vast, vast amount of their revenue to the little island for licensing rights, leaving with Apple UK with little or no profit and so taxes are minuscule.

Nothing illegal. We should all be at it - I'm sure Mr May is at it!

esuhl

RumRat wrote: »

Hi, I was told about this a while ago, but, have never got around to trying it.
Looks like what you need..
HUSHED

Very interesting. I had a look and you need to give Hushed your real mobile number... and there are lots of Facebook scripts running on that page.

So I imagine that FB will link your real and temporary phone numbers, and still be able to uniquely identify and track you.

kwikbreaks wrote: »

All I can say is that if you are concerned about your privacy why on earth are you installing facebook?

I'm not installing anything.

George_Michael wrote: »

Providing that you know what you are doing (or if you don't, seek help from someone who does), it's possible to use Facebook without too many having privacy concerns.

Yup -- I have a new email address, registered with a fake name, have minimal details in my FB profile, and use a clean browser profile to access the site. I only "like" and join groups that have local information that I want to see.

It's crazy. All I want to do is to be able to read the digital equivalent of the village notice board to know what's going on locally! I don't want to chat to anyone or post anything at all.

There's still a (real, physical) noticeboard in the village square, but important notices are never posted there. The local FB groups all require "permission" to join, and I was initially rejected until I updated my profile to explain that I'm a real local person not some kind of spambot! Now I can't get in until I give FB a phone number. Argh!

Anyway, thanks everyone! I'll look out for a Tesco SIM if that'll be kept active longer than with other providers. Will I need to load the SIM with some credit to activate it, or will I be able to receive a verification text from FB without credit?

angryparcel

DavidP24 wrote: »

No they use a vehicle known as the Luxembourg sandwich, they basically charge their UK operation a fee for use of the brand. Many large corporates use it, most notable are Amazon, Google and Starbucks Coffee.



The difference with Facebook, is they bill it first via Ireland where Corp Tax is 12% but they make no profit because the royalty company was founded in Cayman Islands, some royalties also held in Dutch holding company The tax structure is known as the “Double Irish”. Facebook has said they will move advertising revenue through UK but they will still be doing the royalty for their own brand [STRIKE]scam [/STRIKE]tax avoidance.



Their basic idea is that we should be happy with the VAT we are getting!

We could use a UK sales tax above VAT set at 50% for such companies, so that their sale prices are much higher and they have to reduce prices to compete. For example if a large coffee at Starbucks which is already £3.10 vs £2.75 at Costa, had the 50% TAS (tax avoidance surcharge) the Coffee would be £4.65. When consumers see a TAS charge they can vote with their feet and choose a supplier who does not use aggressive tax avoidance. It also names and shames them.

TAS would not be able to be offset against any other tax liability.

With Google and Facebook both doing it some might argue about it's effectiveness, but media buyers would choose other platforms, either online or on traditional platforms, the risk is that FB and Google would simply create their own credits and give more credits for the income.

Of course we could just create a tax for them, based on our own audit of the prices the charge UK advertisers less their actual allowable expenses (which should not allow charging for use of own brand etc).

It would be VERY easy to enforce this.

Nothing illegal though. It is just like when a company goes into administration and then the same ones that but them in that position will but the company back off the administrators in a stream lined version without debts.

esuhl

angryparcel wrote: »

Nothing illegal though.

I think that's missing the point.

toshi

Of course, you guys don't use Facebook Authentication for MSE forum log in....

RumRat

toshi wrote: »

Of course, you guys don't use Facebook Authentication for MSE forum log in....

Correct...

AndyPix

toshi wrote: »

Of course, you guys don't use Facebook Authentication for MSE forum log in....

not only no - but HELL no

AndyPix

George_Michael wrote: »

Providing that you know what you are doing (or if you don't, seek help from someone who does), it's possible to use Facebook without too many having privacy concerns.

Firstly, register using an anonymous email such as Yahoo or Google mail.
Then set it so that only friends can see your posts.

With the help of many Google pages, it's easy to find out how to adjust the settings to limit just about everything that can be seen by others.

Yes, Facebook can be extremely intrusive but if used with caution, it doesn't have to be this way.

Think you're missing the point here - All that above stuff doesnt do a thing to stop FACEBOOK themselves prying into your life