The whole point of avoiding the verification in my case is for privacy reasons... I don't want google or anyone else tracking what I do through the use of an account.
> Or you could go through the android phone sign-up process which doesn't require one
This is worse IMO because now the number is associated with that device forever. And unless I'm willing to risk my account to compromise from a future owner of the same number OR device, I must now keep both... forever.
> grey web
I don't want to give them my info either, nor have my account associated with sketchy individuals.
> you could become a phone company
I do own DID blocks but this is unhelpful because google's verification specifically requires SMS over real mobile numbers, and I'm not interested in becoming an MVNO or cellular carrier.
Bad news - Google doesn't need an account to track your app downloadsm
Perhaps you'd be more interested in creating a website that downloads all the apps from the play store using burner accounts and makes them easily anonymously accessible.
GrapheneOS is not sending app downloads to Google that happen outside of Google's apps, which I don't use. And there are other ways to download APKs from the Play Store; EFF even makes their own tool for it, and there are third-party archive sites and alternative non-Google app stores as well.
> Or you could go through the android phone sign-up process which doesn't require one
This is worse IMO because now the number is associated with that device forever. And unless I'm willing to risk my account to compromise from a future owner of the same number OR device, I must now keep both... forever.
> grey web
I don't want to give them my info either, nor have my account associated with sketchy individuals.
> you could become a phone company
I do own DID blocks but this is unhelpful because google's verification specifically requires SMS over real mobile numbers, and I'm not interested in becoming an MVNO or cellular carrier.