What argument? I'm just saying that it works for me and many others.

Most commutes aren't 40 miles even for suburbanites. Some people get worked up for suggesting that biking is viable for a lot of us for no reason, talking about edge cases, that often could be covered by public transport.

Could you elaborate on the ethical part, please?

I don't need that: I live in a city. Suburbs suck.

I live car-free, and I travel over 40 miles every now and then.

Bikes are great. Just saying.

That's exactly the point: get a cheap new phone number, preferrably one that doesn't link back to your identity. And it's typically an online service, otherwise it's not gonna be cheap or private (in my country anyway).

I'd do the opposite from what OP wants: a second line for online platforms.

I don't think avoiding your potential employer seeing you reposting something like fuckworkmemes is taking privacy too far 😉

They don't provide end-user apps, do they? It's just APIs and SDKs.

Yes, but I wouldn't like them to find my profile on one of the social networks that require a phone number. I might've said something not so nice about my current job, you know.

I'll just mention that 1TB Nextcloud (supports encryption) at Hetzner is €5/month, and background upload works. It also has tons of features, not just files.