FYI: Advice given in that guide is horrible for using Signal anonymously; burner phone OpSec is hard; Google Voice requires phone number for signup; landlines are easy to trace.

Core point is that survey requests prior experience using SecureDrop, then uses Signal, email and/or https-form to communicate. Why? Feel like at very least SecureDrop should themselves be explicitly stating why they opted use alternatives instead of their own service.

Google voice only needs a Google account

Google account requires a phone number in all cases, which is a tracking tool.

Since when do you need a phone number to make a Gmail account? That doesn't make any sense, I've made literally dozens over the years.

Google requires a phone number for most users to create a new account; there are currently ways around this, but for obvious reasons, I have no intention of sharing how to do this.

Google Voice has always required a phone number for signup, since its legacy design was to forward calls. When creating the account you’re able to allow Google to generate a Google Voice number for the account, disconnect the setup number, and use Google without a phone number.

Why though go to all that trouble when Signal just needs a PIN one-time from a throw away number; at which point Signal allows user to lockout future registrations from that number as long as the Signal account is active per their definition.