Virtual phone numbers
TextNow privacy rating
Free, ad-supported phone number service from TextNow, Inc. in Waterloo, Canada, offering US and Canadian numbers for calls and texts over Wi-Fi or its mobile network, with paid options to remove ads.
Summary
TextNow scores 19 out of 100 (grade F) on the virtual phone numbers criteria. It meets 1 of 8 criteria: TLS configuration. It partly meets transparency report. It does not meet open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, independent audit, tells users about requests and security headers. It is based in Canada: Five Eyes member. Automated tests: SSL Labs grade A+ and Mozilla HTTP Observatory grade C.
Score 19 out of 100. How scoring works
Criteria
- No
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No
No trackers or telemetry Weight 3 of 3
Are the website and apps free of third-party trackers, with any analytics anonymous and any telemetry off by default?
The Android app includes 19 trackers, among them Google AdMob, Facebook Ads, AppLovin and AppsFlyer.
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No
No ads or data sales Weight 2 of 3
Is the product funded without advertising, ad targeting or selling user data?
The free service is funded by in-app advertising from several ad networks.
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No
Independent audit Weight 2 of 3
Has an independent security or privacy audit been published within the last three years?
No independent audit is published.
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Partial
Transparency report Weight 2 of 3
Does the provider regularly publish how many government and legal requests it receives and how it responds?
Law enforcement guidelines explain how legal orders are handled. No request counts are published.
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No
Tells users about requests Weight 1 of 3
Does the provider promise to tell users about requests for their data, unless a court forbids it?
The guidelines state users are not notified of law enforcement orders. Only civil requests may be notified.
Automated tests
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Yes
TLS configuration Weight 2 of 3
Does the website pass the Qualys SSL Labs test with a grade of A or better?
Grade A+
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No
Security headers Weight 1 of 3
Does the website pass the Mozilla HTTP Observatory test with a grade of A or better?
Grade C (55/100+)
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Not tested yet
Modern web standards Weight 1 of 3
Does the website score 90% or higher on the Internet.nl website test?
Not tested yet.