Why Production Data in Staging is a Security Nightmare

It's tempting to verify your database dump and load it into Staging. It makes the data look "real". But using real Personally Identifiable Information (PII) like phone numbers in a testing environment is strictly against GDPR, CCPA, and basic common sense.

The "SMS Bomb" Risk

Imagine you are testing a notification cron job. You think it's pointed at a mock SMS gateway, but a configuration drift points it to Twilio Live.

Suddenly, 5,000 real users wake up to a "Test Notification #123" text message at 3 AM. This actually happens to major tech companies every year.

Use Reserved Ranges

Many countries have specific "TV and Drama" ranges or "Test" ranges. For example:

• US: 555-0100 through 555-0199 are reserved for fiction.
• UK: 07700 900000 ranges are protected by Ofcom.

Our tool generates numbers specifically from these safe ranges whenever possible, ensuring that even if you accidentally trigger an SMS, it goes nowhere.