this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2024
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Privacy
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Switch phone service to VoIP, cancel cell service, all tracking capabilities is gone.
Iirc any cell phone is still capable of dialing 911(or equivalent) even without a sim. So id imagine carrier towers and gps could still find it. You'd basically have to keep the device in a ferriday bag. Which complicates actually using it.
One clarification: carrier towers can still find a phone; GPS is passive; your phone locates itself in relation to the GPS satellites.
Most phones are also broadcasting WiFi MAC IDs and Bluetooth MACs, plus hardware and capability strings over Bluetooth. And then any apps you’ve got loaded may also be calling home with your location unless you have that disabled and rotate your ad ID regularly.
[edit] also worth pointing out that even if you turn a smartphone “off” it still pings the local cell towers with its IMEI regularly. Surprised me the first time I witnessed that.
That is correct. Any cell phone sold in the United States by law is supposed to be able to dial 911 no matter whether they have a SIM card inserted or not and no matter whether they have service on a SIM card or not and also no matter whether one specific carrier in your area has no signal it will use the others instead. You may be a Verizon customer, but if you dial 911 and an AT&T tower picks up the call first, the AT&T network will serve that call instead.
Why does a phone need to be in a ferriday bag when phone does not have a SIM card because it uses web-based VoIP service? The phone only needs an internet connection, like wi-fi, and can't talk to cell towers. Remove SIM from phone, connect phone to wi-fi to get online to access phone service through the internet, GPS can't function. If a phone without SIM calls 911, it will go through, but dispatch sees no number, no location, no name.
any carrier within range can still potentially track you, maybe not with airplane mode but Snowden says don't trust that
GPS still "works" without any signal, service or net access
AGPS mandate forces 911 calls to reveal your location
For max privacy without going completely analog you'd want a device with NO cellular radio at all
Yeah, but the operator would see an identifiable IMEI.
A lot of organizations now block VOIP numbers thanks to stringent KYC laws.
It is possible to get a real cell number from a big name carrier and then port the number to VoIP company to use VoIP service with an original cell number.
Maybe, but if anything bad happens to originate from that number, the port history is still visible and now they have a suspect.
Stick with only having a landline until you can get over yourself and your self aggrandizment.
In a lot of places, cell carriers enforce KYC too though.
If you get a cell number with a SIM, then port that number to a VoIP, how does KYC matter since you are going.to have to give that number to people with your name, so businesses or offices can call you through VoIP service?
That's just wrong when you're dealing with the government
You're just shifting trust though - may be good in some cases, but not universal. Aldo does nothing about the cell tower connections tracking the location.
How can cell towers track your location if phone does not have a SIM due to using web-based VoIP service?
An IMEI moving around.
I think you're mainly speaking from a place of percieved opinion than tech knowledge but I would suggest for you that you only use a landline for phone service. Have you ever had a job working with various network services for random customers and speak to customers to answer questions?
From the context of your previous comments, it seemed like you were talking not about not having a mobile phone in general, but rather a SIMless phone. Using it over Wi-Fi only is indeed doable - but you'd need an Airplane Mode on an OS you can trust, just having no SIM would not be enough.
Also no, I did not have such a job - I don't understand how this question relates to the conversation.
Any AOSP ROM would suffice.
The queation pertains to having a sense from how someone talks if they sound like they can configure network services or if they only read about it but not having the skills/experience to work for random customers and explain the work to them.