this post was submitted on 05 May 2024
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Privacy
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Leave it at home and, if you need a phone, take a burner that doesn’t have your personal data and isn’t logged into any of your accounts.
You also have better found a way to pay for the burner in cash or with a pre-paid debit card. A lot of places in the US won't let you buy a "burner phone" without a credit/debit card that has your name attached to it.
There's a difference between "none of my personal shit on it" and a full on ghost phone.
The first is worth doing.
If you get arrested, they are GOING to identify you before you leave detention. Being fully ghosted and keeping your mouth shut will just keep you in detention at minimum for the hours allowed to them, and if they can pin you with some fake crime, even longer. If arrested, you will not escape them without some level of identification.
Wut? The US is like one of the easiest places to buy anonymous mobile phones and plans.
Seriously. In Australia, you have to "activate" your Sim card with your full name, email, bank details (depending on the carrier), and a copy of your driver's license. Hell, I bought my last phone directly from a carrier, completely outright, with cash, prepaid with no plan, and they took a photocopy of my drivers license. Buying phones elsewhere they've never done that to me, as long as it's prepaid and bought outright, but for some reason the major telcos do it for all purchases
Usually what you do in this situation is go to the tourist hot spot and find a mobile shop pretending to be a tourist without a drivers license. Usually within a few days you'll find someone who will use their info and sell you a Sim card.
What about buying second hand?
Walmart lets you. At least as of October. The only rule was the amount of phones.
It's a good idea, but be sure not to share your phone number with anyone. You can't trust anyone not to add it to their phone, attach your name, email, and other personal identifiers to it and upload it to Google or whoever, to be subpoenaed later.
Treating phone numbers in contact list with username was a brilliant idea (for the spread of mobile messengers like Whatsapp) but also a very horrible idea (for user privacy and everything else). I can't just change a phone number for privacy. My acquaintances will gladly update them with my name, my old and new number, ready for Zucc to scoop them up in a fucking silver plate.
Is there an answer to this? I have a billion contacts from work (vendors, coworkers, etc) and my personal life. I don’t use any social media other than this and Discord (I know, I know) so I don’t think anyone other than Apple and Google have them. I’d like to stop feeding all of this into the machine but I can’t think of any good alternatives off the top of my head besides carrying around a physical book of phone numbers with me, and that’s not really a solution that works for me.