In it user recommends to buy router with automatic IMEI change.
So I have a question.
Will this really increase my privacy and security? If I will for example use only “SIP” phone number (it doesn’t need SIM card and works on any device) will this make my ISP know as less as possible?
If I will buy something like that router and setup VPN on it what pros and cons I will have?
What I expect to achieve:
Never show my real smartphone information (MAC, IMEI) to anyone (ISP, Public routers) and encrypt traffic to make it unreadable for ISP.
Are you looking to generally protect your privacy or are you looking to hide from a specific entity?
On its on a 4g router is still using a cellular network which means your location can be clocked by the ISP. There isn’t much getting around this as you need to be in physical proximity to get the cellular connection, that’s just life. Triangulation means you can be pin pointed I think 50m+/-
As to showing “real” things Speaking bluntly, since the user mentions using programs to uninstall bloatware, that definitely makes it sound like they aren’t on a privacy focused distro which means whatever crap google or samsung has is likely still vacuuming the data up.
You can’t hide everything from your ISP but just using HTTPS would encrypt the info being sent back and forth although your provider can still see you’re connecting to duckduckgo or where ever else, Using a VPN they’ll see you connect to a server but they won’t know what is going on between you and that server.
The problem is, now your VPN whoever that is will see everything. save what’s encrypted just like your ISP could. When you buy and use a VPN you’re doing so relying on the company, which I would encourage you to pretty thoroughly research before subscribing.
You can’t change an imei because they are by definition hard coded. You may possibly be able to spoof an imei or mac address, but they are both hard coded and intended to be unique and a constantly rotating IMEI would if detected by your provider would look sus.
If you really wanna be secure you can always pick up a CompTIA course book and work your way through it to have a better idea of what’s going on when you connect. If you really wanna understand at a deep level you could shoot for CCNA.
I wanna stop using cellular data without that device which will help me to spoof my IMEI and MAC. I know GrapheneOS
I wanna hide following:
My activity (That’s simple - VPN or Tor)
My identity (MAC and IMEI)
I don’t need to hide myself from VPN provider (for extremely sensitive data I use Tor). I wanna hide myself especially from ISP and make my traffic look like gibberish (hide myself even from DPI)
As I see, blue merle (plugin for this router) allows me to make IMEI and MAC random.
So in addition to OP question, will this help and what will be as disadvantage?
And yes I am gonna quit using cellular data directly in phone (only through this device which spoof my identity)
BlockquoteI wanna hide myself especially from ISP and make my traffic look like gibberish (hide myself even from DPI)
Encrypting your traffic will make it unreadable to the ISP assuming proper configuration.
Blockquote So in addition to OP question, will this help and what will be as disadvantage?
Disadvantage: It won’t work and solves nothing at all.
I don’t know how to explain this in a way you will understand, but the carriers keep track of which device you are using. IMEI’s are burned into devices physicall so they are impossible to change. If you’re spoofing a bunch of IMEI’s it looks like you’re cycling through devices for some reason.
What assumption would you make if you saw someone cycle through a hundred devices in whatever constitutes a short amount of time? It’s going to look like you’re stealing/cycling through other people’s devices for potentially nefarious purposes. Would that be enough to flag you? Who knows! But you’re CREATING suspicion.
Lets pretend I’m an alphabet soup agent. NSA, DHS, anyone with the power to subpeona information. Your router which cycles through devices regularly is going to go to your home every night, it’s going to your work every day. So it can be pinned to you based purely on your location habits. Your phone’s wifi if you connect to your home is going to almost inevitably clock you to establish the rotuer and phone exist at the same places for prolonged stretches of time.
Plus for all of this, you create this complicated impractical routine that even if it worked (it doesn’t) would honestly still probably draw more attention to you than just using your phone with a sim card.
To keep your ISP from seeing be it cellular or home based, a VPN will keep them from seeing what you’re doing, but whether or not your actions can be tied to you is another question entirely. If you’re looking to make a political point and are a journalist trying to CYA by all means go ahead and get a router and spoof MAC and IMEI addresses, just be aware that it maybe illegal and draw more attention to you than doing nothing.
in case you don’t want to google it, the mobile network needs to know who you are in order to let you access your data (or phone) plan. the carrier will always know you’re you so long as you use the same sim attached to the same account, regardless of IMEI changes
I am mad that nobody considers the full picture here.
Everyone just snapping at each other.
Nooo impossibru person didnt read ops link.
What is cell usage identity?
Sim + Imei + Patterns.
If we consider the blue merle tool:
It randomizes Imei on every Sim change.
Thats what you can do.
Maybe even better if the Imeis were sticky to the Sims identities because less provider visible churn.
The last part is patterns and the effort you are willing to spend.
You’d need a fast way to cycle Sims. With the annoying things usually involved in buying sims and a propensity to require identifying payment methods or apps, this is not something well to automate.
Except maybe if you got around limits of multiple esim providers.
So you will want to change based on context.
One for work area, one for home area, one for secret project in other location X…
The home ones get occasionally cycled not at the same time.
But this is tedious af. I wish it was easier to reduce exposure.
For clandestine operations, just dont use cell or have throwaway sims and modems that you never use in your regular location patterns.
You can check recent GOS threads on IMEI. they claim that operators are more likely to track you even if you change IMEI per carrier, and use a hotspot device as there maybe discrepancy of moderm features and random IMEI you may allot.
