So, i run GrapheneOS on my main phone, i take some steps into making my life more private, and i myself advocate for privacy, i think privacy is very important, including in my own life.
What i have thought about a lot these past few days is, how i can be private and reduce at least some of the tracking that comes with having a SIM with a phone number and mobile data connected to a billing account with my own personal information (and with using the cellular network) without completely depriving myself of the convinience of having a phone number and mobile data?
Because nowadays, having a phone number is basically essential, its connected to your bank account, your friends have your phone number (even if you don’t necessarily message them via SMS), and even government agencies sometimes ask for your phone number!
So, i am posting on this forum to ask you, member of this forum for your opinion on what i should do.
See if a VoIP number is an option for you. You can have the number be separate from your mobile data, so any location tracking from cellular towers is not inherently linked to your SMS/calls.
I personally use JMP.chat alongside a data-only eSIM plan.
Unfortunately providers like JMP.chat wouldn’t work on my country because not only is JMP.chat only available for Canada/US , due to strict regulations in my country i wouldn’t be able to migrate my phone number to voIP, since there are defined numbers for both and it’s not like possible to transfer from one to the other
You don’t necessarily need to migrate your phone number to VoIP. Just keep your SIM number and use VoIP for when you need to give out your number.
Unforunately, VoIP providers are not widely available. We have giffgaff here and keeping your phone number only requires you to use your credit every 6 months, so it’s the cheapest way to keep your phone number.
If you have something like that in your country, I would suggest getting multiple SIMs. One for your main/work, one for data only, one for spam, etc. depending how many you can get and how many you can afford to keep.
Lol, in my case I just have several eSIMs. I compartmentalize everything, and in some countries there aren’t strict KYC requirements for SIM cards, so I use eSIMs from those places. There are also certain providers for example in the UK, I’ve seen a site that sells a ‘lifetime’ eSIM that can be used for calls, SMS, and data.
Most of the eSIMs I use are pay-as-you-go, so they don’t have a fixed expiration date. They usually only expire if you don’t top them up or if there’s no activity for a long period like six months to a year, which I doubt will happen. So, honestly, I just have a bunch of different eSIMs.
and it’s also like compartmentalized so certain numbers are public but certain numbers i will only ever use them for sites that strictly require 2FA as a mobile number .
I try to use phone numbers as little as possible but for the sites that do ask or where it’s genuinely needed for example like a delivery I can get most of these eSIMs quite easily so sometimes I can just use them once and then nuke them.
for me the problem isnt compartmentalization, the problem is that the telecom network is extremely invasive, and WILL constantly ping my IMEI, from a SIM which is permanently linked to my real life identity. i do not want that.
Use a separate dumbphone with a SIM card to make general calls/texts for jobs, banks, doctors, etc. and leave it at home. Use GOS phone for private life with no SIM and use Signal/Whatsapp to communicate with friends and family. You can even enable airplane mode to eliminate any contact with cell towers and connect to wifi when you’re outside. Wifi still works in airplane mode.
I think you need to re-evaluate your threat model. Having a phone, any phone, connected to a cellular network is sub-optimal for location tracking, even if reasonably de-identified. If the government was seriously attempting to find you, you’d be aeroplane mode Wi-Fi only kind of guy, cash in hand, not leaving a single trace. I don’t think that is your situation (commiserations though, if it is).
In terms of privacy - you need to accept, in my view, as an ordinary citizen that you WILL be identifiable in some fields - a drivers licence, a bank account, government services. This is OKAY. You can still use a number of tools like alias emails, compartmentalisation, to improve your general security and privacy model, particularly from data leaks/cyber attacks.
The best model you could run to REDUCE general awareness is to run TWO SIMs - one in a separate device you use exclusively for anything “official” and another your day to day roamer/personal contact active in your phone. In a targeted model this is probably of little utility, but it is obfuscation enhancing in general.
At the end of the day, running your phone in 4G (not 5G) and turning off legacy networks (2G) does improve your privacy too, and has been discussed on GOS forums before. But all the data leaving your phone, via VPN or Tor would be protected. So even if the government can track you pinging towers, and loosely observe maybe, data packet size, they don’t know what the data is, obviously. I think for most people in most cases this is quite a good standard to be at.
There are privacy phones like the Jolla Phone which has an external physical button to turn off wifi/bluetooth and i assume 5G connection to the mobile towers. Maybe that is a solution for you. So you just manually turn it off when you don’t want to be tracked.
alternative is not to use cellular network at all. Give your friends/family a 75 dollar ThinkNode M9 and communicate securely off the cellar grid. The cellar grid is monitored by governments. You will need to be in the same city though or area, but the technology is pretty interesting.
There is a Map on the internet to see whether there are any repeaters in your area. This solves the problem of external parties tracking your phone
Kind-of in this vein, I wish GOS would automatically airplane when I’m connected WiFi. Samsung has Modes & Routines which allows this, but I have not found anything similar for GOS.
yeah dual path is what stuck for me. keep the kyc sim for banks. separate prepaid/encrypted style sim for day to day data when the country allows it. short guide i used when picking one Encrypted SIM Card Guide: How Private SIMs Work | GhostSims
Keep in mind though…if you leave the SIM enabled while you are at home, they will know who you are. Even if you disable it within a certain distance of home each time, they’ll know which area you live. In my opinion, this is not a good system to preserve OPSEC. If your threat model is such that you must not be tracked, using your phone only on WiFi with a VOIP number is the only way.
(You would also need to use VPN with kill switch enabled, at a minimum. This is actually a quite tricky threat model to protect against.)
Its solved now, but thanks everyone for their suggestions.
What I did is: buy a second prepaid SIM.
Portugal is one of the countries that is great to buy prepaid SIMs anonymously, and with great prices for mobile data.
If anyone wants to avoid cell network tracking but their main concern is having a SIM connect to the cell network , the SIM being linked to your identity, do what I did if the laws in your country allow it.