There are exactly 0 good reasons to use whatsapp anyways…

economy collapsing and all we do is eat hot chip & lie

Thanks! There really isn’t any reason for me to be targeted so I think I’m fine personally. Privacy is a collective value though, so I wish to maximize it as an expression of my values.

Yeah totally fair thanks for clarifying! I would love to minimize the use of SIM cards in my life. Maybe using a faraday bag. But I also won’t be travelling to the US or ME…

IMEI number is out there and associated with home.

But if I remove the SIM, put it on airplane mode, and then travel, how can they detect my IMEI in a new location? Only by seizing the phone physically or perhaps if the emergency services settings leak it without a SIM right?

Interesting stuff tbh. At the end of the day I don’t have strong reasons for hiding except simply not liking the invasion of privacy. So I’m fine. But it does make me want to ditch my phone entirely sometimes.

That makes sense, thank you! I’m not expecting any issues with LEO so I’m fine. But out of principle and interest I like to still understand what I’m giving up and minimize how much privacy they take from me.

Thanks anyway, it’s good info for anybody reading!

Cell towers can use the SIM card to track your IMEI number which is specific to your device and may link to your identity depending on how you purchased it and your carrier.

Generally there’s no perfect solution to this short of not using a phone. But as a compromise some people opt to never add a SIM card and instead keep their device WiFi-only while always using a VPN, MAC randomization on in settings, and airplane mode.

Some apps such as simplex allow you to sign up without a phone number for your texting & calling needs. Of course it’s not perfect and I assume almost anybody would want a real number somewhere (perhaps on a different device or landline).

For me it’s reasonable to not have cell service on this phone because it’s only one of several phones I own.

For sure, that makes sense and seems to be mentioned often. I’m curious to understand different risks than that though…

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So the solution is to what… ? Raw dog it?

• mutually assured destruction: if a VPN starts leaking network activity it’s suicide for their business model
• distribution of concerns: VPN services as a rule don’t give a shit about your torrent traffic the way a copyright holder might care about your IP

If you’re out here creampie-ing the whole internet you don’t have either of those barriers but you still carry all of that risk.

Even condoms very rarely break that doesn’t make them in general useless. Perfection is the enemy of progress.

Perhaps? It works just fine for me but I’m a bit of a filthy casual who doesn’t torrent all that much

You need to pay for a VPN. It’s like a condom for the internet. Frankly, stop trying to avoid something that you should already be using.

Mullvad is a good start. Go purchase it.