> A "burner phone" gets thrown away--"burned"--to prevent the someone from tracking you. I would see this as a tertiary characteristic of burner phones that is

> A "burner phone" gets thrown away--"burned"--to prevent the someone from tracking you. I would see this as a tertiary characteristic of burner phones that is certainly optional. Almost every usage of "burner phone" you see in media, film, and print, is used to indicate a phone that is unmonitored. Queue scene of FBI in room with monitors showing camera views of Jason Bourne talking on a phone. "He's got a burner" is more likely to be said when Bourne is talking on the phone, not when he's throwing it away.