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It is illegal to not track and save this data in the EU. > If you are using a cellphone, your location is being tracked. Period. You can’t avoid it. Even TOR i
by TomMarius 6y ago
It is illegal to not track and save this data in the EU.
> If you are using a cellphone, your location is being tracked. Period. You can’t avoid it. Even TOR isn’t gonna help you.
It is still possible to buy an anonymous SIM in a few countries.
- propelol 6y agoI don't know if that is true. But the issue here is that the data is being sold to others for other use cases.
- eru 6y agoYou used to be able to be an anonymous SIM in the UK. (No clue whether that's still the case.) The SIM would still be tracked. Don't think whatever EU laws allowed the UK to keep some SIMS anonymous have changed since they left?
- TomMarius 6y agoThe country that still allows it is Czechia. So it's probably not an EU law that requires it.
- eru 6y agoThanks! That figures. They are also pretty liberal on their citizens owning guns.
- TomMarius 6y agoIndeed we are, and the gun ownership is not minor as well (every twelfth adult normally carries a weapon).
- jacobush 6y agoInteresting twist on that - the EU has gun regulations, but Czechia made a law that every licensed gun owner in Czechia constitutes a part of the national defense. Sweden has a similar thing, where people in the reserve can have a fully automatic submachine gun. But it's limited to people with an explicit reserve status and the proper training, gun safe etc and further limitations, plus in practice it's not common anymore.
- TomMarius 6y agoTrust me, if the EU was to interfere with gun ownership here, Czechia would be out the next day. There was a little sign of such thing and a huge protest was planned within days, forcing the politicians to consider protecting gun ownership/carrying in the constitution (not yet done, but still on the table)
- jacobush 6y agoAlso Sweden
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- surround 6y agoAs the article demonstrates, it’s easy to de-anonymize the data.
- geraltofrivia 6y agoEven if the SIM's anonymous, as the article demonstrated, it would be easy to de-anonymize it.
- TomMarius 6y agoThere are ways to try to stay hidden, like having one stationary and VPN to it from the second one; using a burner second/third/fourth/...-hand phone for the second, etc.
- surround 6y agoIn order to connect to the VPN, you must connect to the cell towers, which reveals your location. And no matter how many burner phones you use, as soon as you visit your home address, your identity is compromised.
- TomMarius 6y ago> In order to connect to the VPN, you must connect to the cell towers, which reveals your location. It reveals the location of an anonymous SIM with no readable traffic, connecting to an unknown (if you use Tor) and also stationary and anonymous device, which might be planted in any random school, library, workplace... > And no matter how many burner phones you use, as soon as you visit your home address, your identity is compromised. Of course - don't do that with the phone on :) that's the basics, isn't it?
- surround 6y agoI don’t understand how connecting to the stationary device helps if you still have to connect to the cell towers.
- Nextgrid 6y agoTracking it and disclosing it only upon a valid court order is one thing. Selling it to anyone who asks (or even leaking it for free) is another thing.