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Relevant copypasta: Fellow humans, there are alternatives to being tracked via cell phone! Your neck need not be under anyone's boot! You don't even need to gi

Relevant copypasta: Fellow humans, there are alternatives to being tracked via cell phone! Your neck need not be under anyone's boot! You don't even need to give up any functionality: Data service: The simplest thing is to buy a prepaid SIM and top it off with cash. The lovely people over at /r/nocontract maintain a big spreadsheet so you can filter by various properties of the available contracts. Another way to go is to pay for a postpaid plan with a virtual credit card (VCC) like at privacy.com. It won't be linked to your name at the telco, but of course privacy.com knows who you are. There is also Abine Blur, and some others. Yet a third way to go, which is nascent, is buy an eSIM with crypto. You can also buy prepaid VCCs with crypto. All these methods make you /pseudo/nymous, but obviously you're still identifiable by subscriber number and possibly IMEI, to put aside correlational things like your traffic profile. You can help this problem by routing everything through a VPN. Then you're pseudonymous but the cell carrier knows nothing about you other than that you use a VPN. Pay for the VPN with crypto. Of course now the VPN provider knows your traffic, but you're much more anonymous to them than you are to a telco. You make your choices. Defense in depth. Etc. OS: GrapheneOS: https://grapheneos.org/ https://grapheneos.org/ Very much like Calyx, but extra-hardened and with no MicroG. No involvement with Google at all by default. You can make a secondary profile in which you install Google Play Services to set up an environment where you can run unprivileged Play services + whatever crapware you need that requires them. Unprivileged here means it's like any other app: if you don't give it access to your location, it won't know where you are. If you end the profile session when you leave, Play Services stops running and stops talking to Google. CalyxOS: https://calyxos.org/ https://calyxos.org/ Privacy-respecting Android distribution that replaces Google spyware with MicroG, so you can have your cake and eat it too. Most everything will work as you're used to, but it does still talk to Google to make that happen. LineageOS: https://lineageos.org/ https://lineageos.org/ The successor to CyanogenMod, will work with many different phones. More privacy and control than stock Android. There are also many others: Sailfish, Replicant, e Hardware: CalyxOS and GrapheneOS run best on Pixel 3, 3a, 3XL, 4, 4a, 4XL, 5, 6, 6a. The path of least resistance is to get one of these phones and run CalyxOS (if there is an app you need to use that needs Google services like Firebase Cloud Messaging...note that many that can use FCM will run fine without), otherwise run GrapheneOS. You can also buy a Librem 5 https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/ https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/ If privacy and security and hacking are really important to you. Or a pinephone: https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/ https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/

swader999 4y ago
The only real way is to steal a device.
- NoImmatureAdHom 4y ago
  Why not just buy one with cash?
deltree7 4y ago
* It boils down to a simple question. Does this give me better lifestyle / standard of living? Will I get laid more often? Eat Better Food? Have better relationships? Create Wealth? Will I even get more freedom ? Love ? Then why the f** should I optimize my life around this incredibly stupid idea?
- tacker2000 4y ago
  Idealism is a thing. People do things because they believe in them, that the world will be “better”. You dont have to agree with other opinions but dont call them “incredibly stupid”.
- NoImmatureAdHom 4y ago
  I can understand that it sounds like a big deal to you ("...optimize my life..."), but it's a very small change. Once it's set up you won't even think about it, promise. As for why, it's a good question. I think it's because I don't want to live in a world where it's impossible to do the "wrong" thing, or even think the "wrong" thing. Our legal system has evolved to be effective in a world where it's very hard to observe what people are actually doing or saying, and I fear a quick transition to ubiquitous surveillance will mean rigid enforcement of laws that were never meant to be enforced rigidly. In a world with ubiquitous surveillance, how do you get marijuana or gay sex legalized? How do you change things? There's also the problem of concentration of power. The surveillance network we've built would be the envy of the Stasi, and we as a species are only just learning what can be done with it. I fear a small group of people will be able to seize and hold on to a lot of power. So, these are reasons to care. But it doesn't really respond to your point, which is more like: "What's the immediate benefit?". There is one in that it's a great way to subtly signal that you're technologically competent in situations where that's important, but beyond that there probably isn't one. It's just costs. It's costs I gladly pay, though, because I want to raise the likelihood of a better world in the coming years. The present value of that better world over the one where I do nothing makes the investment worth it.

swader999 4y ago

The only real way is to steal a device.

NoImmatureAdHom 4y ago
Why not just buy one with cash?

deltree7 4y ago

* It boils down to a simple question. Does this give me better lifestyle / standard of living? Will I get laid more often? Eat Better Food? Have better relationships? Create Wealth? Will I even get more freedom ? Love ? Then why the f** should I optimize my life around this incredibly stupid idea?

tacker2000 4y ago
Idealism is a thing. People do things because they believe in them, that the world will be “better”. You dont have to agree with other opinions but dont call them “incredibly stupid”.
NoImmatureAdHom 4y ago
I can understand that it sounds like a big deal to you ("...optimize my life..."), but it's a very small change. Once it's set up you won't even think about it, promise. As for why, it's a good question. I think it's because I don't want to live in a world where it's impossible to do the "wrong" thing, or even think the "wrong" thing. Our legal system has evolved to be effective in a world where it's very hard to observe what people are actually doing or saying, and I fear a quick transition to ubiquitous surveillance will mean rigid enforcement of laws that were never meant to be enforced rigidly. In a world with ubiquitous surveillance, how do you get marijuana or gay sex legalized? How do you change things? There's also the problem of concentration of power. The surveillance network we've built would be the envy of the Stasi, and we as a species are only just learning what can be done with it. I fear a small group of people will be able to seize and hold on to a lot of power. So, these are reasons to care. But it doesn't really respond to your point, which is more like: "What's the immediate benefit?". There is one in that it's a great way to subtly signal that you're technologically competent in situations where that's important, but beyond that there probably isn't one. It's just costs. It's costs I gladly pay, though, because I want to raise the likelihood of a better world in the coming years. The present value of that better world over the one where I do nothing makes the investment worth it.