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I turned off all cell carrier tracking 5 years ago. 100% of it. By canceling my cell phone subscription. I know I know, I must be amish, I have heard it all.
by lrvick 9mo ago
I turned off all cell carrier tracking 5 years ago. 100% of it.
By canceling my cell phone subscription.
I know I know, I must be amish, I have heard it all. But I run two tech companies, travel, have a family, and do most of the things most around here probably do other than doom scrolling.
So much more time in my own head to think.
- lazide 9mo agoI’m guessing you have a bunch of other people with their own cell phones doing things? That’s the reason most other people are (fundamentally) going to struggle.
- lrvick 9mo agoTraveling internationally or domestically, booking flights, hotels, going to concerts, theme parks, the movies, organizing hangouts with friends, exploring new locations... all of these things I do just fine by using a web browser on a desktop computer before I leave home, and sometimes printing a couple things. I live a typical middle class lifestyle just without the doom scrolling. All the ways of living an active life engaged in the modern world that worked before the 2009 smartphone explosion still work just fine today. Just without tiktok and instagram. I think I am okay without those.
- lazide 9mo agoSo what - printed maps? No ‘where are you?’ texts or the like? No looking up nearby anything you’re curious about but didn’t know about before hand? Certainly possible, I guess, if everyone in your circle does the same, and has a ton of patience, and you spend a ton of extra time doing all the prep in advance. And don’t need to deal with things like traffic jams right now, or the like.
- jll29 9mo agoWhen you agree to meet someone somewhere at some time, all further communication is redundant (I expect you to be reasonably punctual and I don't need your SMS updates "Hi, leaving the house now." followed by "hi, I'm running 5 min late", I will wait, and if you are not coming, you can call me to apologize if you care one bit). For people who don't know their way, you can use in-car navigation systems rather than smartphone map apps.
- lazide 9mo agoAh, so I’m guessing 40+ and with a very select group of friends with a long term history. While I agree, that isn’t something 99.9% of the population is going to do successfully.
- littlecranky67 9mo ago99.9%? I am old enough to remember time before mobile phones, and being at a place at a prearranged time is possible. Also, if you are late, you can actually do a phone call to inform the other party - all you need is a feature phone, not smart phone. I personally respect other peoples time and I expect the same for me. That is, I have cut out people from my life in the past that repeatedly would text "hey I'm 20mins late" 2mins before the agreed time. That is still disrespectful with my time, because now I know you are late, but still lost those 20mins. Some people don't consider that rude and for some reason do not see that this would not work if everybody does it. Needless to say, my friends know that I value reliability, and most of them do. People that don't respect that don't need to be in my social group, or at least I don't make plans with them.
- PlatoIsADisease 9mo agoIf you want to know why these are different today, the word is called Norms. At the international relations level, this idea falls under Constructivism. Maybe these are a bit obvious, but knowing the word that describes this may help further research.
- 9mo ago
- lrvick 9mo ago> printed maps? For complex routes. Otherwise I just jot down a couple exits and an intersection and call it good. > No ‘where are you?’ texts or the like? No one expects this from me day to day because I am rarely away from home for more than a few hours at a time without a friend or family member, but when air traveling I have my tiny pocket laptop and check in at travel hubs from wifi. Everyone in your life will get used to it, especially if they see the results in it allowing you to be a more present person. > No looking up nearby anything you’re curious about but didn’t know about before hand? I tend to discover a lot of authentic hidden gems the travel guides don't mention, by just walking around a new area. Generally if I am traveling somewhere new, I go early to get a lay of the land.
- astura 9mo ago>booking flights, hotels, going to concerts, theme parks, the movies, organizing hangouts with friends, exploring new locations... all of these things I do just fine by using a web browser on a desktop computer before This won't be possible soon, last couple of venues I went to were digital tickets only. Will call is basically dead now, and that used to be my preferred way of getting into events.
- hpdigidrifter 9mo agoPardon my skepticism but I find it hard to believe you can actually participate in western society without choosing to have a government mandated tracking device? Maybe you live somewhere this is possible but it's definitely not in the developed world
- taurath 9mo agoRuns 2 tech companies - the basic promise of the US is when you're rich you can do whatever the hell you want because you can pay people to handle stuff for you. But also, one doesn't always need a phone - phones can die, signal is not gauranteed. What are your "must have" things that require one to have a smart phone to participate? Assume the poster has a home phone, laptop, and credit card.
- lrvick 9mo agoSmall companies that are 100% FOSS with no VC investment, where everyone has to pull their own weight. I do not have a personal assistant or anything like that and navigate the real world, travel, etc, very often alone.
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- fragmede 9mo agoThe failure mode isn't as a tech company CEO. As you point out, if you're the CEO, you have the luxury of defining yourself unavailable as CEO whenever the hell you please. If the website is down out if business hours and you haven't made it someone else's problem that you're paying for it to stay up, it can just be down. No, the issue is as a father/mother/husband/wife/son/daughter to someone's you love dearly enough to consider them family, biological or otherwise. It's rather dramatic, but the phone call/conversation I could never forgive myself for missing, is the last words of a loved one before they die, whether due to car crash or some other calamity (9/11). Or missing the opportunity to take the very next flight out to see them before they pass. You are free to treat your family, biological or chosen, as you see fit, I just know there are some phone calls I'd rather be woken up in the middle of the night for than miss. Reaching me via cellphone is more direct than trying to find whatever hotel I'm at since I'm on the road as CEO and talking to customers and vendors in person on the road as CEO, so calling my house phone doesn't help.
- CalRobert 9mo agoDo you hit issues around things like 2fa, online banking?
- taurath 9mo agoMost 2FA can be done without a phone, and you can also use offline 2FA keys, not necessarily a text message. You can also set up a phone number to accept texts from a laptop. I can do whatever on my bank by just calling. It would be a bit weird to never be able to pitch in on meals with a $ transfer app, but I suppose when you run 2 tech companies you're probably paying most of the time, or you just take a note and transfer it later.
- lrvick 9mo agoAll 2FA options that require a phone like TOTP can be done just as easily on a laptop with a yubikey or nitrokey. I have several business and personal bank accounts with two major banks. No Android or iOS needed. Sure they push you hard to use them, but just say it is against your unspecified religion. They cannot make you use Android or iOS.
- ISL 9mo ago
- nullbyte808 9mo agoI have a hybrid approach with GrapheneOS. 99% of the time I only use WiFi on my phone via a Tor router. I have an anonymous KeepGo ESIM with global data that does not expire and use it when I have to when Im away from home.
- lrvick 9mo agoI started that way, though with AOSP I compiled myself. It was a nice nicotine patch but after a while my phone was so quiet and boring without proprietary social apps demanding my attention, I often found myself leaving it at home. Eventually I abandoned it entirely.
- jll29 9mo agoEver travelled by rental car or used WiFi on the move?
- trympet 9mo agoHow do you work on the go? I use personal hotspot quite often. Not only when on the go, but if there is unstable WiFi. It’s saved me on multiple occasions - both for live-site incidents and for random meetings.
- orphea 9mo agoIt really depends on who you work as and what your working conditions are. For example, if I had some non-management position at a company that insists on working from the office, I would make sure that I'm NOT available outside my designated work place.
- lrvick 9mo agoI basically never work away from my home desk unless I am staying multiple days away from home. In that case I bring a tiny QubesOS laptop that I attach to my leg with a leg bag (I hate carrying a backpack) and work anywhere with wifi, which is never hard to find.
- bloomingeek 9mo agoYou could also turn your cell off/on as needed. Sure you can be "seen" when it's on, but when off, it's my understanding you can't.
- alt227 9mo agoYou cant turn modern smartphones off. You may think you can, but you cant. What you could do is put them in a faraday cage if you wanted.
- Alive-in-2025 9mo agoPlease explain what this means, I can turn my cell phone off. How are they able to ping my phone if it has no power? Or are you saying even when you turn it off there's still some part of it that's energized or something?
- Spooky23 9mo agoThe baseband isn’t controlled by you and can wake up without your knowledge. It’s less clear what is the “art of the possible” vs. practical for people who aren’t actively under surveillance.
- Alive-in-2025 9mo agook, that makes more sense. If the battery is dead then the phone can't track me (or if you had a phone with a removable battery - i have an old one I kept that is like that).
- direwolf20 9mo agoNo part of the phone is controlled by me. Can we stop getting spooked by the word "baseband" yet? It means the modem chip. The modem chip isn't controlled by me and can wake up without my knowledge. But neither is the wifi chip. Or the bluetooth chip. Or the RAM chip. Or the main CPU (application processor). Or the screen. Any one of these could hold malware.
- 9mo ago
- cryptoegorophy 9mo agoCancel phone subscription and have family. I don’t understand how you still have family? You don’t have any emergencies?
- adaml_623 9mo agoDid people "have emergencies" before the invention of mobile phones? Your question is silly
- yardstick 9mo agoI don’t think it’s a silly question. Before mobile phones, there were public phone booths. Along motorways there were often call boxes. There’s little to none of that anymore. Also before mobile phones, if you had an accident in a remote area you were at the mercy of someone passing by and noticing you. Today, modern cars can call 911 on your behalf along with your location without you even being conscious. Or if you don’t have a car that does this, then your cell can be used. Let’s not also forget iPhones calling for help when they detect you had a fall at home. Yes emergencies existed before mobile phones. I contend that the use of mobile phones has led to better outcomes when an emergency happens. I also admit mobile phones will have caused some of those emergencies (distracted driver etc).
- lrvick 9mo agoI have many times used public telephones when I really need to when traveling. The main difference today is they are free. Every airport lobby, every hotel, and most business can call a taxi or call 911 in a pinch. There are also free public use phones (often hardcoded to emergency numbers or taxi companies) often in hotel and airport lobbies. I never noticed them until I got rid of my phone but they are everywhere. In NYC all the payphones were replaced with wifi stations that also allow you to make free phone calls for emergencies etc. Also all cell phones can call 911 without a sim or subscription so someone really worried about having instant access to call 911 in an emergency could have one of those keychain sized dumb phones they leave charged and powered off until they need it. You are highly conditioned by marketing and social pressure to think you need to have a cell phone tracking you and distracting you at all times to live a safe and productive life in the modern world, but this is just not true. Lived without one for 5 years, and have experienced accidents and emergencies in that time like anyone else.
- interestpiqued 9mo agoYou can also just use google family link, make someone else your parent, and lock down the phone. I have a "dumb phone" that is just a refurbished Samsung s22 I bought. Only supports phone calls, messaging, and some credit cards basically.
- xandrius 9mo agoHow is being able to make phone calls prevent you from being tracked? You're still going to be constantly pinging those cell towers with a unique identifier.