3 ms·

I wonder if we can still buy burner phones for cash at Mondo Mart

by anonymars 7mo ago

SoftTalker 7mo ago
You can buy almost anything for cash.
- helterskelter 7mo ago
  Hell, I can get you a toe by three o'clock this afternoon -- with nailpolish.
  - skirmish 7mo ago
    Your German girlfriend will not be happy about it. Give her "halbe Pfannkuchen"!
observationist 7mo ago
Differential identification means you can be singled out based on profiles. Even if you don't have any accounts, big tech companies still have shadow profiles, and those shadow profiles can be linked to your offline identity, such that everything you've done that's been recorded, and everything you've done in (temporal, physical, or digital) proximity to other people who do have accounts results in a record of activities. Sure, you can get a burner, but you have to make sure you never use it anywhere near anyone you know, that the sim is obtained anonymously, that you're never imaged by any of the ubiquitous cameras, etc. Merely having it powered on provides enough metadata to establish a shadow profile, and it's nearly impossible for a person to secure two separate identities. There's also the superman problem - the burner phone would only ever appear when anonymars is missing, and vice versa, creating a real and exploitable pattern if anyone like the FBI wanted to root around in your life. All they'd have to do is query which shadow profiles match the temporal gaps correlated with your disappearance from tracking. There's really no escaping it. The only fix is legislation - outright banning mass surveillance, with lethal corporate penalties and long prison terms for C-Suite responsible for violations. Short of that, we live in a world that is implicitly compromised and insecure unless you have nation state level resources.
- anigbrowl 7mo ago
  There's also the superman problem - the burner phone would only ever appear when anonymars is missing, and vice versa, creating a real and exploitable pattern if anyone like the FBI wanted to root around in your life. All they'd have to do is query which shadow profiles match the temporal gaps correlated with your disappearance from tracking. This is nonsense. By your logic, people go 'missing' any time they are not using a computer, whether they're reading a book, in the shower, or asleep in bed.
  - orsorna 7mo ago
    It's not useful in a vacuum, but one of many degrees that can be combined to create a unique profile of you.
- doomslayer999 7mo ago
  [dead]
triceratops 7mo ago
I can't tell if these The Wire references are deliberate or a coincidence.
- wmf 7mo ago
  No doubt.
pnw 7mo ago
You can buy eSIMs that aren't linked to your identity at https://www.phreeli.com/ https://www.phreeli.com/

I wonder if we can still buy burner phones for cash at Mondo Mart

SoftTalker 7mo ago

You can buy almost anything for cash.

helterskelter 7mo ago
Hell, I can get you a toe by three o'clock this afternoon -- with nailpolish.
- skirmish 7mo ago
  Your German girlfriend will not be happy about it. Give her "halbe Pfannkuchen"!

observationist 7mo ago

Differential identification means you can be singled out based on profiles. Even if you don't have any accounts, big tech companies still have shadow profiles, and those shadow profiles can be linked to your offline identity, such that everything you've done that's been recorded, and everything you've done in (temporal, physical, or digital) proximity to other people who do have accounts results in a record of activities. Sure, you can get a burner, but you have to make sure you never use it anywhere near anyone you know, that the sim is obtained anonymously, that you're never imaged by any of the ubiquitous cameras, etc. Merely having it powered on provides enough metadata to establish a shadow profile, and it's nearly impossible for a person to secure two separate identities. There's also the superman problem - the burner phone would only ever appear when anonymars is missing, and vice versa, creating a real and exploitable pattern if anyone like the FBI wanted to root around in your life. All they'd have to do is query which shadow profiles match the temporal gaps correlated with your disappearance from tracking. There's really no escaping it. The only fix is legislation - outright banning mass surveillance, with lethal corporate penalties and long prison terms for C-Suite responsible for violations. Short of that, we live in a world that is implicitly compromised and insecure unless you have nation state level resources.

anigbrowl 7mo ago
There's also the superman problem - the burner phone would only ever appear when anonymars is missing, and vice versa, creating a real and exploitable pattern if anyone like the FBI wanted to root around in your life. All they'd have to do is query which shadow profiles match the temporal gaps correlated with your disappearance from tracking. This is nonsense. By your logic, people go 'missing' any time they are not using a computer, whether they're reading a book, in the shower, or asleep in bed.
- orsorna 7mo ago
  It's not useful in a vacuum, but one of many degrees that can be combined to create a unique profile of you.
doomslayer999 7mo ago
[dead]

triceratops 7mo ago

I can't tell if these The Wire references are deliberate or a coincidence.

wmf 7mo ago
No doubt.

pnw 7mo ago

You can buy eSIMs that aren't linked to your identity at https://www.phreeli.com/ https://www.phreeli.com/