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> surveillance state How do you suppose mobile phones are meant to work without subscriber info? > I haven't really gotten really into this Clearly.

• kodoman 1mo ago
  I think the argument is more the IMEI side of things, one might naively expect that they could could simply change SIM and that would change ones identity and that anything like an IMEI could be easily configurable like how a MAC is on a NIC is.
  • pudgywalsh 1mo ago
    IMEI is needed to allow them to identify the device's capabilities, and know if it's been reported stolen.
    • kodoman 1mo ago
      Sure and of course surveil in general. To advertise capabilities one does not need a unique identifier it's clear that part of the rational for the development is to allow for control over the devices by telco's and/or the state, in a way that link layer for other networking technology did not. A while ago I brought a pixel second hand my intention to put a custom rom on it but it was locked by the carrier entirely and though unlocked the carrier simply decided to not allow their pixels to be flashed. All of that to say that obviously the decisions made where not entirely for simply because of the technical reality or for reasons beneficial to the users and lots of things that are hostile to privacy and real ownership of the device.