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Comment by Zigurd | Hacker News Reader

Seriously though, if you are going to take a phone to a protest, buy an Android used at a bodega and don't put anything personal on it. Expect to lose it.

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Even then, most burner phones have serial numbers they can track to the sale.

I've bought a fair number of test devices. Nobody at a corner shop or mall phone repair kiosk has ever ID'ed me or kept track of the IMEI of a device I bought.

Interesting. My understanding was that IMEI could be traced to what vendor it was sold to, then they could pull the purchases and either see the card used to buy it, or find the video when the transaction occurred. Guess it depends on whether there is a method to pin which the exact phone without needing to scrub the purchases records.

You are significantly overestimating the level of recordkeeping by random sellers of used and/or ultra-cheap phones. Manufacturers, major retailers, and carriers may keep this information, but bodegas and street vendors certainly do not.

This is certainly approaching murder investigation levels of effort by law enforcement, but I don't think it's ridiculous to imagine a POS system being used that keeps transaction records for a year or two.

Pay cash and wait 90+ days for video records to roll over.

But, at least in the country I live in, this is excessive for a typical protest burner.

plenty of say disposable people to buy disposable phones for you.

This is literally a plotline in the "the wire".

There are so many links in that chain that need to line up, from the manufacturer keeping track of it to the distribution system to keep track of what batch goes where to the vendor keeping track of what phone IMEI is sold when or to who. Even if all those link up you need to get at the video within the rotation time for their video storage or link to their financial transaction data.

I would not be surprised if it is still as easy to evade as shown in the show (and as easy to get wrong).

New burner phones, probably, but one could exit from a flea market or 2nd hand shop with a €100 bagful of phones not linked to anyone, at least until one puts personal data inside them or creates a potential association by using the same phones along personal ones on the same WiFi/cell tower/position or calling the same numbers.

US is one of the few nations where you can buy a phone and sim card without exposing your ID. You can even wear a full face mask when you do it if you're paranoid.

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