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Comment by bix6 | Hacker News Reader

Most of us need cellphones so are we just out of luck?

You need a cellphone, but you really don't much on it. Browser, email, a chat app or three, banking, navigation, public transport/parking. Most of these have good privacy-minded options or are usually not the biggest offenders. It's games, ecommerce, social media and such that do the most spying, and you can absolutely live without those apps.

Does turning off data (mobile+wifi) when not actually using any app help at all (on Android)? Will apps still be able to phone home in the background? Or will they just fill up a huge cache with data and bulk-transfer it the next time the phone is online?

Maybe at least disconnecting from the internet while not using it will make location tracking slightly more difficult?

Yes? I assume. If I’m international and am not using my US plan they’d better not be using my home plan in background and I’ve never seen any evidence they were.

Is that true though? I know the banks sell my info to third parties.

I love games. Is there no way to safely block their network calls?

>I love games. Is there no way to safely block their network calls?

Use a VPN?

Or another phone, anyway best gaming phone ain't the best phone/smart device for other parts of our lives

If you love games that much, why not get a dedicated gaming device? One that you use purely for gaming and don't expose your non-gaming accounts or info on. There's no reason why the entertainment device and the personal communication device need to be the same one, right? Just like there is no reason why you should log in with your old hotmail account on your Xbox just because they are both MS.

Ideally it wouldn't even have an enabled web browser.

If you find yourself unable to do this, that's a sign that "love" is actually addiction which means the upside for actually decoupling is probably a lot bigger than you imagine if you disregard the idea.

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