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Comment by giantg2 | Hacker News Reader

So they say to turn of location permissions and stuff, but what about the network carrier? Any privacy focused cell services that are reasonably priced?

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Don't think so - they're all very expensive because cell networks are expensive. You can get a burner phone, only use it as a tethered internet connection for your laptop which runs VPN software.

Phreeli seems to be the privacy promoting MVNO with the cheapest options. Not sure if it’s been audited or what its guarantees are, but anything is probably better than the big carriers.

Thanks! This looks like what I want

Cape is another option, supposedly a more complete tech stack of their own

Yeah, I saw them, but they are pretty expensive for me. The rotating IMSI and two additional numbers seems cool. But I think for me if it were anything that sensitive I would use an E2E encrypted call/text service since Cape calls and texts are only M2E encrypted.

Just not retaining everything forever and selling it seems like a good start for my personal use.

Turn off the phone entirely.

Most have internal batteries and are still "on" to a certain extent unless the battery is completely discharged.

Use one of the few phones with hardware kill switches or removable batteries.

If you cover your phone with an antielectrostatic bag it can't communicate; that is a Faraday cage.

Since people around you will think you are also wearing a tinfoil hard, you had better stick to the phones with hardware switches as sibling comment mentions

Most of those bags are total BS

Seems easy to verify with an iPhone. Put it in the bag, transport the phone, look it up on Find My.

Even easier, put any phone in the bag, call it. Does it ring? IME, yes.

It's "on" enough to detect the activity needed to wake it back up. But will a powered-off phone still be pinging cell towers or making WiFi requests?

Yes, that's how Find My works.

I get that anything emitting can be tracked and stuff. I'm looking to take a baby step where I'm at least not having every possible detail recorded and sold. That Phreeli recommendation from another user seems like exactly what I want (paired with other things like a VPN of course).

Silent.link, jmp.chat

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