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use tor, brave, vpn whatever. use prepaid unregistered sim. get online when you want, live :-) or just cut off you leg to fix your toe.
Getting a prepaid unregistered SIM is no longer possible in an increasing number of countries. I think most of Europe requires identification to buy a prepaid SIM.
> …it's the only thing which has prevented me from having to continually make international calls from a friends phone By relying on other people it is possible to do without many things. However, unless you have other ways of signaling sufficient status or wealth (such as being a digital nomad living abroad in a lower income country), people you continuously rely on for essentials might start treating you with a lit…
When I travel overseas, if I can’t get a cheap SIM and data plan, I’m living for days trying to find public WiFi. Colombia has lots of free WiFi in parks, for example. We should be doing this everywhere.
Also, many countries now require public hotspots to verify the user by getting them to receive an SMS. In some countries it even has to be a local number, because they have compulsory SIM registration, so requiring a local number lets them tie the Internet usage to an identity.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My sister’s former boyfriend used to carry a phone without a SIM. His mom ended up calling my sister or our landline to check up on her son. It was annoying AF. Feel free to live off the grid, but please make sure you don’t leech off of those around you.
> make sure you don’t leech off of those around you I think that's a toxic attitude. Picking up the phone for someone else every now and then is really not a big of a hassle. Obviously I don't know the whole situation, but in general I do think that one should be ready to do such minor favors for another human being without calling them a leech.
In fact, only 33 years ago my parents had to call the neighbours 3 doors further to call my aunt to notify her (and my grandparents who happen to be visiting her) of my birth.
Although, I admit as someone with a speech impediment, I absolutely loath using the phone. But it's a necessity even as a software developer. But nothing as annoying as having to pick up the phone, only to hear that it was (effectively) the wrong number and they needed someone across the room...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My sister’s former boyfriend used to carry a phone without a SIM. His mom ended up calling my sister or our landline to check up on her son. It was annoying AF. Feel free to live off the grid, but please make sure you don’t leech off of those around you.
> His mom ended up calling my sister or our landline to check up on her son. It was annoying AF. What you call "annoying AF" was reality for many many years, and yet people were not constantly annoyed..
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Perhaps other than tracking concerns, I'm totally not convinced with the reasoning. Tracking is not an issue, if you keep your phone in airplane mode (wifi and bluetooth can be enabled on most phones, but mobile network stays disabled), or if you just remove the sim card, and put it back, on those rare occasion when you need it (so you don't have to bother other people)
If you have wifi turned on then what's to stop you being tracked. I imagine Google Maps can track you using a combination of GPS and WiFi, as well as working out your likely route between locations for periods you're out of contact.
A connection exposes you to surveillance, and yes, it's worse with SIMs, but having WiFi on just adds a little latency to the same thing. Public Routers that you're discovering do the same thing. I had thought this was the entire point of iOS devices randomizing their MACs when scanning available networks (no idea if this ever got shipped with Android devices).
I am probably in the "nutty" quadrant when it comes to concerns about tracking, surveillance concerns, and online privacy, but I also don't really like needlessly inconveniencing myself just to undermine the entire purpose of why the inconvenience is necessary in the first place. Your phone is always talking -- SIM card or not. I'm not even sure modern non-smart phones (flip revivals and such) are wifi free.
Such protections are a good ideal, but a lot of people have an unrealistic idea of the threat actors they're trying to protect against.
> …it's the only thing which has prevented me from having to continually make international calls from a friends phone By relying on other people it is possible to do without many things. However, unless you have other ways of signaling sufficient status or wealth (such as being a digital nomad living abroad in a lower income country), people you continuously rely on for essentials might start treating you with a lit…
My sister’s former boyfriend used to carry a phone without a SIM. His mom ended up calling my sister or our landline to check up on her son. It was annoying AF. Feel free to live off the grid, but please make sure you don’t leech off of those around you.
It's like German getting out of nuclear power generation but then buying nuclear power from Czech and France, where power plans are literally at the German border.
One major advantage is the impact on phone battery life - partly because various services aren't repeatedly pinging over the mobile network (especially in "notspots"), WiFi tends not to burn through battery. And partly because it tends to change your behaviour to do more focused things (the phone isn't constantly trying to distract you as it often can't, so you don't then waste time and power on these distractions).…
> …it's the only thing which has prevented me from having to continually make international calls from a friends phone By relying on other people it is possible to do without many things. However, unless you have other ways of signaling sufficient status or wealth (such as being a digital nomad living abroad in a lower income country), people you continuously rely on for essentials might start treating you with a lit…
My sister’s former boyfriend used to carry a phone without a SIM. His mom ended up calling my sister or our landline to check up on her son. It was annoying AF. Feel free to live off the grid, but please make sure you don’t leech off of those around you.