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Living without a SIM card

habd.as

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Re: Living without a SIM card

#191

Post by guidance »

madeofpalk wrote: post #101
upofadown wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strikes me as a feature. Who really wants to be judged as a person by what they own rather than who and what they are?

But it's not what they own, it's what they impose on others. The implication here isn't that they're being judged for not having a phone (with a SIM card), and that they're constantly relying and leaching from others. That can be annoying, and people tend to not like annoying people?

> 'But it's not what they own, it's what they impose on others.'

But I haven't imposed anything on anyone. It's society--or rather, a certain loud, vocal, and extremely selfish segment of society--which is attempting to impose something on me.

It speaks volumes about the mentality of such people that they somehow think I'm imposing on them, because they're 'forced' to think and plan ahead a little bit if/when they desire to contact me, rather than me being instantly available at their beck and call 24/7/365.

> 'they're constantly relying and leaching from others. That can be annoying, and people tend to not like annoying people?'

Exactly my reasoning for purposely disconnecting from those who always have to be joined at the hip with their digital devices 24/7/365, and who insist that I need to be also, for their convenience.

Re: Living without a SIM card

#192

Post by Nextgrid »

dangus wrote: post #122

To me, the price paid to a cellular provider is actually preferable to relying on other people's WiFi networks. Using someone else's WiFi isn't a security advantage, it's the opposite. You're bumming off of someone's network and not even paying them - so who knows what their motivations might be. Who knows if the network that the SSID claims to be is actually that network. Is Starbucks Free WiFi actually run by Starb…

Exactly this.

The only reason public Wi-Fi is a thing in this day and age is marketing & advertising tracking. Venues don't deploy it out of the goodness of their hearts, they do so because the data they collect from it exceeds the cost of deploying and operating it.

Another issue is that most public Wi-Fi is provided by a few companies offering it "as a service" to the venue so these companies can track you across different venues by your MAC address.

Trading off mobile data for public Wi-Fi for "privacy" is stupid and counter-productive. You're trading off a company that might occasionally be nasty (depends on the region - carriers selling granular location data like in the US wouldn't fly in Europe for example) to companies whose entire businesses is to be nasty.

Re: Living without a SIM card

#193

Post by Nextgrid »

sandworm101 wrote: post #127
dangus wrote: post #122

To me, the price paid to a cellular provider is actually preferable to relying on other people's WiFi networks. Using someone else's WiFi isn't a security advantage, it's the opposite. You're bumming off of someone's network and not even paying them - so who knows what their motivations might be. Who knows if the network that the SSID claims to be is actually that network. Is Starbucks Free WiFi actually run by Starb…

>> Is Starbucks Free WiFi actually run by Starbucks or is it a malicious router placed in the same vicinity? Both. The Starbuck Free WiFi is also a malicious router. All routers should be seen as malicious. That threat model is why we have secure websites. That's why VPNs are always a good idea, or Tor if you are really worried. But even then, those routers too must be deemed untrustworthy. At no point should one eve…

The entire Internet is based on routers aka middlemen. Even your VPN provider is a middleman.

If I had to choose, I'd trust a known compromised access point that doesn't know my identity over Yet Another VPN provider to whom I paid money and gave valid billing details.

Both are shady, at least the first only gets small bits of traffic that happen to be unencrypted here and there and doesn't have my identity and can only snoop when I'm at the location of the AP, the other one has my valid identity and billing details, e-mail address and happens to snoop on me all the time I have the VPN on regardless of my physical location.

Re: Living without a SIM card

#194

Post by xorcist »

koolba wrote: post #178
ddalex wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean? How were they forced to use a number they didn't want? Why would they care if a number they don't what get disabled?

> Why would they care if a number they don't what get disabled? If you gave it as a security contact number to a financial institution you’d care if it was disabled.

Especially since the number will generally be recycled and given to someone else ...

Re: Living without a SIM card

#195

Post by Nextgrid »

wtmt wrote: post #40
kiloreven wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The BanID SIM-application has to be installed over the air and activated through online banking. It's bound to one physical SIM, so an attacker would need to get into the online banking in the first place to reinstall the SIM app onto the new card. I believe the auth keys are stored on the SIM as part of this solution, and regenerated every time it's reactivated, invalidating the existing SIM.

How does this actually work on something like iOS, which I believe is a lot more restrictive and may not allow access to the SIM except through carrier services (which are in turn susceptible to attacks, including bribes, social engineering, etc.)?

iOS supports STK, which allows the SIM to ask the phone to draw rudimentary UIs and ask for user-input. It would work just as well as on a dumb phone.

Re: Living without a SIM card

#196

Post by hsitz »

chewz wrote: post #139
thefounder wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't blame the EU just yet. 1. EU didn't force the banks to use SMS 2. EU is aware of the privacy/security issue of SMS and is planning to actually ban using SMS otp as a form of strong auth https://www.zdnet.com/article/german-banks-are-moving-away-f...

I wasn't blaming EU (I am not in a habit of bashing EU) and I am not saying this is completely bad law. I am just observing the reality on the ground.

As I understand your point it has absolutely nothing to do with it being illegal to not have a SIM card. Your point is simply that it is impractical not to have a SIM card because that makes it difficult to do bank transactions. Big difference, and using 'illegal' in this context is highly misleading.

Re: Living without a SIM card

#197

Post by bryanrasmussen »

ferzul wrote: post #112
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

exactly the original comment was make sure not to leach, and someone else thought it was a toxic attitude, and I don't think it is too toxic an attitude - because there are people who are leaches after all.

But there's being a leach, and there's trying to cope given a moral-philosophical decision not to use a phone. And you're not distinguishing them.

Yes but there was the original comment which suggested that it was not nice to suggest not to be a leach, because that was a little bit much to assume, so I provided a counterexample where that was a reasonable assumption.

Normally I would not expect, given that thread of conversation, that I should have to explain that my example was not meant to be a universal condemnation of anyone not having a sim card in their phone.

Re: Living without a SIM card

#198

Post by guidance »

hu3 wrote: post #183
jhabdas wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correction. Your life is there.

Most of us. And it's by choice due to convenience.

My decision to permanently disconnect from your ilk has nothing to do with convenience. All your ilk ever cares about is convenience--which is your biggest weakness. You don't think look at things from a bigger perspective, but are always focused narrowly on what's easiest.

Some of us have principles also. Yes, we know very well that having principles and living by them annoys your type, especially when the very existence of and our defense of said principles necessarily call the legitimacy of your entire mode of 'living' into question.

When in the end you inevitably lose said cultural battle, just remember: it wasn't us who decided to attack your lifestyle in the first place.

It takes a special kind of obnoxious tool to expect that they should be able to reach anyone they want at any moment, 24/7/365, and to be annoyed if said person doesn't make that possible for them.

Re: Living without a SIM card

#199

Post by cproctor »

Getting rid of my SIM card is attractive to me for financial and political reasons, but it would not be compatible with my loved ones' expectations that I be reachable in an emergency. Here's a compromise I have been thinking about; I wonder if anyone has experience making it work (or knows why it won't) on an unlocked iPhone 6:

    - Buy a pay-as-you-go SIM card with support for SMS and data, but no voice, for when I'm not on WIFI. 
    - When I am on WIFI, use VOIP for calling, and SMS and data as usual.
Possible challenges/questions I need to research more:

    - Will iPhone permit a SIM card without voice?
    - Can I receive SMS via WIFI when connected and via the burner SIM otherwise?
    - What service should I use for VOIP when connected, and for accepting voicemails when not connected?
    - I know Apple overlays its iMessages over SMS (which causes terrible headaches when someone switches from iPhone to Android, and no longer receives iMessages). How should I manage this?

Re: Living without a SIM card

#200

Post by detaro »

guidance wrote: post #198
hu3 wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of us. And it's by choice due to convenience.

My decision to permanently disconnect from your ilk has nothing to do with convenience. All your ilk ever cares about is convenience--which is your biggest weakness. You don't think look at things from a bigger perspective, but are always focused narrowly on what's easiest. Some of us have principles also. Yes, we know very well that having principles and living by them annoys your type, especially when the very exis…

You are arguing against something completely different than the subthread is about, while being condescending about it.
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