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Burner Phone 101

rebeccawilliams.info

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Re: Burner Phone 101

#2
While I like the sentiment of the article, I think most people are not aware of how hostile baseband firmwares are implemented on most SoCs that phones come with. Usually the cell tower handshakes that make you trackable can't be put off, meaning the modem will run in sleep mode even when you are in airplane mode (which is kinda funny considering the dangers of air travel, right? Right?).

Are there actually smartphones without an IMEI and with a Wi-Fi card only, preferrably not a Broadcom one?

Re: Burner Phone 101

#3

While I like the sentiment of the article, I think most people are not aware of how hostile baseband firmwares are implemented on most SoCs that phones come with. Usually the cell tower handshakes that make you trackable can't be put off, meaning the modem will run in sleep mode even when you are in airplane mode (which is kinda funny considering the dangers of air travel, right? Right?). Are there actually smartphon…

You might be looking for an android based Media player device.

But they are likely not ideal for the use case...

Re: Burner Phone 101

#4
I have the feeling that whenever you are on an airport (and maybe railway stations too) they cross your IMEI with the boarding pass info. I believe that in the UK police use some middle-man towers, which name I have forgotten, to collect as much data as possible.

Re: Burner Phone 101

#5

While I like the sentiment of the article, I think most people are not aware of how hostile baseband firmwares are implemented on most SoCs that phones come with. Usually the cell tower handshakes that make you trackable can't be put off, meaning the modem will run in sleep mode even when you are in airplane mode (which is kinda funny considering the dangers of air travel, right? Right?). Are there actually smartphon…

Can you please give any sources? While it sounds plausible and interesting it's nothing more than a wild conspiracy theory without some background information.

Re: Burner Phone 101

#6
In many countries you need a valid government ID document to activate a mobile service which means burners do not really exist in those places.

Unless you bought a pixel, graphene’d it and then paid a homeless person to activate a pre-paid data only sim which you would top up with vouchers paid in cash and used a von and international voip service…

A lot of effort though

Re: Burner Phone 101

#7

In many countries you need a valid government ID document to activate a mobile service which means burners do not really exist in those places. Unless you bought a pixel, graphene’d it and then paid a homeless person to activate a pre-paid data only sim which you would top up with vouchers paid in cash and used a von and international voip service… A lot of effort though

Just track the hardware. A couple of days of normal usage and should be able to assign a 99% probability on you being the owner of that phone.

Re: Burner Phone 101

#8

In many countries you need a valid government ID document to activate a mobile service which means burners do not really exist in those places. Unless you bought a pixel, graphene’d it and then paid a homeless person to activate a pre-paid data only sim which you would top up with vouchers paid in cash and used a von and international voip service… A lot of effort though

> which means burners do not really exist in those places.

This is very wrong. In Germany you can go to any shady kiosk in a big city and buy a pre activated SIM card invariably registered to some Arabic or Pakistani name.

You can buy it in cash. Completely untraceable if you take care of CCTV.

Re: Burner Phone 101

#9

In many countries you need a valid government ID document to activate a mobile service which means burners do not really exist in those places. Unless you bought a pixel, graphene’d it and then paid a homeless person to activate a pre-paid data only sim which you would top up with vouchers paid in cash and used a von and international voip service… A lot of effort though

[dead]

Re: Burner Phone 101

#10

While I like the sentiment of the article, I think most people are not aware of how hostile baseband firmwares are implemented on most SoCs that phones come with. Usually the cell tower handshakes that make you trackable can't be put off, meaning the modem will run in sleep mode even when you are in airplane mode (which is kinda funny considering the dangers of air travel, right? Right?). Are there actually smartphon…

Can you please give any sources? While it sounds plausible and interesting it's nothing more than a wild conspiracy theory without some background information.

Baseband SoC running their own OS independent from Android/iOS and staying asleep (while still listening for incoming signals) is very much no longer in conspiracy theory territory and more an established fact now. I don't have the source at hand but it's in one of the standards. And the purpose is very clear: LEA like Interpol must be able to locate any IMEI at any point if in tower range, regardless of the power state of the "main" OS
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