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Living without a SIM card

habd.as

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Re: Living without a SIM card

#231

Post by icebraining »

Erlich_Bachman wrote: post #90
dathinab wrote: post #88

My First reaction was that it sounds awesome and I want to try it for a view month. Then I realized that most German delivery services require a phone number and email address (like when you order a new shelf or phone or computer or ...). Then I realized that the messenger I use to communicate with my family bases identity on the phone number (not my choice, but nothing I can easily change). Then I realize that my ma…

> Then I realized that the messenger I use to communicate with my family bases identity on the phone number It is only required upon registration or a change of a phone. Most messengers don't require (nor really have a way of figuring out) whether you have the same simcard in the phone, or whether you have a simcard in it at all.

In fact, I used to use Whatsapp on a WiFi-only tablet. The Simcard was on a featurephone that didn't have any support for installing apps.

Re: Living without a SIM card

#232

Post by icebraining »

keverets wrote: post #89
paper-boat wrote: post #15

I've also tried going SIM-less for a few years. Wifi hotspots are frequently around you rarely find yourself in a situation needing a data plan. But the main problem is 2FA many services force you to use now. Going without a data plan is wonderful, but every now and then, having a couple minutes are SMS services is great.

For the US and Canada, there is JMP.chat which can be used to 2FA over SMS without a SIM. Uses standard XMPP so can be used from a computer or phone while on WiFi. There are other proprietary services which can do the same for no monetary cost (usually lots of advertising and tracking, though).

Of course, that means you're giving "Denver Gingerich and others" full access and control over the number and channel used to receive unencrypted authentication tokens.

Re: Living without a SIM card

#233

Post by icebraining »

ryukafalz wrote: post #77
Ayesh wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> SMS 2FA is a joke tho. Yes, everyone knows. But it's better than nothing.

Not always. If the provider can be social engineered into granting you access to the account after proving access to that number then I’m not sure “better than nothing” is that solid.

Of course, that means it's not 2FA, just 1FA.

Re: Living without a SIM card

#234

Post by icebraining »

joshlk wrote: post #44

What the point? It’s so much hassle for no reason. If you want to be not dependent on something then don’t use a smart phone. But having a smart phone without a SIM seems the worse of both worlds.

Why? Smartphones are just pocket-sized computers. Does a computer really need a cellular modem to be useful?

Re: Living without a SIM card

#235

Post by icebraining »

madamelic wrote: post #105
Shalle135 wrote: post #66

He mention the risk of having stuff injected in the header while being connected to an isp. But doesn’t care about public hotspots? Personally I would rather trust a couple ISP’s than random hotspots.

Nor the fact that they recommend using free services that monetize through ads, especially call and text providers. Any free service should ring major, major alarms for any one advocating for privacy.

On the other hand, any paid service must be tracking you, at least for billing purposes, whereas you might be able to reduce the tracking that free services do.

Re: Living without a SIM card

#236

Post by NotSammyHagar »

IGotThroughIt wrote: post #230
njitbew wrote: post #11

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.

You don't seem too impressed by those that make the choice to live off the grid...

It's great if you choose to do that. But if everyone else has to compensate to deal with your choices, like parents can't reach the person so they call their friends, you aren't really living off the grid.

Re: Living without a SIM card

#237

Post by NotSammyHagar »

selectodude wrote: post #226
Nextgrid wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[citation needed] When was the last time you chose your coffee shop based on whether the WiFi was offered?

Yesterday.

Every coffee shop doesn't have wifi apparently. I wouldn't go to a coffee shop without wifi.

Re: Living without a SIM card

#238

Post by NotSammyHagar »

ryukafalz wrote: post #77
Ayesh wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> SMS 2FA is a joke tho. Yes, everyone knows. But it's better than nothing.

Not always. If the provider can be social engineered into granting you access to the account after proving access to that number then I’m not sure “better than nothing” is that solid.

It's potentially worse than nothing because you can steal someone's sim card and then use that to reset their account password. This is because (as in almost every company that uses text messages for 2fa) you use the sms to authenticate the reset.

Re: Living without a SIM card

#239

Post by NotSammyHagar »

saint_angels wrote: post #165

What if mobile operator can give you a fixed mobile number, and periodically changing ones, that forward SMS/calls to fixed one? Give fixed number to relatives, variable to fb. Would you pay for this service?

Probably. But the whole thing is, I don't want every service to use my mobile number to track me as I register for my grocery card frequent customer (10 cents of lettuce), I want that to be anonymous. Instead it's not, they must be centralizing that. I want something like a virtual sms provider on my phone that (1) protects my privacy (ha), (2) hands out virtual sms numbers for services. It knows that at say costco I'm sms number 1234, and at safeway I'm sms number 456. I use the app on my phone to manage this. Another user on this service gets a different number at safeway than I do (but it's unique for them). Because there aren't an infinite number of these, the numbers the service has get randomly shared among the users. So someone else would eventually get 456 for a service that use, but it's not "me".

Re: Living without a SIM card

#240

Post by NotSammyHagar »

Causality1 wrote: post #125

>The feeling of moving around without your whereabouts being constantly beamed into a database can feel quite liberating. Hate to break it to you buddy but you're still being tracked and your database updates every time you connect to wifi. Frankly you're being tracked much more precisely than I am with my GPS and wifi turned off.

Not true if your phone randomizes your mac address. Comes automatically on my phone. The next level is services on your phone logging in an saying "hey this is fred", you have to block that. Which thing were you referring to?
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