I first thought this might be about eSIM; the electronic SIM that doesn't require a physical SIM card.
Your phone sees this as normal SIM and connects to cell towers in the same way, so not sure what this achieves?
Living without a SIM card
261–270 of 300 posts
Re: Living without a SIM card
#262If it's for privacy, wouldn't a burner phone make more sense? Otherwise leaching off everyone around you to save a bit of money... seems like it would get old pretty quickly
The 2 device solution seems best. One device for connectivity and essentials, the other device for personal stuff.
Prepaid sims are so cheap, can't see how this is about saving money.
Re: Living without a SIM card
#263My smartphones NEVER have SIM cards in them—as I'm not that stupid so as to become just another easy target of surveillance capitalism! Instead, they connect by Wi-Fi to external portable routers that do have SIMs installed in them. As such, these phones can connect to the internet but cannot be used be used to make telephone calls. Thus, there cannot be any cross-reference between my actual telephone number and my i…
DuckDuckGo isn't an anonymous search engine. It's owned by the same people who own Google. And Microsoft. And Intel. And Facebook. etc....etc. Likewise, what firmware is running on that phone's baseband chip? Your plans aren't foolproof, but you're on the right path.
It's not a matter of being completely anonymous, if that concerned me then I'd never use the internet. After all, ISPs know who I am and where I'm located so anonymity isn't the issue.
What is at issue is the wholesale collection of our data by Big Tech without our full permission and proper disclosure, and that includes the end uses to which it is put and who has possession of it. The other key issue is the atrocious way governments have abrogated their responsibilities in these matters.
I agree with you that firmware on the phone's baseband chips cannot be trusted (nor any other binary blob)—nor can Intel's secretive and all-pervasive AMT on its PC/CPU chips for that matter. (In my opinion, surveillance via embedded firmware together with what actually goes on in firmware and cloaked from view by the compilation process is serious matter that all too few bother to consider important—remember the VW emissions affair and you'll get my gist.)
That said, I accept that some 'spurious' data does escape through my systems—even LineageOS has Google addresses in its kernel—but that's not the point which is essentially that I am effectively obfuscating and disrupting the collection of my data to the point where what's left is essentially worthless to others. A check of the data and IP addresses that pass through my routers shows that my efforts have made an enormous difference (in effect, I stop well in excess of 99% of unwanted traffic by using a combination of quite different technologies). Combine this with the fact that I use multiple different browsers which also report randomized browser user agent IDs to reduce browser fingerprinting, and it turns out what I've done is quite effective. For instance—except for when I'm testing, etc.—I never see ads on my mobiles or desktop PCs and those that I've accidentally seen have never been target at me as a direct consequence of my circumstances or interests.
However, the bigger issue for all of us is that all-encompassing surveillance, whether it's by the State and or Big Tech, reduces both our freedoms and autonomy to act as humans. That's why we must resist it.
Re: Living without a SIM card
#264My smartphones NEVER have SIM cards in them—as I'm not that stupid so as to become just another easy target of surveillance capitalism! Instead, they connect by Wi-Fi to external portable routers that do have SIMs installed in them. As such, these phones can connect to the internet but cannot be used be used to make telephone calls. Thus, there cannot be any cross-reference between my actual telephone number and my i…
Best comment in the thread. Thanks for keeping it real, chief.
Thank you Sir.
Re: Living without a SIM card
#265Earlier quoted context omitted.
This thread is insane... How did we go from someone borrowing others' phone on occasion to these ideas of Social Darwinism? At this rate, someone is going to suggest euthanasia within two more comments tops. For most people, lending their phone won't even incur marginal costs considering the trend towards flat rates. If you find yourself being annoyed by such situations, note that these feelings are bound to make you…
I find it hard to take people entirely seriously when in order for them to live their pseudo-ascetic lifestyle, they require other people around who haven't taken that step. The OP is claiming the way he uses his tech gives him a cost saving and encouraging people to follow suit, when if everyone did that then he wouldn't be able to do the things he does any more. So it's not a sustainable lifestyle, because it leech…
If a large enough group of people followed his lead it would cause us to design our systems differently with the SIM-less in mind.
Re: Living without a SIM card
#266What 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?
A good point that I've not made in my post above. When people learn that I've no SIM card in my smartphones they inevitably remark why bother having one. The fact is smartphones are excellent computers and I use them as such all the time in applications where cellular modems aren't necessary.
Re: Living without a SIM card
#267Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is really hard to do. I don't live off the grid by any means - there's a million ways to contact me, e.g. text message, calling, Signal messages, emails, etc. However, I don't use Whatsapp in a country where the vast majority of people does. I'm fine with missing things if people don't feel like using any of the methods I have to get in touch with me. However, instead of either not bothering or using one of the…
Depending on how deep you want to go down the rabbit hole, you could bridge WhatsApp to Matrix using the web client and whatsapp running in an emulator - https://www.matrix.org/blog/2019/02/26/bridging-matrix-with-... Not a solution for even most people unless you're really into Matrix and running your own servers though. (I bridge WhatsApp, but use a physical phone to do so)
And then take it a step further with something building on matterbridge[1], which has libs to "bridge between mattermost, IRC, gitter, xmpp, slack, discord, telegram, rocketchat, steam, twitch, ssh-chat, zulip, whatsapp, keybase, matrix and more".
Re: Living without a SIM card
#268To 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?
Isn't Starbucks "Free" WiFi a joint venture between Starbucks and Google where you have to agree to them collecting your browsing data in order to use their "free" service?
Re: Living without a SIM card
#269I envy the OP. Unfortunately since September 2019 living without SIM card became (practically) illegal in EU. > most online payments above €30 to go through an extra level of verification such as entering a code received via a text message. [2] Most banks unwisely chosen SMS as Strong Customer Authentication providing little choice to customers. https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/payment-services-psd-2-directi... [2] http…
I live in Germany, and while I need a smartphone to get the code for my online banking access, it doesn’t require a SIM card or a phone number.
Re: Living without a SIM card
#270I envy the OP. Unfortunately since September 2019 living without SIM card became (practically) illegal in EU. > most online payments above €30 to go through an extra level of verification such as entering a code received via a text message. [2] Most banks unwisely chosen SMS as Strong Customer Authentication providing little choice to customers. https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/payment-services-psd-2-directi... [2] http…
I live in Germany, and while I need a smartphone to get the code for my online banking access, it doesn’t require a SIM card or a phone number.
that's not much better tho.