189 sats \ 4 replies \ @03365d6a53 23 Jun 2023 \ parent \ on: Graphene Fixes This tech
if you are not in airplane mode, you are constantly transmitting your IMEI (device identifier) to nearby cell towers
as soon as your identity is linked to the device your entire movement history / habits are known
swapping sims won't help once you are linked to the device. which can happen by simply walking past a camera, with facial recognition, or a myriad of other ways.
don't use phone numbers / GSM networks, unless it's a data sim on a throwaway vpn dongle.
which can happen by simply walking past a camera, with facial recognition
How would this work? How would they link the SIM card with the face?
data sim on a throwaway vpn dongle
What is a throwaway dongle? Any recommendations?
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If your phone is not on airplane mode, then the device is constantly transmitting it's unique identifier (IMEI), time, and location, regardless of the sim.
So if anyone with that data (literally anyone, as it can be bought on darknet) wants to track an individual, just catch that person on a camera, and triangulate with the IMEIs in that location at that time. It will only take a few recordings to find the IMEI, and boom, you can now track that person anywhere (follow the IMEI). Every sim card you put in that phone can be reasonably associated with the owner of the device (because when you use the sim, you transmit both the IMEI and the IMSI / sim identifier).
My recommendation would be to purchase a GL 750 travel router (mudi) and install Blue Merle software (2 commands).
You can then switch the IMEI every time you switch the sim (ie, monthly) so the most you would typically reveal would be a months worth of tracking data.
Also, 100% of your traffic will be over VPN so the provider will know nothing about your browsing habits / destinations. And Blue Merle will also wipe the connection logs from the router.
Alternatively, just buy a cheap dongle and throw it away. The downside is, you won't have any VPN on the dongle, so you better hope your phone isn't leaking outside the VPN (Apple is guilty of this)
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Thanks for the recommendations.
If your phone is not on airplane mode, then the device is constantly transmitting it's unique identifier (IMEI), time, and location, regardless of the sim.
Is this true with Graphene? I didn't get that impression from their docs
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yes
even without a sim, it will ping, if airplane mode is not on
graphene really need to enable airplane mode by default, to avoid the pings on startup
to be clear, those "pings" are normal cellular operations, it's just they always contain your identifiers
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