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A local sim card may not stand out but they'd be able to know some more info i.e. phone number due to it not using Roaming. Also difficult to set up in a NoKYC way.
Also there is nothing wrong with standing out if they cannot see, but note that if you somehow did something that linked your identity they will probably be able to keep correlating it is you forever.
As for triangulation it is unlikely to happen unless you was under an LE investigation. It isn't much of a threat unless you make it one or if you think the possibility is just a bad thing
Your location data could be investigated by anybody, not just LE
Triangulation is less likely to happen as it's slow/expensive, but the process is becoming easier, faster, and cheaper - and the data, more available
There just needs to be a reason, any reason, for someone to bother to look at you
This article is 4 years old already: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/19/opinion/location-tracking-cell-phone.html
Fortunately I don't live in the USA
Not being in the USA doesn't mean this could not happen either in a more closed environment, in the UK this type of stuff isn't permissible but in the past Police and the press were often getting into the bedsheets with private investigators who would then buy information to sell news stories. Such as tapping the cellphone of a murdered child to get voicemails - this is the one that broke the camel's back.
I'm a national and there is so many investigations/backgrounds to it that I still do not have a full scope of the events myself.
Here is a good background on that, even for how much it is - it is out of date: https://brown-moses.blogspot.com/2012/06/hackgate-for-beginners-whos-who-key.html
Edit: Wrong link, this is the REAL index: https://brown-moses.blogspot.com/2012/05/hackgate-for-beginner-index.html
Every day I learn more about the USA's unrestricted market for personal data. The fact the USA's business market is just so open about this is crazy to me. Great read.
Nah it's actually quite easy to get a nokyc SIM card where I live.
So for example a 911-type call where I doxxed myself could be used to link my identity to the behavior and used to predict my identity in the future based on that behavior patterns. Interesting
yes! also true
zero transmissions is definitely the way forward
there are online services for sms verification
you can make voice/video calls with simplex or element/matrix
we don't need phone numbers any more and we should resist the systems that insist on them
We're luckily seeing an increase in the independence of phone numbers as 2FA options. A lot of professional services / work-related use an app or TOTP now so my reliance on a phone number ended about a year ago.
I would feel like in the far future phone numbers would be obsolete and be replaced with different system, but cellular networks suck in making any meaningful progression so I'll likely be dead before something like that happens.
Unfortunately cutting out a few of those systems will severly impact my social life and the tradeoff is not worth it. I could get a second phone maybe
Thank you for the detailed explanation!
Yes, I would of course use a VPN.
Agreed that not connecting would reduce tracking but I'm trying to balance convenience with privacy.
What is the problem of standing out if they can't link it to an identity or see the data?
I understand they might use cell towers to get an approximate location of any SIM card. Is it for this reason that it's better not to stand out?
So using a local nokyc SIM card would be better. But VPN users are quite unique too, I suppose.