Sound proof box + faraday bag. It'd only be used for calls. I'd then have a separate phone that has wifi, GPS, and all the other location tracking de-soldered. It'd be my mp3 player, camera and everything else a phone is good for.
degoogled aosp with lineage os prepaid phone and my battery lasts almost a week. Lineage os for microg will be better for more people thou as this can break a lot of apps. In the end you realise how much the apps take of your info on your phone and send it to the mother ship I also run a mix of TOR VPN AND apps like Signal,briar, brax.me (messaging and calling and one social media ) Vsee (hippa compliant hospitals use this so no recording ) Glasswire and netguard (monitoring) Orbot ( tor VPN) Open board ( android keyboard that doesent send what you time to a learning machine) open source Protonmail and some others but thus is a great start. Also multiple emails one email for banking one for social media one for personal use its a lot less clutter trying to get important emails as you don't have junk from social media or bank credit card stuff in important emails
I have a PinePhone not ordered on my name, and i have a SIM ordered on a false name on a address of a empty house.. But i also still have a iPhone with a sub that is on my name tho.
But dude... you look a lot like a old school buddy when he was in his 20’s lol You even move your mouth the same way when you talk.. wow Do you know your dad? Maybe he lives here in the Netherlands haha
used in the context of avoiding unencrypted sms & voice it's better. Not perfect just better than using native cell services. Yeah telegram, imessage, and whatsapp kinda suck but they are just enough better than nothing at all.
@Ryan Perhaps because then they'd have to use tax (slave) dollars to actually BUY the data, however I doubt these UN subsidiary (dba) "government" alphabet agencies don't have the encryption keys, also? (Probably bought the software...) Interesting that Goggle is a subsidiary of "Alphabet..." and hires "intel insiders" from the NSA, etc.
Isn’t it a bad idea to buy a phone off of eBay? I have been tempted but then think about what malware could be loaded onto phone.? Just discovered your channel. Super great and important information. Knowledge is power. Thank You for doing this.
Just make sure the phone has not had its bootloader unlocked and then just factory data reset the phone. It will be good as new. Even if the bootloader has been unlocked, you just have to flash a custom recovery plus a fresh copy of android onto the phone yourself to be certain.
Thank you for sharing this important knowledge. I keep my phone in a faraday cage at home and I transfer it to a faraday bag when I go out. I also Put 2 layers of foil tape over the camera lens. I only use the phone when necessary/emergency. Faraday bags are available for purchase online, but some are expensive so I make my own. I also made faraday cages for my router and wifi to protect myself from EMF and RFID radiation.
The signal triangulation (location) problem is addressed by some secure phones, as this protects against devices like sti ng ra y and others: these secure phones have software that selects the SECOND best signal, meaning not the strongest, thus making it inaccurate in location and any new strong third party device that wants to snoop will not be selected by default ...
I agree, but the problem is that there is not such thing as a privacy phone. Degoogled phones will still track your location and the only thing to stop it is a faraday bag or hardware switches.
@@derekn5607 Thank Michael Faraday not me, he created it. Now we just need faraday pockets that close with a zipper. Two birds with one stone. Stuff falling out of your pocket and privacy!
Except you can't have privacy on an iphone and he doesn't mention that and shows a pic of an apple store as if you can use iphones and still retain your privacy. I'll keep watching. Maybe he mentions it in other videos.
You also need to have a phone without camera, as this can be enabled remotely and preferably an option to cut the power from the mic like the linux phones ...
Yea you need a phone without wireless radios no one was concerned about digital camera spying on you. Kind of defeats the point of having a mobile phone though.
@dagnysez3570 I suppose you could just put tape but it’s not convient if you want to actually use your phone camera. Every time you would need it you’d have to take the tape off and put it back on but who know if the tape will stick back on. Plus the adhesive could get stuck on the camera lens and the photos may not come out right. With a cover it comes with an easy slide to uncover and cover whenever you want without taking it off. But in the end it’s up to you if you want to put a sticker or just buy a cover which cost very little.
@@ThomasBrenton-pk8ggI did it’s great camera stickers fall off all of the time and the slider stays in place really well. There are clips that you can get too.
Other point: making just 2 calls, will allow the grid to come to a conclusion in terms of your identity based on these calls alone ! It is advised to throw in some 'fake' calls to your local pizzaplace or other companies just to talk for a few minutes to throw of the AI systems ...
Cellphones are neither secure nor anonymous. Neither is the internet. Neither of them were designed to be that way. What you can do is buy varying levels of security and anonymity by modifying the way you use them, but you can never perfectly secure or anonymize either of them.
You focus on triangulation but that's secondary to GPS. GPS cannot be turned off. Unless using Graphene OS. Yes, it may not work in buildings but that is not absolute. Instead of a burner phone. Use efani to hide ones identity and no more Sim swaps.
the most important part is phone model, especially regarding os. do not buy android or ios when you care about privacy and not being constantly tracked.
private phones can also be a rabbit hole of fighting data leakage. i think there’s an academic paper that studied what data is reported to apple. part of the telemetry data is what wifi access points are in the vicinity. this data can be used to correlate your actual identity based on location from your fake account identity. so, you might consider not using your phone at home. keep it in a faraday bag. something similar may be the case for android, so private mobile oses like graphene or calyx is suggested. there’s more levels to this once a private phone with a plan is acquired. operational security has to be maintained otherwise all of this may be for nothing.
The caveat with prepaid MVNOs is cell tower priority, and the MVNOs may have "unlimited" service, but under much more bandwidth restrictive terms. You'll still get service, but might not get the best performance at all times, though this is probably the tradeoff when looking for a more private option for having a cell phone.
For real privacy? Everything you said. Plus, regularly change phones and SIMS, and get a pager plan (yes, they still exist) for incoming calls. Take the phone out of the Faraday bag and use it when you need to.
@@lejoshmont2093 See, that's the nice thing about pagers. No Faraday bag needed. No malware, no tracking. Not from paranoia, but simply because I don't like being sold without my permission. And pagers don't get telemarketing and spam calls.
How about using a private phone without a cellular plan altogether, keep the phone on airplane mode, and only use public / personal wifi with a VPN? You can use a service to randomize the MAC
Pretty good idea although if you're going that far I would recommend not using personal wifi or wifi where you live. Get an Ethernet dongle and plug in at home. More ideally if possible forgo wifi when ever possible. If you're from the time before cellphones it probably wouldn't even be that hard to adjust to a landline cellphone. You could also route all the device traffic by connecting it to a physical Tor router.
what do you mean pre-paid sim cards aren't the obvious choice for a phone number? what do you mean most of people borrow their phones from their GSM provider instead of actually buying a phone?
Ok. Prepaid plans, even from a carrier, get lower priority than postpaid contracts. If a tower is busy, prepaid gets lower data rates or busy signals before contract plans. This is worse with MVNOs like Mint, they are prioritized below the actual carriers. There's a whole standard of cellular priorities vs service plans, invvluding two top tiers for first responders only.
You forgot something; if you contact a friend, you can be traced via _their_ contacts list. The incognito phone is still useful for various things, but only IF you never give your name to businesses who don't know you, or use credit cards to purchase via your SIM.
a problem is that mint hasn’t been available in any of the stores you mentioned. they are always sold out or never carry it at physical stores. you have to go to best buy and pay cash. you don’t have to buy the specific plan outright but can change the plan in the app once you have already activated an account. this is because many plans at best buy appear to be permanently sold out or only appear as an artificial black friday deal.
Is there a good alternative to Mint? Since it needs a Google account or Apple ID, that ruins it... unless there is a way to download the app without either.
@@Mr-E. I was thinking of creating a throwaway Google account from my work computer (while on VPN). It's probably not a perfect workaround, but it's what I've got so far. Would love to hear other solutions.
Purchasing a used phone has it's own drawbacks. If the previous user had somehow become a focus of any investigation, even without the users knowledge, then that IMEI is now connected to that. So while the odds are slim, it's indeed possible that the previous phone was being actively monitored, and in your attempts to make it private will throw flags. It's much better to buy new, with cash, to avoid this issue.
Dumb question, as I am still learning more about privacy/security... I got a pre-paid T-Mobile plan. Would that be any worse than a pre-paid Mint mobile plan that uses T-Mobile services?
I live in india And i pretty much have all the privacy i could (according to the video) I have a used unlocked iphone 6s A prepaid sim card And also a VPN and i also use duckduckgo and tor from time to time And i also use signal
Great tips. Unfortunately, I live in Brazil, and here is practically impossible for someone to get a cell phone without any kind of contract attached to some company, even if we acquire a prepaid SIM card.
Good thing about germany, we have a really bad cellular coverage that triangulating would probably not work since their would be at most one tower near you and since there are only 3 cellular operators in germany, its always a 33% gamble to get a connection :D Ok might be a bit exaggerated but in rural areas this is mostly the case.
Thaks a lot. Great video as always. Can they use the triangulation method even if you don't have a sim card in your phone? Can they use triangulation if you have the sim card in your pocket without the phone?
Here in Germany there is forced KYC to receive a sim card. I had to do the whole thing for my grandma and it was horrible. She could have never done it without me, it was really complicated. You had to download some random app and talk to a random polish person who speaks barely german. Then you have to hold you Passport or something like that into the camera bend it and do all kinds of stuff. Then my grandma hat to repeat her name to this person multiple times in the video chat and it took like 15 mins. The person working their was unhappy, we where unhappy and its just a horrible practise and useless imo. I mean ..... can you think of a communication service that doesn't require a phone number?? Well yes ofc. you can do that with basically anything. They think they are smart by doing this but forgot that there are more possibilities to communicate with someone......... And its all in the name of terrorism because terrorists only use their cell phone to communicate. This just makes me angry cause its so unnecessary and makes it almost impossible for older people to get a sim card.
Des ding is halt, des is net den Terroristen ihre schuld, sondern den Politikern ihre, ich schwöre dir des is einfach wieder nen mittel um UNS in Schacht zu halten, du denkst doch net ernsthaft Leute die Staatsfeindliche Gewalt Taten planen benutzen im ernst unverschlüsselte Anrufe und SMS, Terroristen sind zwar dumm wie Brot aber so dumm auch wieder net... wie du schon sagst es gibt andere Möglichkeiten zu kommunizieren und genau diese benutzen Terroristen zu 100% schon seit vor 2017... Naja was will man machen nh Deutschland halt, kannste in die tonne kloppen des Land
Hi Techlore! Another fantastic video, thank you! 😃👍👍👍 I have a request. It'd be really nice if you would create for us a video targeted at those of us whose identity "migtht already be exposed" to the big-tech, so to speak. In which case, is it still possible to "dilute" or "replace" the information that you have carelessly provided to the tech giants, and finally reach a point where it no longer matters if you have given them any data in the past or not? Would you have to delete all your online accounts, change all your phone numbers, delete pretty much everything, and basically start all over again? Or, do you just have to give up and carry on because it's too late, your data have already been harvested and there's nothing you can do about it. Not a lot of us have been "security & privacy concious" enough in the past 😨, and might be in a position where most of our personal information is already "in the wild" so to speak. A lot of us might just feel "it is too late for me ...son", as Darth Vadar once famously said. 😩😩😩 So, "Help me Techlore, you're our only hope". 🙏✨🌟😃
@@thenictime Thanks, I get your point. The problem is, I have a feeling the big tech algorithms "FLOCS" us with the attitude of "We do not forget, We do not forgive, Expect us". May be it truely is too late for me... and for many others on the interwebs. sob sob...
Thank you for writing that, I had the same exact question. Like how do I even know if my phone number is already tied to me. I've had it for a few years and although I'm not on a 2 yr contract I'm sure it's been linked to me somehow.
I'm 41 & haven't had a contract phone since the one I took out on my 18th birthday expired. It can be expensive upfront buying phones (I don't even bother with insurance) but I don't need this year's flagship every year. I'm not 007 or a criminal genius so my need for privacy is not life & death. I still value privacy & like to use signal messenger + obfuscated VPN.
I have a PinePhone not ordered on my name, and i have a SIM ordered on a false name on a address of a empty house.. But i also still have a iPhone with a sub that is on my name tho.
What phone do you recommend for e-mails? You can't open a mail box at Google or Microsoft without a phone number. Regarding privacy, never use a cell phone, only paid phone booth. Any movie will show how.
I like this but I can do you one better. Buy a satellite phone like a IsatPhone 2 satellite phone and use privacy dot com to buy it to retain you anonymity. You'll be giving up a lot of modern conveniences so your personal threat model is important; but it's not a smart phone so no apps to track you, it doesn't rely on cell towers so no one ping you're location, and everything goes through their satellite so you can't be tapped. Sat phones are basically build to keep big brother's eyes off of you. Also if you're an outdoor kinda person and get stranded in the middle of nowhere, it could literally save your life as you'll have coverage all over the world. More expensive but not by much and way more secure and anonymous than anything you mentioned here 🤷♂️
Simple answer librem 5. With Protonmail. Telegram. Wevpn and/or protonvpn. and/or mullvad-vpn. go-tenna mesh. bought with monero shipped to a random po-box without cameras. camera-cover. and portable white-noise-machine. faraday-phone-bag. Aka the ULTIMATE private and secure phone.
THANK YOU Techlore!!! You're my to go to to learn about technology in general. In addition, today I learned I'm buying my refurbished google free phone per your instructions, AND am checking out the links to your other videos on what search engine etc. to use for more incognito/privacy. I'm excited to make the happen. Would you consider being our personal tech wiz? Do you consider that for members? At present I'm a subscriber, and frequently pass on your expertise to my fam and friends plus post on SM. All the BEST Techlore 🙋🏼♀️🎉🌟 you're AMAZING!!!! SOOOOOOOO THANKFUL for YOU!!!!!
In U.K. and Germany, the problem is that those pre-paid sims have a limited life time. If you don't use the phone and top up the budget at least once a quarter, the number gets disconnected. And I use my phone maybe twice a year, not worth having any mobile at all, I really only have it in case I need to call emergency services or the RAC while away.
I've been considering getting a secondary phone/number. I was told in a call with T-Mobile that a prepaid plan would not require an ID. If that's the case, given that T-Mobile offers free video and music streaming that doesn't count against data, 10gb at $40/month is all I need. I can then pay for my plan in-person with cash
Yea but you have to download the app for the plan plus sign up for amazon ...so what, can you use a screen name for both of this also? And why watch this info video if I still have to check their website? I can just do that on my own without all the other obvious stuff...am I missing something???
Why hasn't someone just created a cloud emulator for us to log into easily from and overlay on phones running on prepaid data with an e-sim and all the data collection routed through whatever you want to enter into the cloud instance?
in Germany you can't buy any kind of cellular plan(even prepaid) without identifying yourself with your passport. I mean those laws make sense in terms of fighting criminality but privacy bye bye. Although I have to say that I don't really have an issue with that since the cellular providers are compellt to not share that data with anyone unless they are police and have a warrant.
do u rly think that's true? terrorist's will sneak around those laws and unethical hackers will just hack into tcom suppliers infrastructure and get the data anyway bc it's not rly well secured. And if ur German search "Mythos Richtervorbehalt".
I want a totally untraceable Sony phone fully encrypted for business purposes. And either a separate normal phone for personal reasons or have it all one phone. Is there a way to do this with a dual sim 5g phone and still use 2 sim cards and sd cards? I have an unlocked new Sony Xperia Pro I.
Could be location tracking avoid, with diferrent ROM system instead of android? Could you do a video like this one, but with different ROM operation system, that's open source, and ungoogled?
Great video as always Henry! I was wondering, is there any form or service that can provide a "phone number alias"? It bothers me a lot how easily we have to share such a sensitive information as our phone number.
I am not sure what you meaned, but if you don't want to use your phone number everywhere you can buy virtual numbers for sms verifications. Search buy virtual number or something, I'm living on a different country so that part is a little different here
Most prepaid services are using a larger company’s service. Mint uses T-Mobile for example, the service should be identical. Most websites will give you coverage maps so you can know before you buy!
@@techlore Any issues with Mint on Calyx OS? I saw one comment that they cant get the apn settings working. I have also had reception issues with both Verizon and T-mobile on Lineage OS on a Moto G7, but might be hardware compatibility issues with Lineage 17.1. Just got a Pixel 4a and was planning on flashing Calyx OS and using a Mint SIM, but want to be sure it will work well.
Airplane mode does nothing on iphones because it keeps the modem active and on android devices is there still function to call emergency services which needs the modem active only phones like the librem V or Pinehpone and Pinephone Pro can electrically turn off the modem
Unfortunately for me the price is cheaper under contract and the ability to use unlimited data hotspot without throttling is contract specific. I can quite happily chew through 100GB a month in mobile data so the prepaid is not viable.
Share your configurations below!
Sound proof box + faraday bag. It'd only be used for calls. I'd then have a separate phone that has wifi, GPS, and all the other location tracking de-soldered. It'd be my mp3 player, camera and everything else a phone is good for.
degoogled aosp with lineage os prepaid phone and my battery lasts almost a week.
Lineage os for microg will be better for more people thou as this can break a lot of apps.
In the end you realise how much the apps take of your info on your phone and send it to the mother ship
I also run a mix of TOR VPN AND apps like
Signal,briar, brax.me (messaging and calling and one social media )
Vsee (hippa compliant hospitals use this so no recording )
Glasswire and netguard (monitoring)
Orbot ( tor VPN)
Open board ( android keyboard that doesent send what you time to a learning machine) open source
Protonmail and some others but thus is a great start. Also multiple emails one email for banking one for social media one for personal use its a lot less clutter trying to get important emails as you don't have junk from social media or bank credit card stuff in important emails
I have a PinePhone not ordered on my name, and i have a SIM ordered on a false name on a address of a empty house..
But i also still have a iPhone with a sub that is on my name tho.
But dude... you look a lot like a old school buddy when he was in his 20’s
lol
You even move your mouth the same way when you talk.. wow
Do you know your dad? Maybe he lives here in the Netherlands haha
Firefox has a built in https only mode, in the bottom of privacy in preferences.
It is awful in Austria, since a couple years you are required to register your phone number with your passport! Even with prepaid SIM cards!
F
NANI?! Thats harder than Arnold
What if you can afford a phone?
@@FlipNdip579 what
@@samsam060402 The way it sounded was you'd need a phone number for a passport.
Faraday bag helps with keeping your home private concerning phones.
Anything with a radio that broadcasts is not private.
Use a land line. Write letters on paper and mail them the old fashion way.
That’s the way to go!
4:48 Only Signal and Matrix are truly private these days. Whatsapp is literally owned by facebook and the encryption is no longer end-to-end.
used in the context of avoiding unencrypted sms & voice it's better. Not perfect just better than using native cell services. Yeah telegram, imessage, and whatsapp kinda suck but they are just enough better than nothing at all.
@Ryan Perhaps because then they'd have to use tax (slave) dollars to actually BUY the data, however I doubt these UN subsidiary (dba) "government" alphabet agencies don't have the encryption keys, also? (Probably bought the software...) Interesting that Goggle is a subsidiary of "Alphabet..." and hires "intel insiders" from the NSA, etc.
Plus xmpp and threema
Matrix is terrible, don’t trust Matrix
Isn’t it a bad idea to buy a phone off of eBay? I have been tempted but then think about what malware could be loaded onto phone.?
Just discovered your channel. Super great and important information. Knowledge is power. Thank You for doing this.
Just make sure the phone has not had its bootloader unlocked and then just factory data reset the phone. It will be good as new. Even if the bootloader has been unlocked, you just have to flash a custom recovery plus a fresh copy of android onto the phone yourself to be certain.
Thank you for sharing this important knowledge. I keep my phone in a faraday cage at home and I transfer it to a faraday bag when I go out. I also Put 2 layers of foil tape over the camera lens. I only use the phone when necessary/emergency. Faraday bags are available for purchase online, but some are expensive so I make my own. I also made faraday cages for my router and wifi to protect myself from EMF and RFID radiation.
The signal triangulation (location) problem is addressed by some secure phones, as this protects against devices like sti ng ra y and others: these secure phones have software that selects the SECOND best signal, meaning not the strongest, thus making it inaccurate in location and any new strong third party device that wants to snoop will not be selected by default ...
Where can I get one of these???
I'm sceptical got a brand name? Wouldn't be the first time governments injected "secure" phones into the market. Kinda sounds like a honeypot.
@@lejoshmont2093 Whinny the Xi Jinpooh really loves his honey pots.
Hey love the channel and love that you are out here teaching people how to keep their life private
I agree, but the problem is that there is not such thing as a privacy phone. Degoogled phones will still track your location and the only thing to stop it is a faraday bag or hardware switches.
@@FlipNdip579 Faraday bag is great idea, to go along with a the advice suggested in this video! I didn't think about that. Thanks.
@@derekn5607 Thank Michael Faraday not me, he created it.
Now we just need faraday pockets that close with a zipper. Two birds with one stone. Stuff falling out of your pocket and privacy!
@@FlipNdip579 Agreed!
Except you can't have privacy on an iphone and he doesn't mention that and shows a pic of an apple store as if you can use iphones and still retain your privacy. I'll keep watching. Maybe he mentions it in other videos.
Wow! Going to have to implement all of these ASAP. Thank you for this content. Now if we can just keep UA-cam from mining our info...
You also need to have a phone without camera, as this can be enabled remotely and preferably an option to cut the power from the mic like the linux phones ...
Yea you need a phone without wireless radios no one was concerned about digital camera spying on you. Kind of defeats the point of having a mobile phone though.
Wouldn’t it be easier just to buy phone camera covers
@@ThomasBrenton-pk8ggwhy buy a cover when you can put a piece of tape or a sticker over it?
@dagnysez3570 I suppose you could just put tape but it’s not convient if you want to actually use your phone camera. Every time you would need it you’d have to take the tape off and put it back on but who know if the tape will stick back on. Plus the adhesive could get stuck on the camera lens and the photos may not come out right. With a cover it comes with an easy slide to uncover and cover whenever you want without taking it off. But in the end it’s up to you if you want to put a sticker or just buy a cover which cost very little.
@@ThomasBrenton-pk8ggI did it’s great camera stickers fall off all of the time and the slider stays in place really well. There are clips that you can get too.
Other point: making just 2 calls, will allow the grid to come to a conclusion in terms of your identity based on these calls alone ! It is advised to throw in some 'fake' calls to your local pizzaplace or other companies just to talk for a few minutes to throw of the AI systems ...
Cellphones are neither secure nor anonymous. Neither is the internet. Neither of them were designed to be that way. What you can do is buy varying levels of security and anonymity by modifying the way you use them, but you can never perfectly secure or anonymize either of them.
If you want mostly secure communication talk to yourself in your head. We have maybe at least a decade where that is safe.
@@lejoshmont2093
You cannot even do that in UK. If you pray silently, you can be arrested, no kidding!
You focus on triangulation but that's secondary to GPS. GPS cannot be turned off. Unless using Graphene OS. Yes, it may not work in buildings but that is not absolute.
Instead of a burner phone. Use efani to hide ones identity and no more Sim swaps.
OMG, I thought that my carrier only offered a contract! Thanks for making me think about this stuff.
In Sweden, soon you must show ID to buy a prepaid cell plan so your id is tied to the number
Please make a video about spyware and stalker apps in phone. How to find out if it is secretly installed and how to remove it.
Prior to 2000, if you wanted to speak to somebody you knocked on their door and if they weren't in you went home. My phone bill was about 20c a year.
Thanks for the info!! Planning on switching soon!!!
the most important part is phone model, especially regarding os. do not buy android or ios when you care about privacy and not being constantly tracked.
Always informative. Well done man 🤜🤛
private phones can also be a rabbit hole of fighting data leakage. i think there’s an academic paper that studied what data is reported to apple. part of the telemetry data is what wifi access points are in the vicinity. this data can be used to correlate your actual identity based on location from your fake account identity. so, you might consider not using your phone at home. keep it in a faraday bag. something similar may be the case for android, so private mobile oses like graphene or calyx is suggested. there’s more levels to this once a private phone with a plan is acquired. operational security has to be maintained otherwise all of this may be for nothing.
Got a link to the paper?
The caveat with prepaid MVNOs is cell tower priority, and the MVNOs may have "unlimited" service, but under much more bandwidth restrictive terms.
You'll still get service, but might not get the best performance at all times, though this is probably the tradeoff when looking for a more private option for having a cell phone.
For real privacy? Everything you said. Plus, regularly change phones and SIMS, and get a pager plan (yes, they still exist) for incoming calls. Take the phone out of the Faraday bag and use it when you need to.
If you're rocking a pager it's probably best to just leave it in your faraday bag unless it is an emergency.
@@lejoshmont2093 See, that's the nice thing about pagers. No Faraday bag needed. No malware, no tracking. Not from paranoia, but simply because I don't like being sold without my permission. And pagers don't get telemarketing and spam calls.
How about using a private phone without a cellular plan altogether, keep the phone on airplane mode, and only use public / personal wifi with a VPN? You can use a service to randomize the MAC
Pretty good idea although if you're going that far I would recommend not using personal wifi or wifi where you live. Get an Ethernet dongle and plug in at home. More ideally if possible forgo wifi when ever possible. If you're from the time before cellphones it probably wouldn't even be that hard to adjust to a landline cellphone. You could also route all the device traffic by connecting it to a physical Tor router.
@@lejoshmont2093 thank you very much for that
what do you mean pre-paid sim cards aren't the obvious choice for a phone number?
what do you mean most of people borrow their phones from their GSM provider instead of actually buying a phone?
Ok. Prepaid plans, even from a carrier, get lower priority than postpaid contracts. If a tower is busy, prepaid gets lower data rates or busy signals before contract plans.
This is worse with MVNOs like Mint, they are prioritized below the actual carriers. There's a whole standard of cellular priorities vs service plans, invvluding two top tiers for first responders only.
You forgot something; if you contact a friend, you can be traced via _their_ contacts list.
The incognito phone is still useful for various things, but only IF you never give your name to businesses who don't know you, or use credit cards to purchase via your SIM.
In Indonesia you have to input the identity number in order to get cellular services
a problem is that mint hasn’t been available in any of the stores you mentioned. they are always sold out or never carry it at physical stores. you have to go to best buy and pay cash. you don’t have to buy the specific plan outright but can change the plan in the app once you have already activated an account. this is because many plans at best buy appear to be permanently sold out or only appear as an artificial black friday deal.
Also you have to install their app from one of the 2 app stores, which means having either a Google account or an Apple ID.
Is there a good alternative to Mint? Since it needs a Google account or Apple ID, that ruins it... unless there is a way to download the app without either.
@@Mr-E. I was thinking of creating a throwaway Google account from my work computer (while on VPN). It's probably not a perfect workaround, but it's what I've got so far. Would love to hear other solutions.
Purchasing a used phone has it's own drawbacks. If the previous user had somehow become a focus of any investigation, even without the users knowledge, then that IMEI is now connected to that. So while the odds are slim, it's indeed possible that the previous phone was being actively monitored, and in your attempts to make it private will throw flags. It's much better to buy new, with cash, to avoid this issue.
Dumb question, as I am still learning more about privacy/security...
I got a pre-paid T-Mobile plan. Would that be any worse than a pre-paid Mint mobile plan that uses T-Mobile services?
I live in india
And i pretty much have all the privacy i could (according to the video)
I have a used unlocked iphone 6s
A prepaid sim card
And also a VPN and i also use duckduckgo and tor from time to time
And i also use signal
Great tips. Unfortunately, I live in Brazil, and here is practically impossible for someone to get a cell phone without any kind of contract attached to some company, even if we acquire a prepaid SIM card.
Playing catch up on your video as I've been moving around a lot. Priceless info, Henry. Thanks.
This was really cool information. Thank you
Good thing about germany, we have a really bad cellular coverage that triangulating would probably not work since their would be at most one tower near you and since there are only 3 cellular operators in germany, its always a 33% gamble to get a connection :D Ok might be a bit exaggerated but in rural areas this is mostly the case.
Need info on what prepaid sims do not require ID for activation in US today. So far they don't seem like a slam dunk to find.
Thaks a lot. Great video as always. Can they use the triangulation method even if you don't have a sim card in your phone? Can they use triangulation if you have the sim card in your pocket without the phone?
Yes they can use triangulation even if you take the SIM card out.
@@Inajasap What if the phone is powered off?
Here in Germany there is forced KYC to receive a sim card. I had to do the whole thing for my grandma and it was horrible. She could have never done it without me, it was really complicated. You had to download some random app and talk to a random polish person who speaks barely german. Then you have to hold you Passport or something like that into the camera bend it and do all kinds of stuff. Then my grandma hat to repeat her name to this person multiple times in the video chat and it took like 15 mins. The person working their was unhappy, we where unhappy and its just a horrible practise and useless imo. I mean ..... can you think of a communication service that doesn't require a phone number?? Well yes ofc. you can do that with basically anything. They think they are smart by doing this but forgot that there are more possibilities to communicate with someone......... And its all in the name of terrorism because terrorists only use their cell phone to communicate. This just makes me angry cause its so unnecessary and makes it almost impossible for older people to get a sim card.
Des ding is halt, des is net den Terroristen ihre schuld, sondern den Politikern ihre, ich schwöre dir des is einfach wieder nen mittel um UNS in Schacht zu halten, du denkst doch net ernsthaft Leute die Staatsfeindliche Gewalt Taten planen benutzen im ernst unverschlüsselte Anrufe und SMS, Terroristen sind zwar dumm wie Brot aber so dumm auch wieder net... wie du schon sagst es gibt andere Möglichkeiten zu kommunizieren und genau diese benutzen Terroristen zu 100% schon seit vor 2017...
Naja was will man machen nh Deutschland halt, kannste in die tonne kloppen des Land
Imo a cell phone is one of the worst ways to communicate.
Degoogled phone without any private data on it for calls only, and no wifi. Second device for wifi only data without a sim card.
Hi Techlore! Another fantastic video, thank you! 😃👍👍👍
I have a request.
It'd be really nice if you would create for us a video targeted at those of us whose identity "migtht already be exposed" to the big-tech, so to speak.
In which case, is it still possible to "dilute" or "replace" the information that you have carelessly provided to the tech giants, and finally reach a point where it no longer matters if you have given them any data in the past or not?
Would you have to delete all your online accounts, change all your phone numbers, delete pretty much everything, and basically start all over again?
Or, do you just have to give up and carry on because it's too late, your data have already been harvested and there's nothing you can do about it.
Not a lot of us have been "security & privacy concious" enough in the past 😨, and might be in a position where most of our personal information is already "in the wild" so to speak.
A lot of us might just feel "it is too late for me ...son", as Darth Vadar once famously said. 😩😩😩
So, "Help me Techlore, you're our only hope". 🙏✨🌟😃
Start over again
@@thenictime 😨😭😂
@@viperzero8501 it's just most of things become outdated after some years our tastes evolve
@@thenictime Thanks, I get your point.
The problem is, I have a feeling the big tech algorithms "FLOCS" us with the attitude of "We do not forget, We do not forgive, Expect us".
May be it truely is too late for me... and for many others on the interwebs. sob sob...
Thank you for writing that, I had the same exact question. Like how do I even know if my phone number is already tied to me. I've had it for a few years and although I'm not on a 2 yr contract I'm sure it's been linked to me somehow.
Great links and suggestions, like going to the local convenience store to buy prepaids. Sometimes I forget about those things.
Better yet, go to a NOT local store.
And if worth it, don't use the phone near home.
Turning on developer mode and turning on the option to turn all sensors off, does that solve the triangulation problem?
I'm 41 & haven't had a contract phone since the one I took out on my 18th birthday expired. It can be expensive upfront buying phones (I don't even bother with insurance) but I don't need this year's flagship every year. I'm not 007 or a criminal genius so my need for privacy is not life & death. I still value privacy & like to use signal messenger + obfuscated VPN.
I have a PinePhone not ordered on my name, and i have a SIM ordered on a false name on a address of a empty house..
But i also still have a iPhone with a sub that is on my name tho.
Henry please make vids about r recommend channels / sites for prods: cases, clips, private phones, tech that allows to shut off microphones, etc.
This was nice to watch, although I would love to see something like simplelogin but for phone numbers
What phone do you recommend for e-mails? You can't open a mail box at Google or Microsoft without a phone number. Regarding privacy, never use a cell phone, only paid phone booth. Any movie will show how.
don't do email
@@EinApoStein Sure, except one case - a disposable email.
Is there a cheap international sim without id?
In the Philippines everyone uses a prepaid sim card and I've convinced all of my friends to use signal What a W
I like this but I can do you one better. Buy a satellite phone like a IsatPhone 2 satellite phone and use privacy dot com to buy it to retain you anonymity.
You'll be giving up a lot of modern conveniences so your personal threat model is important; but it's not a smart phone so no apps to track you, it doesn't rely on cell towers so no one ping you're location, and everything goes through their satellite so you can't be tapped. Sat phones are basically build to keep big brother's eyes off of you. Also if you're an outdoor kinda person and get stranded in the middle of nowhere, it could literally save your life as you'll have coverage all over the world. More expensive but not by much and way more secure and anonymous than anything you mentioned here 🤷♂️
Hey Henry can you do a. 'Q&A' video. I would like to see how many people watch your videos from different countries.
Simple answer librem 5.
With
Protonmail.
Telegram.
Wevpn and/or protonvpn. and/or mullvad-vpn.
go-tenna mesh.
bought with monero shipped to a random po-box without cameras.
camera-cover. and portable white-noise-machine. faraday-phone-bag.
Aka the ULTIMATE private and secure phone.
What is the benefit of WiFi only phoning? Does this not allow your ISP to eavesdrop and data mine all your calls?
THANK YOU Techlore!!! You're my to go to to learn about technology in general. In addition, today I learned I'm buying my refurbished google free phone per your instructions, AND am checking out the links to your other videos on what search engine etc. to use for more incognito/privacy. I'm excited to make the happen. Would you consider being our personal tech wiz? Do you consider that for members? At present I'm a subscriber, and frequently pass on your expertise to my fam and friends plus post on SM. All the BEST Techlore 🙋🏼♀️🎉🌟 you're AMAZING!!!! SOOOOOOOO THANKFUL for YOU!!!!!
You can use free wifi when u need to browse the internet if you have a vpn so you use cell data as little as possible.
Try using a Faraday pouch. Easy deal.
Here in the Uk it’s easy to buy a phone and sim for cash .. still got 2g
As well so old phones work no probs
@techlore. What about paying pre paid cards online with MONERO. Or in store with cash. What's better.
stores will have cctv, online no matter how much u try, sth of u will be tracked
good info thx
Thanks for sharing this 💙
Most cities have local shops with 2nd hand phones...
Sadly in Italy and other European countries is mandatory using your identity card to buy a prepaid SIM.
I never get my phone's through a contract I've always bought them outright by the manufacturer it's just easier and less of a headache
Excellent! thanks.
In U.K. and Germany, the problem is that those pre-paid sims have a limited life time. If you don't use the phone and top up the budget at least once a quarter, the number gets disconnected. And I use my phone maybe twice a year, not worth having any mobile at all, I really only have it in case I need to call emergency services or the RAC while away.
Call the Speaking Clock or an info service once every few months.
Thankyou
I've been considering getting a secondary phone/number. I was told in a call with T-Mobile that a prepaid plan would not require an ID. If that's the case, given that T-Mobile offers free video and music streaming that doesn't count against data, 10gb at $40/month is all I need. I can then pay for my plan in-person with cash
Amazing. I like your videos very much. Keep making videos like that 👌👌
Yea but you have to download the app for the plan plus sign up for amazon ...so what, can you use a screen name for both of this also? And why watch this info video if I still have to check their website? I can just do that on my own without all the other obvious stuff...am I missing something???
Why hasn't someone just created a cloud emulator for us to log into easily from and overlay on phones running on prepaid data with an e-sim and all the data collection routed through whatever you want to enter into the cloud instance?
Great idea. Will see if anyone has done this.
Certo
Ena
Efani
in Germany you can't buy any kind of cellular plan(even prepaid) without identifying yourself with your passport. I mean those laws make sense in terms of fighting criminality but privacy bye bye. Although I have to say that I don't really have an issue with that since the cellular providers are compellt to not share that data with anyone unless they are police and have a warrant.
do u rly think that's true? terrorist's will sneak around those laws and unethical hackers will just hack into tcom suppliers infrastructure and get the data anyway bc it's not rly well secured. And if ur German search "Mythos Richtervorbehalt".
Saying Telegram is E2EE is very dangerous. Telegram is not by default E2EE. Which means most people don't use E2EE with Telegram.
Good idea, thanks
Does connecting by mobile Hotspot weaken the security/privacy?
I want a totally untraceable Sony phone fully encrypted for business purposes. And either a separate normal phone for personal reasons or have it all one phone. Is there a way to do this with a dual sim 5g phone and still use 2 sim cards and sd cards? I have an unlocked new Sony Xperia Pro I.
2:02 cex also do 2nd hand phones. Which could work well for loading up a custom rom.
Could be location tracking avoid, with diferrent ROM system instead of android? Could you do a video like this one, but with different ROM operation system, that's open source, and ungoogled?
Great video as always Henry! I was wondering, is there any form or service that can provide a "phone number alias"? It bothers me a lot how easily we have to share such a sensitive information as our phone number.
hushed or sudo. I haven't done it myself yet.
I am not sure what you meaned, but if you don't want to use your phone number everywhere you can buy virtual numbers for sms verifications. Search buy virtual number or something, I'm living on a different country so that part is a little different here
Whether regular Samsung phone with SMS be blocked with orbot VPN?
Unfortunately, in Germany even for prepaid cards you need to give your personal details. :-(
How good of a service ate these carriers? I’m in Los Angeles.
Most prepaid services are using a larger company’s service. Mint uses T-Mobile for example, the service should be identical. Most websites will give you coverage maps so you can know before you buy!
@@techlore T-Mobile is my carrier right now! I’ll definitely be looking into MINT today. Much appreciate you
@@techlore Any issues with Mint on Calyx OS? I saw one comment that they cant get the apn settings working. I have also had reception issues with both Verizon and T-mobile on Lineage OS on a Moto G7, but might be hardware compatibility issues with Lineage 17.1. Just got a Pixel 4a and was planning on flashing Calyx OS and using a Mint SIM, but want to be sure it will work well.
How to root the whole os throught tor ? Vpn I understand but Tor is just for the navigator, not for the apps right ? Thks
Airplane mode does nothing on iphones because it keeps the modem active and on android devices is there still function to call emergency services which needs the modem active only phones like the librem V or Pinehpone and Pinephone Pro can electrically turn off the modem
Anyone know of any good pre-paid cell phone plans for U.K? I am currently on Smarty which use Three network. Wondering if there is better.
🥰 GREAT JOB
How do you renew mint plan without putting your credit card information?
What do you do for data? Do the prepaid plans include it?
What about Google Fi .....is that a decent phone plan that I can use?
If you think you can't afford a phone up-front just look at how much a phone actually costs you over the life of your contract.
It's all about will,if you want,you'll get it anyway.
Unfortunately for me the price is cheaper under contract and the ability to use unlimited data hotspot without throttling is contract specific. I can quite happily chew through 100GB a month in mobile data so the prepaid is not viable.
If you're in a static location it sounds like it's time to fire up airodump
@@yfs9035 lol it wouldn't be very interesting, just a lot of streaming.
In europe you can't buy a sim card without registering with an official ID
If you use an anonymous email, use gift cards, and shipped elsewhere. Would Amazon be a resource for obtaining a phone?
No, last I bought a phone from Amazon, it was of a different version and not a uk based phone.
In India mostly prepaid plan is used. Cheap & best.
What about AdGuard pro and it’s DNS filter?
Thanks.
Yep, i brought my iPhone 11 and have it unlocked because I can use it everywhere. Yep prepaid is awesome.