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posted by takyon on Friday February 03 2017, @08:05PM   Printer-friendly
from the security-through-obscurity dept.

Not that long ago you could buy a prepaid cell phone with cash, an unlocked cell phone with cash, and a sim card with cash, without having to show any ID, in the USA. As far as I know this is now impossible. Every store now requires ID when purchasing these things. Is there any way to obtain a cell phone that respects my privacy and therefore security in the US any longer? Are these rules about showing ID state-specific? I'm curious if anyone else has recent experience trying to do what used to be the norm. Obviously any sim card or phone tied to an id, credit card, etc., offers no privacy. Thanks!

takyon: People IRL and on IRC are telling me that no, you do not necessarily need an ID to obtain a prepaid cell phone. You might want to get it months in advance of doing anything with it so that store CCTV footage is erased, and you might want to put it in a faraday cage (several layers of foil can also be used) before it is anywhere near your house or primary identity-tracked phone(s). In fact, you could do that in the parking lot of the place you buy it. Here are some related stories:

How Two Escaped Killers Could Completely Disappear Off the Grid
Bill Aims to Identify U.S. Prepaid Cellular Users
Thailand Plans to Track All SIM Cards Sold in the Country


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Justin Case on Friday February 03 2017, @08:46PM

    by Justin Case (4239) on Friday February 03 2017, @08:46PM (#462587) Journal

    That phone remains tied to an unknown person until the first time you use it. Then there's a link from your phone to whoever you called. Two to three more calls and they're starting to build out your unique social network graph. Maybe you need a random dialer to muddy the waters about which calls are real.

    For my use case I don't care that they know the phone is being used by me. I mean there's no getting away from that anyhow. I just want a phone with a whitelist of numbers that are allowed to call (or text) me. Anyone else makes the attempt: I never know. It doesn't ring; it doesn't collect voice mail. And most assuredly it doesn't cost me for the privilege of receiving SPAM.

    Anyone know where to find that?

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by jelizondo on Friday February 03 2017, @09:16PM

    by jelizondo (653) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 03 2017, @09:16PM (#462592) Journal

    I use Mr. Number [google.com] and it mostly works as advertised. Apparently some numbers have a code or something that allows them to make it past the filter, but the phone rings once and then they are gone. About 99.9% are caught and filtered, so it is good enough.

    You can decide to keep a history of calls/SMS or not, so you can 'rescue' numbers that are from friends or whatever.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by Arik on Friday February 03 2017, @09:49PM

      by Arik (4543) on Friday February 03 2017, @09:49PM (#462602) Journal
      He asked for a whitelist he could administer and you link a blacklist someone else administered.

      It may work well for you but it's nothing at all like what he's asking for.
      --
      If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
      • (Score: 4, Informative) by jelizondo on Friday February 03 2017, @10:17PM

        by jelizondo (653) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 03 2017, @10:17PM (#462618) Journal

        I use Mr. Number. You CAN administer your own listing, i.e., any number not in your contacts or address book is redirected to voicemail or just terminated, your choice, leaving a record or not. You can (or not) mark unwanted numbers a number of ways (spam, debt collectors, etc.) to help the community.

        What more administration do you want?

        • (Score: 2) by Arik on Friday February 03 2017, @10:31PM

          by Arik (4543) on Friday February 03 2017, @10:31PM (#462626) Journal
          Not more. Less.
          --
          If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
          • (Score: 3, Insightful) by requerdanos on Friday February 03 2017, @11:21PM

            by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 03 2017, @11:21PM (#462653) Journal

            Less.

            Choosing not to install such an app would provide the "less" you seek via features already not present in the phone itself.

        • (Score: 2) by Justin Case on Friday February 03 2017, @11:28PM

          by Justin Case (4239) on Friday February 03 2017, @11:28PM (#462659) Journal

          I'm not trying to speak for Arik but here's what I would like:

          1. I admin a whitelist of my friends. Potentially, anyone I call may be easily added to that list.

          2. That's it. No other callers/texters can penetrate my universe. At all.

          • (Score: 2) by jelizondo on Saturday February 04 2017, @04:36AM

            by jelizondo (653) Subscriber Badge on Saturday February 04 2017, @04:36AM (#462749) Journal

            So if the 'whitelist' is called your Address / Contact Book, you have a problem? It must be called a 'whitelist'?

            Anyone NOT on your address/contact book CAN be banned to: your choice: 1) voice mail or 2) terminated (i.e. no voice mail, no nothing)

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 03 2017, @09:39PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 03 2017, @09:39PM (#462596)

    Or the latter only with audio/text encryption and a remote burner phone.

    If data caps were bigger there would be no excuse for using voice/text anywhere, replaced by email/im/voip+assorted data services. Far more anonymous when done correctly too.

  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday February 03 2017, @09:59PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 03 2017, @09:59PM (#462605) Journal

    Don't use a burner phone to call anyone in your real social graph. Use it for something else that you would not use your primary phone for.

    For example, prank calls asking to page someone of a certain name.

    Or use it for other porpoises.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
  • (Score: 2) by jdavidb on Friday February 03 2017, @10:07PM

    by jdavidb (5690) on Friday February 03 2017, @10:07PM (#462610) Homepage Journal

    You can get pretty close to that with Google Voice [google.com].

    --
    ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
    • (Score: 3, Informative) by Justin Case on Friday February 03 2017, @10:15PM

      by Justin Case (4239) on Friday February 03 2017, @10:15PM (#462616) Journal

      I appreciate the offer of potentially useful information. However I tripped over this, from your link:

      "When people in this group call you" ... select the phones that you want them to ring when they call.

      That makes it sound (to me) like Friend A calls Google Voice Number X, and because Friend A is on my whitelist, the call gets forwarded to Number Y, which is my true phone number.

      Meanwhile, what stops asshats from random robo-dialing Number Y?

      Telemarketers have so severely chummed the water that the phone is almost not a useful communications tool any more. S/N ratio lower than 1%.

      • (Score: 2) by jdavidb on Saturday February 04 2017, @01:17AM

        by jdavidb (5690) on Saturday February 04 2017, @01:17AM (#462687) Homepage Journal
        In my case, Number Y is a cell phone and almost nobody knows the number. I get almost no calls at all directly to it.
        --
        ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 03 2017, @10:08PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 03 2017, @10:08PM (#462611)

    Two to three more calls and they're starting to build out your unique social network graph.

    That's why you only use the burner phone to call the other members of the transsexual furries foot-fetish club.

    Amirite guys?

    ...Anyone?

  • (Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Friday February 03 2017, @11:02PM

    by Magic Oddball (3847) on Friday February 03 2017, @11:02PM (#462644) Journal

    It's not a separate phone, but I use a 'perpetual-demo' version of Embware "Blocker" pretty much the way you describe. It's not pretty or trendy-looking, but it's the sort of option-packed program that appeals to people like me who want to be able to customize the hell out of it.

    In case you want to read about it, the official page (which now shows it costing about $5) is:
    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=embware.phoneblockerPRO [google.com]

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 03 2017, @11:54PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 03 2017, @11:54PM (#462671)

    What you are looking for is called "blocking mode" on Windows phone... Just select the option and restrict contact. However you have to allow Microsoft to scan your incoming texts and trust that they won't share the info.

  • (Score: 2) by bart9h on Saturday February 04 2017, @03:02PM

    by bart9h (767) on Saturday February 04 2017, @03:02PM (#462845)

    I just want a phone with a whitelist of numbers that are allowed to call (or text) me.

    Sanity [google.com] does that, and more.