I’ve gotten prepaid sims for things but obviously that’s not really a feasible method for your main life phone.
it would help to know jurisdiction/market area because that really affects the options, especially because that’s a rapidly changing landscape right now. some places, prepaid SIMs + cash work well enough, other places it’s better to go with giftcards or prepaid debit cards etc. yet other places there’s definitely no good options to do it. it takes a lot of effort, and you have to remember that you need to consider that any app or service you log into on that phone may end up identifying you against the SIM card, so you need to be really careful in your usage! i hope you find an option that works! :)
I recall hearing a story about law enforcement identifying an otherwise-anonymous phone by other phones that pinged the same cell towers at the same times. Essentially, the person had two phones on them, so they were able to uniquely identify the individual based on the shared location history of the two devices.
So there’s that, too, assuming my memory isn’t just some CSI bullshit. (It seems reasonable that this attack vector is technologically possible, though, and it may not matter if it’s legal if the identification technique isn’t used as evidence in court.)
I believe this was used to some degree in the case of the alleged serial killer Rex Heuerman
Reminds me of this doc I watched a couple weeks ago.
TLDW; psyco travelled across the country to kill his mom, then drove back. He bought a burner phone at the start of his trip, but kept his normal phone with him the whole time. The cops were able to track both devices as they each connected to the same cell towers while traveling together from the west coast, to the east coast, and back again.
where i live, you can buy a sim card that you can then charge by buying codes on kiosks. no identity needed, all cash
They have your identity the moment you put the sim in the phone. The phone have unique identifiers that are recorded when sold.
Buy the phone used and/or with cash. And never put any SIM card in it that can be linked back to you or someone you know.
That would require law enforcement to obtain the recording and have a reason to do so
I mean, yeah? If I’m buying anonymous phone credits, the police probably has a reason to go looking for me.
It might be worth looking again at pay-as-you-go. Here in the UK at least, there are some ‘bundle’ plans that are not actually that much more expensive than a contract. Topping up with a voucher once a month is a bit inconvenient but not too bad. You
I don’t know to what extent the phone companies log and share your usage (if you’re in an English-speaking country it’s likely quite extensive) but I would imagine they could still identify you probabilistically by your patterns of use, including which towers you connect to. Using a VPN/proxy/TOR would at least limit the number of IP addresses they see you connecting to but that’s off topic a bit.
Why have a phone contract at all?
there’s a couple places it’s the only feasible option, especially if you have other limitations such as needing an esim etc
and when you need a real, non-VoIP, number for something, wifi helps out how…?
i’ve been using prepaid sims for over a decade and a half now and it works okay for me since i only use a voip number that forwards to my phones.
every major carrier i’ve used in the united states have required some sort of identifying information like a state issued id or credit card; maybe the smaller/re-sale carriers will let you use cash.
