this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2024
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Privacy

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submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

Using anonymous global or regional data esims not only improves your privacy, but gives you better service. Because you are usually in roaming, if the coverage of one operator is not good, or they have an outage, you can usually use a different one, which is not possible if you're "at home".

Also you can have one as a backup. Mobimatter has so far the best prices and 1 year validity of data. Keepgo has also good programs. Bitrefill has shorter term, but can be cheaper per gb. All three support crypto payments for additional privacy.

Came across this tip on nostr

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

It seems to me that switching SIMs provides little privacy benefit, because carriers, data brokers, and the adversaries of privacy-desiring people whom they share data with are obviously able to correlate IMEIs (phones) with IMSIs (SIMs).

What kind of specific privacy threats do you think are mitigated by using different SIMs in the same phone (especially the common practice of using an "anonymous" SIM in a phone where you've previously used a SIM linked to your name)?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

where you’ve previously used a SIM linked to your name

Don't do that then. Also consider that people buy and re-sell used phones. The same IMEI is not a guarantee it's the same user. Privacy isn't necessarily about being absolute, sometimes it comes in shades.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

It doesn't take long to associate an IMEI to a new user.

Then there's apps, accounts, etc. Gobs of data out there to associate a person - including tower and wifi connection data, which would easily associate a person with a device with a location with a time stamp.