I don't want to use a smartphone until there exists a truly free device (and there isn't)...

I don't want to use a smartphone until there exists a truly free device (and there isn't). Even if I install a "free" Android version, chances are it's not truly free, and the cellular network can still track my location. Plus, I'd rather not support this industry.

Is there a flipphone or otherwise "dumbphone" that gives me what I want? All I want is phone service, no texting or anything else necessary. In particular, I want as much location secrecy as possible.

Of course I know that phone service can be tapped and the only real option is VoIP but that's not really an option currently.

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silentcircle.com/buy/
itunes.apple.com/us/app/hushed-free-phone-number-for/id600520752?mt=8
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Why are you so fucking paranoid?

I think my stance is perfectly reasonable. Why should I be okay with Apple or Google knowing my exact location every second of every day? Just think of the kind of political power this creates.

What are they going to do with that information?

You can't escape our cyberpunk future.

Embrace it.

1) If company X has some enemy (where enemy could just be a member of a rival company, or a politician that wants to enact some law that would hurt company X), it would be incredibly useful to know their location, especially for blackmail.

2) The world is not just America. Plenty of governments have the power to easily force tech companies to disclose personal information, and states like Venezuela, for example, could use the information to track down political opponents and dissidents.

Are you an enemy of a rival company or a political opponent or dissident?

Political dissidence is evaluated within the context of the current government. Even if I don't change my views, what if the next elected president of the FCC wants to arrest all people who visit Sup Forums?

And any member of almost any tech company is by default a rival to either Apple or Google, in at least one of their ventures.

I had a backup Samsung flip phone that looked like that and got like 15 days standby time and could run java apps.

Thing was a beast they don't even make flip phones that can do that anymore :(

None of what you said is ever going to happen.

>the cellular network can still track my location
That's how they determine what cell tower your phone uses. There is literally no other way, save for a single, all-encompassing tower that would fry everyone's nuts in a minute, to reliably convey information between network/provider and phone. Ad-hoc relies on unbroken population density. Satellite still focuses on where you are in order to use the right satellite. Lasers are trackable visually.

You're blind if you don't think it's already happening in countries like China.

I am aware. I'm wondering what my options are to mitigate this.

Do you live in shitholes like China?

Don't use a cellphone, which necessitates finding an employer willing to be totally unable to contact you at any given time. You could move to that one place in virginia where they test antennae and ban all electronics

Are you saying anyone who lives in China doesn't deserve the right to privacy and political freedom?

That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that it probably isn't happening in whatever country you live in unless you live in a shithole like China.

I agree on the government part. But why should I be okay with "probably"? How would I ever know if the goverment does decide to start spying on me? I'd rather be safe.

Eh. I think I'd be okay with a cellphone where I'm anonymous to the provider (so something like prepaid) and my number is only known to be mine to the people I share it with and everyone they share it with in turn. So the cell phone provider would only know that number X is within the range of some antenna at some time.

I wonder if there's something where I could give different numbers to different people and revoke and change identities at will, but I think that's more of a future plan for a candidate crypto VoIP.

They also know who you know, that could be just enough to figure out who that is, hope you don't like calling family. I'f you'r that paranoid, get a HF radio and encrypt it, hope you never get pinpointed.

Look, I know there's no perfect solution available currently. But this isn't black and white. I'm just looking for options to increase my privacy, not ensure that all my communications are 100% safe.

Prepaid is frequently chosen by drug dealers for a reason. But if someone's actually out to get you or you get caught up in a dragnet op, nothing will matter.

Thanks. I don't expect anyone to be looking for me, but I think prepaid is a good option.

silentcircle.com/buy/

This looks interesting, especially since the encryption stuff is open source. Unfortunately I don't think $800 is a good use of my money, given that I don't actually use my (current) smartphone for anything other than voice.

Sadly, I don't think a phone like that exists anymore. I went to verizon the other day to see if they would let me use a Verizon phone from the mid 90's, and they wouldn't activate it for me because it didn't have an e-911 or something, which basically let's me be trackable, "In case I get kidnapped".

Your best bet is to get a burner phone and hope they won't trace it.

itunes.apple.com/us/app/hushed-free-phone-number-for/id600520752?mt=8

it's called Hushed

pre-paid is pretty good. in Canada i use petro-canada as my phone provider, whose parent network is rogers, so it works everywhere. there is also wifi all over this city, so it's also the only way i can use my iphone for ~$20 a month.

anways. there are a number of things you can do OP. modern smart phones have many RTOS running simultaneously, so you could use an older phone if that's a concern to you, but telecom is fundamentally insecure. like, if you're ever in an airport for example, and lock down running services on a rooted device, you'll still notice weird baseband activity because NSA lol and GSM etc is ancient crufty shit with exploits that will never be acknowledged or repaired. you could like, use one of those weird Osmocom-bb phones with custom baseband firmware i guess but i don't know your level of technical autism

Any cellular signal can be tracked within a pretty small range (50 m or so) by triangulation. You can't use a cell phone without giving away information about your location because of the strength of the signal you send to nearby cell phone towers.

true. also if you're particularly paranoid, "false towers" are not an uncommon exploit because of aforementioned will-never-be-fixed telecom shit, where you can do fun things like push out bogus OS updates but this is generally a "thing" if you are being targeted as an individual, but again can be as simple as "phone is on in an airport"

>I want as much location secrecy as possible.
Get any of the smart phones that you can put Replicant on if you want something running FSF approved or get a Neo Freerunner if you want something with free hardware too. Though nothing will stop cell phone companies/the government from tracking your location no matter what phone you get.

You can disable GPS on your smartphone.

Train a messenger pigeon and move into the wood, OP.

>actually thinking it's disabled when it says it is