Life Without a SIM Card
Life Without a SIM Card
Last week, I wrote about how our phone numbers have evolved into a unique, static ID that companies abuse to track us. As anecdotal evide...
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Hmm .. the author uses a hotspot connected with a SIM. Their whole argument hinges on not being tracked, but their hotspot is with them all the time. Seems like a massive hole in their privacy argument.
MAC addresses go brrr
Everyone conviently forgets about MAC address spoofing. Some operating systems let you set a Random MAC address on each connection. It's great.
How is it that there are people still unaware of this?
😂
Hotspot location is still tracked by the cell network though.
Android phones automatically randomize Mac addresses.
Although, if you are on Google's Android, it is possible for Google to keep a list of all Mac addressed used and then work with the hotspot owner to find out your whereabouts.
The first part of the article still holds. You can live on wifi.
Not always. Where I am, for example, it's law to KYC users of wi-fi hotspots, usually by phone number. Good news: there are a lot of places that don't bother and just have the wi-fi behind a password. Bad news: whether you find such a hotspot is very inconsistent, even within the same chain. So I don't bother and just always use my phone as a modem.
Also, apparently bypassing authentication may be as simple as stealing the MAC address of someone who has already KYCd, but that sounds like it would be even less consistent.
What a terrible law. I remember something similar when visiting Germany like 15 years ago, and for whatever reason my roaming didn't work. I think they got wiser since then because last time I visited there were plenty of hotspots.
What? I could connect to a mcdonald's wifi without needing to provide any ID, I just tap "I Agree" to whatever tos stuff they show then its good. So do the mcdonalds in your jurisdiction just request a phone number for verification? 🤔
Yeah. The big chains like this, as well as government-owned places like public transport or libraries, are pretty much guaranteed to have such KYC. It is not an ID indeed, but the numbers are required to be KYC as well so it is implied. I could just buy an illegal non-KYC number just to not give out my real one for sale, but that's a bit too bothersome for little benefit.
illegal non-KYC number? You can just get a legit one without breaking any laws my dude.
Not everywhere. In A LOT of places, KYC when getting a number is mandatory. There are still a lot of "gray" sims that are sold after being registered to someone else tho.