I’m looking into getting a flip phone with a separate number so that I can sign up for a few apps that without associating them with the complete identity profile in the data marketplace that is linked to my actual phone number.
To be clear, the apps will still be downloaded and utilized on my primary smartphone. But the phone number through which I receive verification codes during registration will be a separate device.
Has any one done this? Tips for selecting a cheapo phone and prepaid service?
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
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Yes, I created an entire fake identity with it that I’m now using here so I can say what I want without worrying about loosing my job.
One thing to keep in mind is that most prepaid providers require you to use the phone every once in a while, or you loose the number (don’t ask me how I know and don’t ask me what happens if I forgot my password)
That is good advice, thank you! Is there a particular brand you’d recommend (DM me if you don’t want to share publicly). I was looking into a few major retailer flip phones but they both required the retailer to scan it for activation and I wasn’t entirely sure what that does tracking-wise, so I stopped to do some more research.
Chances are I live in a different country, sp probably not able to help you, sorry! I tried buying an anonymous sim card in Spain, but I don’t think that’s actually possible there for instance.
But Lemmy doesn’t require a phone number? Unless you’re saying you used the phone number to register an email, then used that email for Lemmy. I have a hard time believing your job would jump through that many hoops to track down your Lemmy comments. Seems like it wouldn’t be worth their time. Maybe the NSA.
For me it’s more of an experiment, to avoid advertisement and just to be sure when some person takes power that does care about stupid things like my political views, sexuality, etc. That has happened before. And the technology is there to scrape this data in mass quantities, so someone is going to do it at some point.
I assume they mean that this Lemmy is part of their fake persona, so maybe links to another social media account they use for this persona, or an email address, or the personal details they mention in their comments matches with their fake persona’s personal life and not their real personal life. But yeah seems like overkill if your threat model is only your employer, unless you’re employed by some military intelligence agency, in which case it’s probably not enough.