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.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn’t great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
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- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
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If you want the phone to work reliably anywhere besides home/school/work, you need a real cellular carrier.
If you’re a shut-in, WiFi only is fine.
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You could always have Graphene over WiFi as your main phone and then have a dumb phone you take in the car with you for emergencies. I had a cellphone running Graphene and it died and I just got a dumb phone and I went back to using my computer for everything else now. It’s mostly a better workflow for me. I think the main way it becomes problematic is most jobs require you to have a smart phone so they can do payroll and tracking you through apps. I really don’t want that and I have been fortunate enough that I have been getting enough work independently now that I can decide what I do and don’t need in that regard. If that is your situation, you could always keep the I-phone for shit like that and have a place to put it when you are done with work… So you can disengage with the phone once you are not working. Then get a Graphene phone for your leisure time. There doesn’t have to be set rules that you can only do one thing or the other.
True, then enable your SIM when that happens. Not when you have a minor inconvenience but an actual emergency.
There are plenty of options:
Even without any of those, the chances that you will be completely stranded with no one to help and no way to call emergency services are very, very slim. Privacy protects you from more likely scenarios, such as data breaches or identity theft.
You could always prepay a Solis 5G WiFi Adapter and carry it with you. Some are quite small and portable.
That said, Apple doesn’t have a monopoly on cell carrier service. GrapheneOS works fine with various phone carriers.
You can carry a cheap second phone with battery removed (airplane mode is not sufficient) for this purpose specifically. In case you must call someone, you put in the battery and call.
If in the US, you stick a thumb out. If in Australia, index finger. Repeat for whichever country you’re in. Contrary to what the Internet often pushes, many other humans are decent people and will stop to help.
I would be more concerned about others unable to reach me. Like, my mom isn’t doing well and if I missed her calls during a health crisis because I wasn’t on wifi, I’d have a hard time with that.
Use a sim in a portable hostpot or a second dumb phone powered off
Yeah I suppose this is the counter argument, have a prepaid minutes sim you can use in emergencies.
Next argument after that is what if you are out of reach and someone else in the family has an emergency and tries to reach you.
In all reality I value my phone plan with internet so I stay off other wifi sources that may not be trust worthy.
You don’t need a cellphone plan, just a cellular data plan (say prepaid 1-2Gb) and you just keep cellular data switched off unless it is an emergency.
Then you can still “WiFi call” in an emergency over that cellular data connection.
No monthly plan required
You should probably do some critical thinking on your plans if you haven’t even thought what you’d do if you were in an emergency
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You killed him?? What a twist
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That will be a difficult life 😆
Wifi only is perfectly fine, if you aren’t going to use the phone part of the cellphone.
Burner phone for calls. And whatever you want on the side.
2nd is also important in that your phone is always connected (unless in airplane mode) to some cellular network, and can still be tracked the same way (unique IMEI).
In the US at least, phones without a service plan can still call 911.
The issue with that in his situation is 911 does not take kindly to “Hey, can you call my dad and tell him I ran out of gas?”
If it’s not a true emergency that they are expected to handle, emergency services frown on calling them.
His father’s argument is legitimate regarding needing a cellular carrier unless the poster would never unexpectedly need to contact family for help.
The same in the EU. All it needs is signal to any available mobile network.
It is complicated. He says true. And maybe your need to use GrapheneOS is relevant. If you have a smartphone without cellular connection, for a daily usage, FMPOV it is a non-sense in case of emergency. It is a risk you will have to take, I can’t disagree your dad. And what about your solution but with a SIM card with very few data and SMS available, through a SIM card you can keep aside your phone and insert when needed?