The only thing I’ll tack onto this is that with the introduction of Signal usernames, you still have to give Signal your number to verify that at least on some level, you probably are a real person. As someone with 5 different phone numbers, probably doesn’t stop spam as much as they’d hoped, but more than they feared, but at least now you don’t have to give that Craigslist guy who uses Signal your phone number, just your username. Is that the best method? I dunno, but but it is something.

Ah the ol’ Kingsmen ending.

Not really a work around, but you could get a VOIP number from MySudo or Hushed or a similar service and use that to sign up for Signal. Might at least be more private if you go about it with like a prepaid card and temp email or something.

The ‘nothing to hide’ argument seems a lot like that ‘first they came for socialists and I did not speak out, because I was not a socialist…’ quote. Sure you have nothing to hide right now, but what happens when something you weren’t hiding becomes a target.

I don’t know what kinds of packets WiFi calling sends, but I would assume a public IP would be in there somewhere and, at least from a law enforcement perspective I can’t imagine it would be too hard to get the address tied to it.

Sceptre has Non smart TVs. May be the only ones left to be honest

The annoying thing is that even without it connected to the internet, it’s still slowed down by the OS. I did the same and it’s still not as responsive to things like switching inputs as the projector I was using before it.

Would love an OSM map that had surveilance camera locations listed. Looked on organic maps, but that’s not an option to place.

I mentioned this in a different post but I use both my password manager with totp as well as a YubiKey as authentication methods as I always have either my keys or my phone.

As for the recovery codes, SanDisk flash drives come with a password protected vault program that I put them in, then put that flash drive in my fire safe. Maybe not the most elegant solution, but it’s worked for me so far.

I use a YubiKey and I like it. At this point the bulk of my 2FA is in ProtonPass, but for my work Microsoft 365 and Duo specifically it’s nice to default to it and I’m more likely to have it since it’s on my key ring, than my phone. Also nice to have stuff pointed to that rather than an app if you like to upgrade or wipe your phone frequently.

I think most businesses that don’t provide work phones should be getting them for their employees so they don’t need to require that employee install an app on their personal device.

Maybe look into Hushed. I know they advertise having UK numbers. It’s a similar service but I don’t think they have a desktop client