Best or least worst choices for cell phone service?
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Actually I use Ting Mobile and like it. I thought they were bought out by Dish or something? Or have they changed hands again?
Oh, Dish may well have bought them by now.
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What about Signal then?
If I recall, Signal has gotten better in recent years in that you don't necessarily need Google Play to use it anymore. But my issue with it is that their backend still seemed pretty centralized the last time I checked, which could get increasingly problematic moving forward, since they're based in the US.
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Go for a prepaid provider and give out as little personal information as necessary. Avoid the major carriers directly because they need a social security number.
That said, mobile phones are inherently not private. No matter what provider you choose, they will be able to track your location using tower triangulation. Even if you give a fake address, it would be pretty easy to identify you if you always have your phone on at home.
a fake address could still be helpful against database leaks, but I think also if the data is just sold. triangulation tells a broad area, at least sub 5G, which is not the best, but technically it is
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Opting out of ATT seems like the most obvious no-brainer, but are there options for phone service that are actually halfway decent?
I've been thinking about this a lot recently as well. I decided that I wanted to ditch using any cell carrier in favor of a VoIP provider. I made a post over on /c/privacy: https://lemmy.ml/post/26192657. The two recommendations that came up the most were voip.ms and jmp.chat. Both require at least $15 to get started but you can port your old number over to both services too. From there jmp.chat is $5 a month, which comes with unlimited texts and 120 min a month. With voip.ms the call and messaging is subtracted from your balance at a predetermined rate (per min and per text) which I haven't worked out the math on how much mileage $15 will get you initially. From what I could see jmp.chat looked like it was the easier option to setup, with the Cheogram app for your phone and a Jabber app for the computer. Here's a wiki entry detailing how to setup jmp.chat: https://kb.above.im/jmp-chat/
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Opting out of ATT seems like the most obvious no-brainer, but are there options for phone service that are actually halfway decent?
wrote on last edited by [email protected].
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If I recall, Signal has gotten better in recent years in that you don't necessarily need Google Play to use it anymore. But my issue with it is that their backend still seemed pretty centralized the last time I checked, which could get increasingly problematic moving forward, since they're based in the US.
I meant that you need a phone number for registration.
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Opting out of ATT seems like the most obvious no-brainer, but are there options for phone service that are actually halfway decent?
no such thing. just go for the cheapest. buy an rfid case when you are not using wireless networks, to avoid triangulation. Or buy a Fairphone/Librem 5/Shift6mq/PinePhone, those have hardware buttons to disable data receivers, but they cost a lot more than any other smartphone, but shouldn't be a problem if you can afford Samsung or Apple
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Opting out of ATT seems like the most obvious no-brainer, but are there options for phone service that are actually halfway decent?
Why us mobile data such a privacy concern and wifi is so much better? I understand using standard calls and text is bad but if you use mobile data and not your phone number whats the difference between that and public wifi?
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Why us mobile data such a privacy concern and wifi is so much better? I understand using standard calls and text is bad but if you use mobile data and not your phone number whats the difference between that and public wifi?
Most carroers know your name, your internet usage metadata, and your location all the time using cell tower triangulation. There have been multiple reports of phone providers selling location data and sercurity breaches. If you have a phone that provides MAC address randomization and you use a VPN then I think using public WiFi is more private than having your mobile data turned on all the time.
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I meant that you need a phone number for registration.
No idea if they store the phone number, probably not.
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that won't work without telling us your region. the largest part of the world doesn't even know what is AT&T, let alone ATT
Generally speaking, if someone asks/talks about some local topic without bothering to specify where they live, you can just assume they live in the US
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Generally speaking, if someone asks/talks about some local topic without bothering to specify where they live, you can just assume they live in the US
true, but I thought it would be important to know the state too
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I've been thinking about this a lot recently as well. I decided that I wanted to ditch using any cell carrier in favor of a VoIP provider. I made a post over on /c/privacy: https://lemmy.ml/post/26192657. The two recommendations that came up the most were voip.ms and jmp.chat. Both require at least $15 to get started but you can port your old number over to both services too. From there jmp.chat is $5 a month, which comes with unlimited texts and 120 min a month. With voip.ms the call and messaging is subtracted from your balance at a predetermined rate (per min and per text) which I haven't worked out the math on how much mileage $15 will get you initially. From what I could see jmp.chat looked like it was the easier option to setup, with the Cheogram app for your phone and a Jabber app for the computer. Here's a wiki entry detailing how to setup jmp.chat: https://kb.above.im/jmp-chat/
Follow up in a week. I would like to see how this works for you!
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What about Signal then?
Not the person you replied to, but the phone number requirement is one of the main reasons that I don't use Signal.
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Opting out of ATT seems like the most obvious no-brainer, but are there options for phone service that are actually halfway decent?
Visible. $25/line
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This sounds amazing and all but in most parts of the world
a) you don't have exclusively mobile internet SIMs
b) you don't have eSIMs and eSIM compatible devices
c) mobile connections are metered (and expensive), so people talk on the ordinary cellular phone connections
d) mobile data is slow and laggy, so calls frequently drop/are choppy/don't connect at all
e) you don't have wifi in a lot of places
f) people aren't necessarily familiar with VOIP services -
No idea if they store the phone number, probably not.
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Most carroers know your name, your internet usage metadata, and your location all the time using cell tower triangulation. There have been multiple reports of phone providers selling location data and sercurity breaches. If you have a phone that provides MAC address randomization and you use a VPN then I think using public WiFi is more private than having your mobile data turned on all the time.
OK thanks for the point, I should probably try and use wifi networks wherever possible ig.
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