Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned
[QUOTE=JackFlack;2261895]There are two scenarios here. Protection from uncle LEO and protection from your SO.
To really be safe from your uncle you need to only use a burner phone to call other burner phones and you need to replace it every few weeks, buy them only with cash and never from the same store twice and never call the same numbers from the new burner phone that you did from the old one. Uncle LEO has access to data analysis tools which were designed specifically to track burner phone users across phone changes. Also, never power on your burner anywhere close to any location associated with you and never have your regular phone and your burner phone powered on at the same time in the same place. This all ends up being expensive and a huge pain in the ass. Doing less than this works fine because your uncle really isn't looking for you too hard but that being a given, why bother with any of it?
As far as the wife or gf goes, burner phones have pros and cons which basically cancel each other out. First off, unless your gf is in a coma she already knows something is going on. It all comes down to whether she cares or not. If she doesn't care you are probably better off just having a talk with her and getting permission to pursue your hobby. It would save everyone a lot of trouble. If she does care, she is going to be looking for evidence. Having a second phone by itself may be enough to put her over the tripping point. Having separation is nice but having everything in one place is nice too. Having to sneak a second phone around and keep it charged and full of minutes is a huge pain too.
Burner phones offer the illusion of security but may in fact become an additional risk factor.[/QUOTE]Wow, Alot of well thought out & informed points you made here.
The one I would have to STRONGLY disagree with is having that little chat with the wifey or girlfriend. Me thinks that could end in disaster or at the very least with much drama. If I want that much excitement & drama I could just go stroll the north loop on foot at midnight. (might be safer).
Everyone's situation is different and that could work out well for a few, but my guess is that a vast majority of mongers would rue the day that they decided it would be a good idea to squeal on themselves.
Burn Phones and Virtual Phones
Many good points have been brought up in this thread on the perceived security of using either burners (eg TracPhone) and Virtual Phone Numbers (eg Google Voice).
For the truly paranoid, some things to consider:
Obfuscation is the key to minimizing your digital footprints. Small quantities of dispersed data are hard to connect to one another.
All phones have a unique identifier, some are ESNs (sprint, verizon, us cell) and others are IMEI (all GSM phones, ATT, TMobile).
It doesn't matter if you are using the real number or your GV number. Once it is turned on the physical phones serial number is logged.
- The SIM cards used in GSM phones have serial numbers themselves also.
- Swapping a SIM into another phone ties the records between the 2 devices together. Kind of like the unprotected sex with someone exposes you to everyone they have been exposed to.
- SIM cards can be hacked, the government has malware specifically for them.
- The govt also has viruses for most smart phones.
- The govt does have Stingers in Milwaukee; often tied into the spot-shotter system as well as the cop-in-a-box surveilance cameras. They can I'd all phones in a covered area.
Slapping your GV number onto a phone now ties another piece of identification into the mix.
Other toys the govt likes to play with are mostly based on SilentSMS messages. SilentSMS is how CallerID or VoiceMail messages are sent to the phone. It also can be used to "ping" a phone to get geolocation. Other SMS message classes can write data to the SIM cards; that's how they can plant malware.
So. The end result is to keep it simple. Get a tracphone or some other pay as you go device that isn't using ATT or TMobile networks. The more data you spread around the more they can analyze. Only turn the phone on when you need it. Not all phones are truly off unless the battery is out.
Next we can wrap it in tinfoil.