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Comment by qwerty456127 | Hacker News Reader

I use cash, public transport (which is awesome in Europe), almost always have my cellphone switched to airplane mode (going online via WiFi occasionally e.g. to check for new messages) and only turn its GPS on about 5 times a year for rather short durations of time and am pretty happy.

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You are 0.0001% representative of the population. You will be tracked by metadata absence. There are a couple articles about terrorists/spies tracked through data patterns generated when the closed their usual phone and switched to a burner one.

Even if you pay cash, your transactions can still be tracked, because your face will be on the cash register camera.

Public transport has cameras inside too.

It's just a matter of time until the computing power and software to analyze all this video will be everywhere.

Agreed. Acting unusually and furtively is a great way to raise red flags and invite more tracking. By repeatedly working to fly under the radar, you've made yourself much more interesting and more likely to be tracked closely whenever/wherever you reappear.

You want to be overlooked? Behave typically, obviously, and boringly.

So there aren't any cameras on public transport, or at the stations? Or on any of the buildings you walk past? Or at any of the stores you enter, or on light/power poles on public streets?

I haven't kept up with EU currency security features, but I remember reading how they keep trying to put RFID chips/fibers in them for tracking. They're currently using magnetic ink[1] that can be read via scanners as you walk past. There might be other tracking features that aren't disclosed.

> Some areas of the euro notes feature magnetic ink. For example, the rightmost church window on the €20 note is magnetic, as well as the large zero above it.

I don't think you're as anonymous as you think, even with all of the steps you've taken.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_banknotes#Security_featur...

FYI, Google tracks you even on airplane mode. So the second you jump back on Wifi your location history is updated. With dead reckoning calculations using your accelerometer and other sensors they know EXACTLY where you've been.

Not sure if they do this on iPhone or just android, but my guess is they do both if you've installed google maps/gmail etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0G6mUyIgyg

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