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Comment by ngngngng | Hacker News Reader

I don't like this fatalistic attitude. Privacy is not black and white. I switched to signal, duck duck go, and Firefox. And since then, no one knows how to target ads to me anymore. That's a privacy win, even if there's a long ways to go.

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The only way to address GPS and cellular tracking is to avoid any device with a baseband. So in fact it is either-or in this case.

The upcoming Librem 5 phone has a hardware killswitch disconnecting the baseband completely. It's not a mInstream device though.

Alternatively airplane mode might work too on regular phones, but personally I wouldn't trust it 100%.

The problem is doing that ensures your mobile device is useless as, well, a real-time communications device. No immediate calls, no SMS, no internet and associated apps without wifi around - how many people are going to enable this? The answer is none, even for the very customers Purism wishes to attract. Because people already wishing to do so can put their phone, any phone, in a Faraday cage, but that seemingly hasn't taken off.

Secondly, my concern would be the cellular network automatically flagging you for suspicious activity, especially in an area know to have good coverage. It would certainly look suspect for a device to periodically pop up, send some traffic, then disappear once again.

You can also switch the baseband radio on and off. Only turning it on when you really need it minimizes your exposure to tracking.

Yes and it's not even malicious basebands, it's any at all. If you want to participate in the cell network in any way, even if you write your own baseband, the network will still be able to report your approximate position using UTDOA, CGI or CGI-TA, ECID, etc. The network needs to gather at least your id/plan ($) and CGI (which antenna and what power) as part of its normal process to give you service.

That is only until you use your bank card online or connect your Google phone to your WiFi. Both card and phone number disclose your identity and allow to link your IP address with you. Phone's IMEI is also a good identifier you cannot change once leaked.

It's not fatalistic. Your digital Life is optional, which is my point. You can have privacy, or you can have a device: and both are fine.

Do you use you DNSSEC on your phone?

Does DNSSEC contribute to privacy (which is what I think this question implies)? If so, how?

No -- you'd need DNSCrypt for that.

Digital life is increasingly becoming non optional. E.g. Try finding and booking a hotel at a metropolitan city other than your own without using a laptop or a smartphone.

Landlines and phone books still exist...

>Your digital Life is optional,

I feel like you are not arguing in good faith with that.

DNSSEC isn't a privacy protocol and doesn't have any impact on what an ISP can and can't see about your traffic.

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