My cell is not registered in my name and I can take the battery out. I often do any time I am not on call.
Out of curiosity what model do you use? The last phone I had with the capability to do so was an s4.
Samsung $12 pay-as-you-go phone from Walmart. They don't have that model in the store any more, but there is a similar one for $29.
The ultra-high-end LG V10 and V20 phones have this too. However, the V30 and V40 went to non-replaceable batteries. Also, the Galaxy S5 had it too, but the S6 and latter did not.
If you are confident in the privacy commitment of your phone manufacturer, then that is not as much a concern. I don’t have any trust in any car company, and none of them seem to care.
>Well, apparently AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile all sell data—including geographic locations associated with customer phone numbers—to a variety of sketchy third-party companies.