Look ... you know as well as I do that you shouldn't be using any mobile phone — not an iPhone, not an Android, not a Blackberry, not a dumbphone, nothing.
If you can avoid it, you shouldn't be registering things at all, let alone in your own name — find somewhere to squat, notify the council that you are legally squatting the property and therefor entitled to water and power, get them turned on in someone else's name ... use the neighbours' wifi ... you know the drill
If you want true privacy, you get rid of all your technology, move to a deep cave system and never leave it; subsisting on whatever lichens and creatures-of-the-deep you can find there, licking the condensation off rocks for hydration.
And even then, unless you control
the temperature levels (so that your heat signature can’t be detected from outside)
moisture/chemical levels (likewise)
the vibration footprint of the devices that achieve this
mask your electromagnetic signature
whatever else I haven’t thought of
… some satellite/geologist/chemist/passing treasure-hunter with a metal-detector will locate you.
But, yeah, right now, it's not looking good for iPhone users — not in the US at least, where people have no rights or freedoms and businesses can cornhole them all day long, if they want (but the septics seem to like it that way, so ... )
Get yourself a Linux phone not made in the USA/UK.
Failing that, get a (preferably non-Google) device that will run CopperheadOS, /e/, or LineageOS without GAPPS.
Failing even that ...
Get a device that runs 'stock' Android and has an unlockable bootloader … like the Motorola Moto G phones ¹.
Buy it for cash, over the counter — no matter how much they plead with you or try to twist your arm, do not give the vendor any details, no matter what they say about it being necessary for returns, etc. (if it breaks within warranty, you won't return it, you'll swallow the loss and buy a new one).
Do not register it with the OEM.
Root it (Install Magisk, MicroG (and maybe Systemless Xposed, if that excites you))
Uninstall any bloatware (Facebook, IG, etc.).
Get a PAYG SIM for cash over the counter.
Create a pseudonymous ID for your Android/Google account.
Do not use that account to communicate with anyone other than Google themselves or the developers of any apps you use.
Only top u your credit with cash.
Only purchased apps with 'gift' cards, purchased for cash.
Don't give your number to anyone but your closest, most trusted friends/family whom you can rely upon not to give it to anyone else ever (not even on pain of death [yours or theirs]).D
Get a second device.
Do the same.
Use a PAYG SIM from a different network provider, however — you want separation of concerns.
This is your official number for the bank, government services, GP, clients/customers/employers, etc. ... anyone with whom you need o have contact but who shouldn't have access to the first number.
Get a third device.
Repeat the process with a PAYG SIM form a third network provider.
This is your public device — give this number to people to whom you can't avoid giving it and who might furthermore share it with 'trusted partners' or other third parties (utilities, your ISP, random guys in bars/other people you never want to hear from).
If you can, get a device that meets the criteria and will also support a dual SIM configuration (really support it, not simply advertised as supporting it but then it transpires that it's only in one of the regions the device is sold in but not the one you purchase it in).
Configure two accounts on it (ideally using something like Multiple Accounts or Parellel Space
Make this a combination of the second and third devices, so that you only need to carry two phones with you, not three, when you're out and about — it's not a problem to carry two phones with you (I do it daily and I don't even have a bag to carry them in and have to use my pockets)
Don't give people who have one of your numbers either of the others.
The first two groups should know better than to simply supply your details to anyone else under any circumstances anyway — the first group will, at most, offer to get in toch with you and ask whether you want your number given out (at which point you will say "FUCK, n — give me their number and I'll call them from my public number")
The second and third groups have no business knowing your private number and the second group should decline to give the number they do have to anyone else unless it's for 'business' purposes (someone who might become a client/customer, supplier, whatever) and even in that latter case should do much the same as the first group and contact you on behalf of the enquirer, giving you their number, if you want it.
The third group has no business knowing that you even have another number of any kind, let alone another two!
Is any of the above a perfect solution?
No ... the perfect solution would be to have no mobile phone of any kind.
But, in the above order of preference (dumbphone, Linux phone, alternative Android ROM, rooted device) ... so long as you buy the the device with cash, do not register it anywhere, only ever use cash to top up your PAYG credit, only purchase apps with cash ...you will at least be running fewer risks of some aspect of your life being hacked and sold on the Black Market ... resulting in anything from your bank account being drained, to your ID being cloned and your life being ruined as a result.
Whatever advantages Apple may once have offered in terms of privacy have now been significantly reduced ... and it's debatable whether the extra security they facilitate by the OS being upgraded for longer than Android devices mitigates that loss of privacy.
—
¹ N. B. it used to be that you could be pretty much assured of the ‘Plus’ version of the Moto G devices but, since the introduction of the latest range, you’ll need to wait for a bit before you’ll know which ones will be supported by any of the alternative ROMs.
the latest range consists of
- Moto G10
- Moto G10 Power
- Moto G20
- Moto G30
- Moto G40 Fusion
- Moto G50
- Moto G60
- Moto G60S
- Moto G100
But not all of them are even available yet, never mind available in all regions (and there are likely to be some regional differences in availability as well, even once all of them have been released).
Nevertheless, for a variety of reasons ² the Moto G devices are still my own preferred option at this time, so I’ll be upgrading to whichever of the G30 to G100 devices offers me the features want for the price I want.
Bear in mind, however, that I take the Magisk+microG route myself and, so, don’t need to worry about getting a device for which there is a (LTS) ROM available — I’m technical enough to lock my device down properly without help and don’t need to use a ROM. But YMMV, so keep in mind that it tends to be the ‘top of the range’ devices fro which ROMs are made available — in the Past this would have been the Plus model by default, but it’s impossible to say for certain at this stage which one of the new range it will be.
² Not least the fact that they
- run pretty much stock/vanilla Android, with no OEM skin to fuck things up
- come with almost no bloat … and what little they do come with can be uninstalled
- come with some very useful extra features supplied by Motorola … all of which are entirely optional and can be enabled/disabled according to need
- come with an unlockable bootloader
But that’s really only because, currently, there still isn’t a Linux phone OEM hat I feel I can necessarily rely upon to still be in business even so much as five years later, nor a Linux based device that is performant enough (never mind at the price asked for it), nor a phone-based Linux distro I feel will necessarily still be supported for five years (look what happened to Ubuntu Phone, for instance).
Otherwise, I’d have a Linux phone myself.
