I’m investigating getting off the cell network permanently to avoid at least the constant triangulation of my position. I figured I’d look into getting a VoIP number and getting calls and texts over WiFi. I don’t mind being unreachable when I’m not connected to a hotspot, so it’s not a problem for me.

But before looking for a good VoIP provider, I decided to check if WiFi still worked in airplane mode. And indeed it works. But to my surprise, when I connected the WiFi, my cellphone provider’s name also came right back up at the top right of the screen. In airplane mode? What the hell?

Long story short, after investigating a bit, I realized I had WiFi calling enabled. So I can in fact already get calls and texts without being on the cell network.

And I’m thinking, maybe that’s good enough for privacy?

I mean I know SIMs leak information like ICCID / IMSI / IMEI so obviously they have no reason not to do that over WiFi also and that’s not so hot.

But on the plus side, none of that information is linked to cell towers and location anymore - at least not precise location if I’m not on a VPN - the baseband processor is off and can’t do whatever shady chit-chat it does with the SIM and the cell towers, and I can still use my normal phone numbers without having to change and tell a million people that I have new numbers if I go with VoIP.

Also, I don’t store my contacts on my SIMs and I use a deGoogled Android. So I figure that limits how much adversarial software can exploit the SIMs to leak data.

So it seems to me that WiFi calling may be a good solution for me for better privacy without too many compromises.

Can you think of something I missed that I should know before using this feature?

  • danhab99@programming.dev
    3·
    10 hours ago

    First of all I just want to say that I completely agree with all of the technical things you talked about in his question but I think you kind of miss his question.

    OP doesn’t wanna be on SS7 (the thing that gives you your phone number), neither do I. I’ve just come to the conclusion that when it comes to infrastructure and paying for your goods SS7 is the only realistic option I have.

    There is no distributed communication network anyone can just connect to. And the dream of leaving WiFi access points open for free (or for some kinda crypto-pay, e.g SkyNet) is just a dream, individuals have to invest in it and nobody wants to or take responsibility for it.

    Here are some rules:

    1. Somebody* has to build the radios and computers that our phones connect to and has to build them all over the world (*doesn’t have to be an individual, could be a company or government)
    2. You gotta pay to use it (whether it’s with a billing account where they have your full name and house address, or crypto)
    3. It’s gotta be the easiest option

    If we can come with a solution that fits these rules we can do away with the SS7 cellular protocol and have a truly anonymous network.