Before I throw my two cents in, here’s a few other articles worth reading:
4 Good Reasons To Get an Emergency Burner Phone
Sick of the NSA Tracking You? Burn Them with a Burner Phone
How NSA breakthrough may allow tracking of “burner” cell phones
Burner phone? There’s an app for that, and it’s earning millions of dollars
It’s not that I’m doing anything wrong, it’s just that I really value my privacy. Sometimes, you really don’t want some stranger knowing your ‘real’ phone number. For example, if you were posting a car for sale on Craigslist, you really don’t want people calling you at 2am for the next six months after the ad runs. Or getting the slew of robocalls and unsolicited sales calls that come with it. So..the solution is a disposable ‘burner’ phone.
These things are normally associated with criminal activities, and there is some merit to that, but if you think about it, it makes sense…who has the most to lose by having their privacy and relative anonymity compromised? People who are facing jail if they get caught. And since I’m the kind of guy who feels that who I communicate with is no ones business but me, I want to be able to keep my privacy and the best way to do that so far are those stupid ‘pay-as-you-go’ overpriced phones. But, hey, what’s your privacy worth?
So, first step, you go into a WalMart or other venue and buy a phone. At the moment, no ID is required to buy one of these things so your name isn’t attached to it. (Although I fully expect this to change pretty soon.) Pay cash..don’t be an idiot. Where’s the liability in this exchange? I suppose if The Powers That Be really want to, they could come into the WalMart (or wherever) and demand video surveillance of all purchases during a particular time frame. Lets say you buy your phone on February 1. You activate the phone on May 2. The feds track the phone by the manufacturer to the wholesaler to a particular store, and then they ask for the weeks worth of video prior to that activation. So..you can either shop where you don’t think there’ll be a video record, or, do your activation so far after the purchase date that the surveillance video is long overwritten. It might also be a good idea not to buy your phone at the store thats three blocks from where you live. Think about that.
Next up, you have to activate the phone. This usually requires you to call from another phone. Obviously you don’t want to use your own phone, nor do you want to get any of your friends involved, so you need an ‘arms reach’ phone. Fortunately many places (banks, hotels, etc.) have a phone sitting on their counter for customers to use. The same cautions about surveillance video apply. And, again, try to do it far from where you sleep. If someone wants to tie you to a particular phone number, it’s gonna look pretty bad if the activation call came from a bank four blocks from your house, and the phone was purchased at the Walmart five blocks from your house. Think.
Next up, you have to power up the phone. If you’re smart, you’ll never power this thing up anywhere near where you sleep. The idea is that if the phone sends signals to the towers, you don’t want that signal giving away your location. In short, charging up your phone by your bedside will compromise your privacy. If you really want to be cautious, buy a battery phone charger, charge the charger up at home (or get a disposable-battery-powered one), take it and your phone somewhere on the other side of town, plug the phone into your battery-powered charger, and hide it somewhere secure until its fully charged. After that, pop the battery out of the phone and only put the battery in when you are actually making/taking a call and when you are nowhere near anyplace you’d feel uncomfortable with people tracking your location to. In other words, don’t call from your bathroom.
Eventually, your time on the card expires. Renew it? You could, but realistically you’re better off, from a privacy standpoint, to toss it and start a new one. The longer you use the same phone, the more likely noticeable patterns will emerge and the people digging into the phone records will notice those patterns.
Good post. I sold these burner phones for years, and everything you said is correct and makes sense. A few other points. When you activate the phone, you have to have the phone in the area code you want. The cell system sends the activation to the phone, but it won’t search nationwide for your new phone, only in the area code you request. So for example if you want a Los Angeles prefix number, the phone has to physically be in that LA area code during the activation. After that, it doesn’t matter. So activating the phone while you are on “vacation” will get you the phone number of where you are. Say you are a snowbird with a house in Michigan and in Arizona. Just activate the phone during a long rest stop in one of your drive through states. Activation may take an hour or two. The burner phone companies say “up to 24 hours” but I’ve never seen it take that long. Most activations are within 20 minutes. Most of the phone plans are cheapest per month (assuming low minute use) by activating the phone for an entire year. Just be aware that if you only activate the phone for one month, you have to re-up the minutes whether you need them or not, to keep your number. If you don’t re-up, you can’t get your old number back. It gets tossed back into the queue. It doesn’t matter if it has been re-issued yet or not, you are not getting it back. Period. No amount of complaining will work. It’s in their business plan to force you to keep paying monthly whether you use your minutes up or not. Part of that plan is to never give anyone their old phone number back. For the best security, this may not be an issue for you, as you won’t want your old number back. But for many people, continuity of a phone number is important. Also be aware that when you get a burner phone number, it is usually a recycled number from the expired burner phones. You _will_ get a few wrong numbers, people looking for the last customer (or two or three). No one gave out your new number, it’s just not a new number, so no need to be alarmed if the phone starts ringing. Good luck -Former Retail Guy.
Or, “Burner Phone, Junior”……it doesn’t have any of the security features a true burner offers, but for “phone number impermanence” it works – add a phone to your existing plan. I used an antique featureless phone that, for some reason, I hadn’t thrown out (it doesn’t do anything except voice), and that’s the number I give out. No one gets my smart phone number except immediate family, the alarm company, my doctor and one neighbor. If the “burner, jr” number gets compromised it’s simple to change – I can do it online in minutes.
For my next true burner, however, I think I’ll work a deal with a friend who travels constantly to activate a couple burners for me. I’ll have to research what area has the highest concentration of area codes in the smallest geographical area.
How long can I store a phone like this and the associated card with minutes on it? Can I buy a phone and a card and pack it away only to pull it out in 2 years to use?
In theory, indefinitely. In reality, until the manufacturer goes out of business, or gets bought up, or changes their policies, or the cell phone tower protocol it uses gets abandoned.
Most importantly, never turn on the phone anywhere near your own (real) cellphone. This instantly links the two by “proximity”
Best go to a mall, where there are thousands of others, to activate or use; and, and leave your real phone at home
I don’t quite understand how my “dumb” flip can be “proxied” to my Samsung Galaxy. Unless you are thinking about Bluetooth… in which case you messed up by having a smartphone as your burner, and leaving Bluetooth on in your regular phone.
Please explain this to me as I really don’t understand this.
Fwiw, if you wrap your phone in tin foil, it can’t send or receive signal if you’re worried about it being detected at your house. Or anywhere for that matter. Physics class actually comes in handy for something. Didn’t expect that to happen.
Same if you remove the battery, which was mentioned in the OP.
Great info and great comment above too – thanks
Troy, and Jason,
unfortunately, physics is a bitch. And taking a class doesn’t help much if you didn’t understand it.
Sorry if that sounds really harsh, but counting on that advice to wrap your phone in foil, if you had real reason to need privacy, would get you killed or jailed or outed to your spouse or whatever you are trying to avoid.
What happens is that the foil couples to your phone’s antennas and the phone still works fine.
I thought that might happen so I actually tested it, just now. Phone wrapped in foil, still works fine. Rang NO PROBLEM when called, which means it’s still talking to the network.
You need air around the phone (or distance) so the metal actually isolates the phone. An ammo can might work. A metal trash can might work. Even a cookie tin might work, if the phone isn’t in contact with the metal. Someone on another forum suggested the microwave oven as it’s very well shielded to keep microwave frequencies inside it, and they’re roughly double the freq of cell phones.
If you are serious about the need, TEST IT YOURSELF. Lots of things might work. Testing is the only way to be sure.
And DO NOT rely on a foil wrapping.
nick
FWIW,
I just tried it with a cookie tin, approx in the middle of a 10″ round, 3″ tall tin, with tightly fitting lid. — blocked
Tried it with a metal cooking pot, about twice as tall, lid sitting on top — NOT blocked.
Tried again with me pressing down on the lid — blocked.
So even the tiniest gap will let the magic radio waves in and out. You need a TIGHT fitting lid.
nick
TEST YOUR solution.
I did. And I have. And it worked fine, with multiple tests. But, I will concede that you’re right one account – if you’re that worried about it, test it.
I suspect that phone construction may have some bearing on how well it deals with foil wrapping. I would suggest that first wrapping it in a washrag before using the foil may give it the necessary airgap needed. I would also recommend creasing and folding a border around the edge of the final package, to eliminate the possibility of a channel leading to leakage. In other words, fold the foil flat, leaving enough around the square, so you can then seal all four edges.
You might want to carry extra foil with you, to ensure you get a good seal with fresh foil, if you plan on using it. Of course, you need to protect the wrapped phone’s foil package. A ziplock baggie may suffice.
Might want to research what metal cases would work. Perhaps an old tobacco tin, lined with foam, might be big enough to fit a phone? Or figure out how to metal line a small Pelican case.