OP’s title certainly doesn’t help.

Proton was legally ordered by the Swiss justice department to hand over the (severely limited) information about a law breaking organization’s account. They had paid for Proton using a credit card instead of the anonymous payment methods Proton offers, and that is what Proton was forced to hand over. It was the organization’s bad OpSec, not Proton willingly deanonymizing users.

I think it’s reasonable to have a load-up-minutes dumb phone

Those are becoming harder and harder to find. It’s hard to even find prepaid SIM cards. You now have to buy a voucher, create an account, and add it there, which activates the phone for the number of months the voucher is worth.

Uses Archlinux?

secureblue :)

even though they don’t even know what a folder is

Someone once tried sharing a file with me by copy pasting the file path as if it were a URL

It’s essentially cognitive dissonance. People are introduced to a life so different from their own that they attack it like an overactive immune system. They see it like a problem that needs fixed, rather than a lifestyle to learn about. It doesn’t help with how much people are conditioned to criminalize privacy, either.

That’s how much a carrier is over there??

Yes. The “poverty” option is $15/month, but plans can easily go up to $100 or more per month. Out of curiosity, how much are they charging across the pond?

Being stuck sucks, but eventually OP will have the option to switch and it’s a still good to hear about it.

in France

My heart goes out to privacy enthusiasts in France. You guys are really going through it right now.

Hi there! I mentioned this in the other thread but I’ll go into more detail here. GrapheneOS was created as a replacement operating system for mobile devices. It’s based on Android, but improves security and removes the invasive surveillance. It’s currently only available to install on Google Pixel devices, because while Google is bad with privacy, they are good with security. In 2026-2027 GrapheneOS plans to release their own smartphone in partnership with an OEM. GrapheneOS has 400,000 users and counting. Linux phones have a lot of security issues, especially when rooted. GrapheneOS worth looking into. You can buy a Pixel for around $200 second hand, that way you don’t line Google’s pockets to get one.

So its either live with a neutered linux phone or this. Maybe the lightphone would work but it would have to actually work with all the banking, airplane, and hotel apps that are all proprietary and usually require Google play store.

GrapheneOS is a hardened version of Android that removes the privacy invasive elements. You can still optionally install Google Play Services if you need to install apps from there, but it runs in a sandboxed environment so it doesn’t have the same invasive permissions.

There’s a bigger security risk because of a larger attack surface, and naturally phones can collect a lot more data than hotspots, but it depends on your threat model.

At most, you are making the advertisers .0000001 cent less per year vs if you used big tech junk. Unless youre convincing 10,000 others to step back into 1991, its not making a difference.

It actually makes a much bigger difference than you think. I remember a site that showed how much advertisers made off of you while you’ve been viewing, but I can’t seem to find it. They make dollars off of you every second. Ad blocking alone has made so much of a difference that YouTube has tried intentionally slowing down their service to ad block users as a way to discourage it. I have no better way to show you how big of an impact it actually makes. Even in your own life, using a password manager can save yourself from getting hacked. This thread isn’t really for fighting about why privacy is important, but there’s plenty of other sources talking about it.

P.S. Try 400,000 and counting

So everyone you interact with uses signal, and no other Google apps, they all have rooted phones and no smart tvs etc? You avoid all traffic cameras and ring doorbells/other people’s phone cameras/microphones?

Privacy is not about absolutism. You do what you can within your threat model to stay protected.

Have you done this recently?

I’ve never had the need to, thankfully.

My experience is almost no 2FA/verification services will accept a VoIP number anymore

That’s unfortunate. In those cases, I would either go without 2FA (since it’s the service’s fault for being insecure at that point) or don’t use the service altogether.

Mullvad VPN and others have “obfuscation” methods to mask your traffic as regular web traffic. If those don’t work, I can always connect to a proxy or Tor as a plan B, or see if any other Wi-Fi networks are available. I’ve never had this be an issue, but there are certainly options available.

Wait, you need a phone # for signal…i thought.

You do. You can sign up with a VoIP number or a burner phone.

Also, this method only works for people in massive cities (1mil+). Less than that good luck getting wifi.

I don’t need to stay constantly connected. Even when Wi-Fi is available, I rarely have the need to use it.

That is too much of a massive convenience for little gain, if they want to find you, they will.

People have different threat models, so it’s not for everyone, but it’s certainly worth it for me.

They’ll just tap into your family or your neighbors phone.

And find what? Encrypted Signal messages?

Say you get lost or run out of gas.

GPS works without cellular, and I cycle instead of driving.

Gonna a call 911 every time that happens?

I can borrow someone else’s phone or keep an emergency phone switched off until it’s needed.

What if youre on the way to a friend’s house and they call and tell you they have to cancel or they need you to pick up something for them?

Stuff happens. If I really need to stay connected, I can use an external hotspot.

Yes, I lived before cell phones were a thing. But I cant imagine many people would put up with you.

If it’s that big of a deal that someone won’t associate with me, that is entirely their problem. It’s rarely ever an inconvenience for them.

I can’t say. It’s on their roadmap, but there’s no official announcements yet.

VoIP numbers should work, but if they don’t you can instead use a burner phone. There’s no way to register without a phone number yet.

You can still purchase an external cellular hotspot, which will be more private than a phone carrier.