**Bob Mottram 🔧 ☕ ✅** @bob@soc.freedombone.net · May 17, 2018, 22:59

**Bob Mottram 🔧 ☕ ✅** @bob@soc.freedombone.net · May 17, 2018, 22:59

Bob Mottram 🔧 ☕ ✅ @bob@soc.freedombone.net

On geomonitoring. If you're carrying a baseband receiver connected to a battery then your position is logged every few seconds and the data stored by telcos. This isn't a new situation, it's been going on for at least a decade (probably longer). The resolution from triangulation especially in urban areas is good enough to tell who is sleeping with who.

This is why there's often advice to leave mobile phones at home if you attend a protest. Even if you use a burner phone the geolocation connects one phone to another within the tracking software.

So nobody in 2018 should really be surprised by this. By now the tracking systems will be in a highly advanced stage of development, probably using AI and unsupervised learning to make inferences and guess future movements based on historical patterns.

**Ɠεɱɩoɠ in .de** @gemlog@mastodonten.de · May 18, 2018, 15:20

**Ɠεɱɩoɠ in .de** @gemlog@mastodonten.de · May 18, 2018, 15:20

@bob I just use my phone (60$ andy from amazon) for wifi. I paid for phone for one month a year or 2 ago after the company phone stopped and it just wasn't worth it - I don't use it at all. And even my kids email me, because they know I hate phones. Literally zero sms/vox traffic i/o in one month. So I laughed at these posts.
Just realized I still have 911 service... So I'm still on that grid unless I remove the sim!! :-(
Forgot about that.

**Marcin Cieślak** @saper · May 18, 2018, 21:29

**Marcin Cieślak** @saper · May 18, 2018, 21:29

@gemlog @bob on some networks emergency calls will work without a SIM card

**Ɠεɱɩoɠ in .de** @gemlog@mastodonten.de · May 18, 2018, 21:36

**Ɠεɱɩoɠ in .de** @gemlog@mastodonten.de · May 18, 2018, 21:36

@saper @bob Son of a bitch! It's true!
No sim and it is still offering me 911 service. Can't kill that other radio!
Well spotted Marcin.

**Marcin Cieślak** @saper · May 18, 2018, 21:37

**Marcin Cieślak** @saper · May 18, 2018, 21:37

@gemlog @bob it's for your safety :)

a SIM card is needed only to store a private key of you as a subscriber and to do some crypto. Besides, it is used as a plain memory for contacts/SMS/whatever.

There is no radio stuff in there.

**Sean R. Lynch ☑️** @seanl@literati.org · May 18, 2018, 21:48

**Sean R. Lynch ☑️** @seanl@literati.org · May 18, 2018, 21:48

@saper @gemlog @bob There is a code you can dial to turn the cellular radio off entirely, but it unfortunately does not survive reboot, so you'd have to dial it every time you rebooted your phone. There might be an app that'll do it.

**Ɠεɱɩoɠ in .de** @gemlog@mastodonten.de · May 18, 2018, 21:49

**Ɠεɱɩoɠ in .de** @gemlog@mastodonten.de · May 18, 2018, 21:49

@seanl @saper @bob But that implies that I can dial a number?? :-)
I'll just retire it and find a tiny tablet w/o that radio!

**Marcin Cieślak** @saper · 2018-05-18T21:53:53Z

Marcin Cieślak @saper

@gemlog @seanl @bob unfortunately. I found this interesting:

http://what-when-how.com/roaming-in-wireless-networks/scenarios-global-system-for-mobile-communication-gsm-part-1/

I think on #CCC events #eventphone operates a #GSM network where no authentication is needed and every creature is welcome

May 18, 2018, 21:53 · Web · 0 · 1

**Ɠεɱɩoɠ in .de** @gemlog@mastodonten.de · May 18, 2018, 21:59

**Ɠεɱɩoɠ in .de** @gemlog@mastodonten.de · May 18, 2018, 21:59

@saper @seanl @bob Thank you so much! This thread held a lot of new information for me.
Frankly, I didn't realize I was getting so low on tinfoil for my hat.

**Marcin Cieślak** @saper · May 18, 2018, 22:04

**Marcin Cieślak** @saper · May 18, 2018, 22:04

@gemlog @seanl @bob I usually carry a simple GSM phone. What I noticed I almost get used to not using it - I tend to forget it at home, in the bag, in the car. Leaving home without it may be a nuisance but not a disaster. Looks like having no Internet on the device makes the detachment easier.

**Ɠεɱɩoɠ in .de** @gemlog@mastodonten.de · May 18, 2018, 22:09

**Ɠεɱɩoɠ in .de** @gemlog@mastodonten.de · May 18, 2018, 22:09

@saper @seanl @bob I'm the other way around. For 40 yrs I've been tethered to some kind of device (pager,beeper) and when I didn't have a phone last year I bought one and 1 mo of service. I phoned no one. And no one phone me (even my kids know i hate phones). So I don't have one and I'm happy.
I'll be even happier when I ditch this little thing and get something with no cdma/gsm radio at all!

**Sean R. Lynch ☑️** @seanl@literati.org · May 18, 2018, 23:17

**Sean R. Lynch ☑️** @seanl@literati.org · May 18, 2018, 23:17

@gemlog @saper @bob I actually bought a pager to help me ditch phone service. Now I just need to finish writing the XMPP bot to redirect incoming SMS there from soprani.ca and let me reply via APRS.

**Ɠεɱɩoɠ in .de** @gemlog@mastodonten.de · May 18, 2018, 23:21

**Ɠεɱɩoɠ in .de** @gemlog@mastodonten.de · May 18, 2018, 23:21

@seanl @saper @bob beepers were the first bane of my existence! :-)
I'm 57. I have no phone.
This is the first year of my life since I was 17 years old that someone couldn't just press a button and make me do something.
And I still have to check email...

**Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK** @vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de · May 18, 2018, 22:19

**Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK** @vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de · May 18, 2018, 22:19

@saper @gemlog @seanl @bob

the eventphone GSM network uses unique simcards (the factories making them even for UK networks, seem to be mostly in Germany anyway!)

I think they also have to get permission from the BNetzA to run the experimental base station.

The rest of the phonesets used are DECT where the authentication is built in (IPUI/IPEI), I think they use base stations recovered from large corporate PBXs when businesses close down

https://events.ccc.de/tag/gsm/