No #phone. No leash. No trace.
https://untraceabledigitaldissident.com/the-day-you-ditch-your-phone-shouldnt-be-the-first-time/
Discussion
The irony of a blog like this serving cookies...
The ability to disconnect without anxiety is a superpower
Reading this on my phone… painful
I have never been able to find one of these and I am not sure why but an air-gapped PDA only a MicroSD for data transfer. No Bluetooth, NFC, Cell, GPS, or anything connective. No RF whatsoever.
Do I have to just make one myself?
I have a GrapheneOS with no phone service at all (and of course no Google sign-in). I use it with a VPN pretty much as a tablet.
I think we should get back to using our computers (Linux, encrypted) for most of our digital work, using FOSS.
Been using grapheneOS for a while and often turn off radios. I know that's still not good enough, though. The tricky thing is communications with spouse and kids - walkie talkies have such short range and LoRa seems to have similar range issues. I don't think I could get my wife to get a ham license. I hope mesh networks or walkies get better ranges without massive antennas.
The advice here is solid, but I choose a slightly different route. I turn on tracking ability for my immediate family. They know this, and regularly use “Find My” to see how soon the pizza’s coming home.
This also has the effect of being their evidence of my mundainity, and ability to be mobilized to run if my typical patterns suddenly deviated significantly because then they know something is off.
I can’t beat the State and Big Tech, but I can make my presence and behavior so non-threatening that I become not worth the effort to harm. This isn’t capitulating, it’s protecting my family.