04-08-2023, 04:34 PM
(04-08-2023, 10:34 AM)LienRag Wrote: Hi Pine !
I bought a pinephone but before installing it I would like to know what informations are leaked by powering it up and installing an OS on it (I'd like to try all the ones available), and to whom.
And ideally of course, how to avoid to leak anything.
If I understand correctly, if I set the physical kill switches to "cut" then nothing should be leaked.
Is that actually and entirely true ?
Is there a way to access the Net somehow in this situation (via some cable then I guess) ?
Once I'm done installing and I spoofed the MAC address, what would be leaked if I switch the Wifi on ?
If I put a SIM car on it, what will be leaked ? The IMEI number of the phone, the number associated with the SIM card, and the location of the SIM card I guess; anything else ?
How to spoof all these ? At least the IMEI number ? Or to prevent them from being leaked ?
in regards to mac addresses of wifi and bluetooth and imei of modem, turning killswitches 1 and 2 terminates mac address and imei totally. usb ethernet dongle could be used for internet.
mac addresses are not usually that big privacy nightmare. if you have spoofed mac addresses, i don't think there is other hardware related problems with wifi and bluetooth. however software may leak something though.
modem chip with sim leaks at least imsi and imei. imei could be changed, but it is ILLEGAL in some jurisdictions, like u.k.. see https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?...nging+imei . if mobile services are used then imsi is required. if modem is active without sim card, then i think imei is leaked, because of possible emergency calls.
in regards to location of a device, if modem chip is active, then operator knows rough location in all cases. gps location might be more complicated, because some software has to leak it somewhere, although there is theory that modem chip could do it by itself. do not confuse operator cell tower based location and gps location.
what i know of cellphone technology, phone numbers are not leaked, unless it is stored on a sim card somehow. only operator knows what imsi is connected to which phone number. sim cards do not know phone number directly.
previous explanations are usually hardware related. what software does and what software leaks. i'm usually more worried about google accounts and similar, then software in a phone is far more important. this means software toggles is usually enough for me.
those hardware methods start to sound paranoid. however, i live in a country which neighbors totalitarian regime, so those hardware switches and changing imei and mac addresses might be highly useful if i ever go to that regime.