By default my cell phone is a surveillance device. I fixed that.
2025-10-10
One of my ongoing experiments at increasing privacy has been a shift in my phone use. A bit of context: the phone has always been my least favorite computing device. The screen is too small, I don’t like typing on it and I rarely get real calls but I do get a lot of spam calls. So, for me, it’s always mostly been a camera and portable music player. Also, I work from home with good internet and rarely get in a car. Last, my work does not require me to be always available for text or call. With that context, this is my new and expected long-term phone specific privacy plan.
I’ve come to consider the mobile phone to be a last resort device and as a device for self-surveillance. The phone is the primary leaker of personal data, specifically in regards to location tracking so mine is powered off or in Airplane mode. And all location services are turned off in settings so, in theory, the GPS radio should be off. If I’m traveling I’ll take it but leave it off unless I need to make a call for an emergency. I’m not sure I’ve ever needed to make such a call but I have it there if I need it. Or, if at home, should I need to call 911. That’s it.
It can still be used as a camera and I can still copy music from my local network or an audio podcast should I want it for a walk or while out cutting grass or doing chores.
Extreme? I don’t think so. Once I could see it for what it was designed to be, no, not at all. Prudent is how I would describe it.
Bonus. I was previously on T-Mobile’s cheapest cell plan that included unlimited data. I never used the data. The plan was around $50. Turns out, they have a voice and text only plan for $20. Perfect. As of yesterday I no longer have mobile internet on my phone and I won’t miss it.
Most of my texting and audio calls to people I know now happens via Signal. It’s free and easy to set-up on any phone and can then be installed on a tablet or computer. There’s no difficulty and it’s secure. If a friend or family member wants or needs to talk to me they can install it. I sort of think of it as a “line in the sand” but one I intend to stick to because moving to a non-corporate, secure messaging service benefits everyone.
Exceptions
So, what do I do for making phone calls or texting that require an actual phone number? The answer there is pretty simple and inexpensive: MySudo. An app and service that seems to be primarily intended for use on an iPhone or Android device. That’s the downside. The app can only be downloaded from one of the Appstores and the service can only be paid for through the Appstore. I’ll make that concession. I’ve installed it on the iPhone and an iPad. I don’t expect to use it much on the iPhone but will use it on the iPad when needed as the iPad is a device I still use often with a VPN over wifi. Calls made over my home internet sound just as good or better than a standard cell call.
The other use for MySudo is for texting aquantances who are not family or close friends. I have a handful of these folks that now have the MySudo number. I’ve told them that I’ll only be checking the old number for texts or voice mails once a week. Essentially, that number is now my junk box or emergency “land line”.
That’s it. Those are the exceptions.
MySudo costs $1.99/month for 1 line which includes 30 minutes of talk time, and 100 texts per month, 3 sudo email addresses with 2GB of total storage data. $4.99/month includes 3 phone numbers, 300 texts per month and 200 minutes, 3 sudo email addresses and 3GB of data. Finally, there’s a plan for $14.99/month that indludes 9 Sudo phone numbers, Unlimited texts and unlimited minutes. That plan also includes a whopping 9 Sudo email addresses and 15 GB storage.
In my first trial/test month I went with the cheapest plan. I may bump up to the $4.99 plan which may be more than I need. But I can imagine that a small business/office setting might benefit from a service like this, especially the $14.99/month plan with 9 numbers/email addresses and unlimited text/minutes.
In case it’s not obvious, I’ll point out that MySudo has other benefits in terms of privacy.
- When I make a call from my cell phone my phone is not encrypted and is pinging/using a cell tower, my carrier has full metadata on that call, specifically where I called from, who I called and the time. All of this is kept in a database. A call with MySudo over wifi/internet is likely to a standard line so not really private as it is exposed on one end. But, at least from my end, that call metadata is obfuscated. The company providing service to the other number has my number but not my name or a carrier provider. If the call is between MySudo lines it is end-to-end encrypted and private.
- Like Signal, texting is encrypted when messaging other MySudo users though that encryption is pointless when sending standard texts to a standard phone line. Read more about MySudo encryption.
I’ve only touched on the basics of how MySudo can be used. They’ve got a whitepaper that details the many different ways their platform can be useful. Particularly worth noting is the use of Personas which I have not touched on in this post because I have not yet begun to consider how I might use such a feature. The whitepaper describes the details of how such a feature adds to user privacy.
A final note of comparison and a summary
Previously I was using and paying for two internet lines. A mobile line which leaked my location via cell phone towers every moment of the day. If I walked a mile to the mailboxes with an active connection to a cell tower that was mapped. If I drove to town the time and locations I visited were mapped. My mobile surveillance device would also log, for example, if I used an elevator in an office building, noting the elevation change as well as the speed of change. If I use a stair well this would be notably different and also logged. Along with these things if I was wearing a fitness band or watch all of this data was complimented with my vitals like heart rate. At any point during the day, if I used the phone to browse the web or use an app those actions were also recorded and correlated with my location. This is just a glimpse of the data that was captured. All of the above and much more data was collected and tied to my device and sold to various data brokers.
That device is now turned off unless I need to make an emergency call. Two or three services also require sms for 2FA in which case I have to activate the cellure connection long enough to recieve the sms text. The internet data on this line is now turned off.
My only internet connection is my home internet connection which also operates via a cell tower and has an associated IP address and location. It is a given that I’ll have the home internet but it reports only one geo-location which is an obvious one, my home so there’s no granularity. I use a trusted VPN provider with this connection so my provider knows nothing about what I’m doing. In this scenario Signal and MySudo provide me with the same voice, video and messaging as the cell phone but now with much greater privacy. Most of my communication is now encrypted. Only a few standard sms texts and phone calls to standard lines are exposed and only on the other end of the communication.
This new arrangement costs less and is less restrictive because calls can be made from more devices, not just a phone. In other words, now that it is set-up, it is actually far easier to use, costs less and is far more private.
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