Thoughts on social media device? (lemmy.world)

submitted 5 days ago by cosmicrookie@lemmy.world to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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I have been trying to de-google and de-meta my life, but although i haven't had facebook for a year and a half, i need it for work. Also i do miss marketplace, and some niche groups.

i have been thinking to setup a used android phone, that runs a new google account, that is not related to my (still at use google account). (as hard as i try, some profiles can't be unlinked to google once you have linked them).

Anyway - my concern is, that i'd still be trackable, even if i leave it at home and only use it when i need to use it. Won't meta eventually be able to link my identity to my nework, IP, location etc?

What would be the best way to go around this?

And what to do with secutiry verifications where they as for your phonenumber or to confirm, your ID with an SMS?

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[-] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

Huh? Are you asking if the phone should be replaced regularly?

What I meant specifically was the phone verification. You'll need to get an actual burner cell phone for that. Get a tracphone or other similar prepaid plan, something you can buy in cash. Keep that phone powered off and in a faraday bag. Only take it out of the bag in a location other than your home or workplace, and only for the purposes of phone verification. Have the social media phone be a smart phone that you only use via wifi connected through a VPN.

[-] floofloof@lemmy.ca 6 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

There's still the risk of GPS coordinates leaking out of the social media phone, and that leading Google to be able to correlate it with the person's main phone. Even without GPS there's the position based on nearby wifi networks etc. So you'd have to be sure all location services were disabled. Still, someone knows which cell towers your phones connect to and could correlate their locations if they repeatedly come close to one another, though Meta probably don't have ready access to that data. Something's always being sold to data brokers though, and it's very hard to prevent them from spotting patterns that reveal who you really are.

[-] cosmicrookie@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago

Thanks - yeah i thought you were talking about the phone that would run the apps, but you were describing the part of the phone verification!

this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2025

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