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this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2026
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Privacy
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Can this be true if you use a device without any connection to the internet and no SIM card?
I mean could a hardware connect to some kind of network to send private information? Let's assume it can read wireless network even with wifi turned off, it still needs to find a network and a password to connect to it.
Because the basic thing is, it won't expose your data if doesn't leave your phone, right?
sorry for linking to youtube but it's related and from NaomiBrockwell ☞ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyirQOCUUK8
Good video
It depends on what kind of devices you're using.
It's my understanding that SIM cards in phones are just to tie an account and identity to your phone, for purposes of enforcing people to be paying customers for the phone/data services, and tracking your usage based on what level service you're paying for and what you should receive (5GB of data monthly, unlimited texts, etc)
But if your phone doesn't have a SIM card in it, its still connecting to cell towers for purposes of emergency dialing, and the phone itself can continue to be tracked by cell carriers based on what physical cell towers its connecting to, as you travel around. The cell phone modem itself can control and connect to networks independently of what the OS running on the phone tell it to do, its a self contained black box.
If you have something like a desktop or laptop, both Intel and AMD have "management engines" embedded in the CPU's themselves that can take control of the device for purposes of shutting down, wiping, etc a company machine that has sensitive information or access on it, and has been reported stolen, not returned by an ex employee, etc. These management engines have direct access to the network stack and can phone home whenever a network connections is present, either from a WiFi network, physical Ethernet cable, or 4G/5G WWAN card.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Management_Engine
If you have a device that is basically air gapped, no WiFi, no cellphone chip, no bluetooth, etc, than it's still possible to exfiltrate information off the device, but the software running on the device would have to be programming to be searching for methods to do that. Your average device, unless it's running malicious software, probably won't be doing that.
You've got the idea. There's a bunch to unpack here:
If you're asking if it is possible to hide a secret antennae in an officially offline device, yes, absolutely.
I've heard privacy nerds theorize that these will become common in smart TVs, so the TV can phone the vendor with screenshots, even (especially) when playing pirated local media.
Exactly. And you've also caught the tricky bit - it's hard to be 100% sure a device isn't phoning home if the device is a closed proprietary (secret) design, running closed proprietary (secret) software.
I mean you could in theory disassembly your phone, remove antenna, wifi, mic, camera and sensors parts.
Then you still have a tool, transfer things you need via USB only.
I really don't think something can leak from your phone after that, even emergency calls might not work if you removed the antenna.
I know this might cross the line of paranoiac but some people do this, I'd do it too if I was too concerned about privacy, which I'm not. I'm just an average privacy enthusiast.
rather than hacking wifi, it connect to mobile internet even without sim card. that is much simpler, the mobile internet is basically anywhere and it is free as part of some spying cartel with the mobile network operators.
any new car also spy on you and you don't need to provide sim card for that.