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[-] lurch@sh.itjust.works 148 points 1 month ago

lol, they can track the IMEI. the phone component still works without the SIM, for example to make emergency calls. that means it is still able to connect to cell towers and you can still triangulate it's position to some degree.

I'm afraid, you'll have to cut the phone in half instead. can't be helped.

[-] Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io 18 points 1 month ago

Ok, if you say so. Can I just cut the camera out, and still use that?

[-] Geth@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 1 month ago

You can buy pre-cut cameras at the camera shop. They tend to come with a screen and modular lenses.

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[-] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 12 points 1 month ago

They can track my phone, not me. I don't need it on me at all times. I almost considered a landline but they cost a fortune so I decided against it.

[-] Reyali@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

US Mobile offers landlines for $10/mo (link). I can’t speak to that service but I’ve been on a cell plan with them for almost a year and my only complaint has been some weirdness on early auto-payments, but once that was sorted out everything was fine. I’ve referred several people who also seem to be happy with the service as well.

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[-] Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 month ago

Nah. Rip out the antennae assembly. The phone might be a bit complain-y about it (or fail some kind of pre-boot check and not boot)? never done it to find out though.

[-] essell@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago

It's been a few years since I was inside iPhones regularly but back then.. All of them had a physical antenna or two which plugged into a board on a little coax connection.

Unplug those, no reception, phone just assumes it's in a dead zone.

WiFi would still work if enabled. Which probably means they could find you via WiFi even if switched off in the current world

[-] Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 month ago

Cellular typically uses a separate antenna than wifi, on a smartphone i imagine they're directly on the wireless chip instead of a daughter-board? Laptops and bigger stuff usually routes the antenna wires to the back of the lid, behind the screen, im more used to that

[-] Kolanaki@pawb.social 54 points 1 month ago

People with esims are just gonna assume they aren't being tracked. 😩

[-] TehBamski@lemmy.world 28 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

This PSA has the same vibes of the late great Apple Ads 4chan made back in the day.

Exhibit A:

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ipad-spoofing/

Exhibit B:

2a)

2b)

2c)

reaction)

)

https://cheezburger.com/110341/4chan-hoax-ios-7-makes-iphone-waterproof

[-] bigchungus@piefed.blahaj.zone 13 points 1 month ago
[-] degen@midwest.social 4 points 1 month ago

Is this what actually got people to microwave their phones? I never saw these and thought it stemmed from fake videos. The design is pretty on point tbh

[-] Speculater@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

Or old-school "Household Hacker."

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[-] bigchungus@piefed.blahaj.zone 21 points 1 month ago

Even without a SIM card you're not much less trackable. The phone still maintains a connection with the cellular towers for emergency services, sometimes even when it's fully powered off. The best way to prevent this is to remove the battery.

[-] slazer2au@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

sometimes even when it's fully powered off

How when there is no power going to the mobile transceiver?

[-] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 27 points 1 month ago

Because "off" is not really off in most mobile devices, more like a deep hibernate. Conveniently you can also no longer remove the batteries from any modern phone.

[-] slazer2au@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Because "off" is not really off in most mobile devices, more like a deep hibernate

What is your source on that because when I was working for a wireless telco we did a spectrum analysis of mobiles off and on and the phone signal drops below the noise floor when off with or without the battery connected.

[-] wander1236@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 month ago

iPhones have a feature where they still intermittently broadcast a Bluetooth signal after being turned off or even if they shut off because of low battery: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255809396?sortBy=rank.

Google does the same thing with the Pixel: https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/9338817?hl=en-AU#zippy=%2Cstep-find-offline-devices-and-devices-without-power.

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[-] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 month ago

My understanding is that it's not the phone signal, but bluetooth low power mode, which is how many countries did covid exposure tracking.

So not full location triangulation, but more a hypothetical that a business or government could very easily set up bt low power beacons and identify devices that got in range like they did for covid tracking.

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[-] tackleberry@thelemmy.club 19 points 1 month ago

Well, if you were born in 2013 and later, there is a dude named Edward Snowden who told people about this but they called him names. This is not new. Anonymity on the internet has become a fantasy today.

[-] hydroxycotton@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago

Also if you existed before 2013, Ed's revelations are somehow still relevant.

[-] kautau@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago

I am genuinely surprised at the amount of people in the comments who don’t realize this is satire

Oh most people get it would be my guess, they just prefer commenting on mass surveillance.

I mean we have e-sim now but within the demographics of Lemmy, people know about old sim cards for sure.

[-] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 month ago

I always leave my phone at home when doing crimes.

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[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

Still tracks you when you connect to wifi.

[-] Luminous5481@anarchist.nexus 10 points 1 month ago

SIM cards? what is this, 2014?

[-] probablymissing@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago

not every phone has this "esim" black magic witchcraft in it today. i got my phone in 2024, and i've got a sim card, the way it should be. esim supporters should be burned at the stake for their heresy!

...i'm kidding, of couse. i don't support burnings anymore!

[-] Luminous5481@anarchist.nexus 7 points 1 month ago

the joke was this is a picture of what looks like an iphone 6, released in 2014

[-] probablymissing@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

oh... i just look cringe now...

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[-] Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 month ago

Functionally, AFAIK there's nothing really stopping older devices from being updated to use e-sim. They work just fine for emergency service calls, the little chip doesn't matter that much to the underlying hardware

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[-] BladeFederation@piefed.social 9 points 1 month ago
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[-] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 month ago
[-] WolfLink@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 month ago

You can tell because there’s only one camera instead do the 3-6 on a modern phone

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That cut doesn't actually go through the chip

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[-] confusedwiseman@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 month ago

So what do I do with the eSIM?

[-] kylie_kraft@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

put your phone in the microwave on high for 30 seconds, it wipes eSIM

[-] confusedwiseman@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 month ago

Bonus super fast wireless charging!!!

[-] CameronDev@programming.dev 7 points 1 month ago

Drill press

[-] Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io 6 points 1 month ago

Use eScissors, cut it!

[-] lol_idk@piefed.social 6 points 1 month ago

Delete the French localization too

[-] snek_boi@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I like how they’re already tracking me. I’m still trying to understand how the meaning changes with and without the quotations, but it certainly feels important or something

[-] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 month ago

Everything works perfectly fine, and on top of that all the robot spam calls stopped!

[-] saltnotsugar@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

This also stops those pesky scam calls!

[-] AlexLost@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

This is deliciously evil

[-] papalonian@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

🤓 that sim card would still work, the smaller sim cards are the same chip just in a smaller plastic housing, you can cut them to size and some of them (like the one in the photo) come with premade lines as guides

[-] Texas_Hangover@lemmy.radio 5 points 1 month ago

Thatsthejoke.trd

[-] WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today 3 points 1 month ago

No shit. It's why I plan to make custom EM shielding for my devices, including my ID card...just to break the tracking.

[-] ozymandias@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

tinfoil actually works for this

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this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2026
566 points (95.1% liked)

Memes

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Post memes here.

A meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme.

An Internet meme or meme, is a cultural item that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. The name is by the concept of memes proposed by Richard Dawkins in 1972. Internet memes can take various forms, such as images, videos, GIFs, and various other viral sensations.


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