Hmm .. the author uses a hotspot connected with a SIM. Their whole argument hinges on not being tracked, but their hotspot is with them all the time. Seems like a massive hole in their privacy argument.
Good point. The author argues that:
they buy the device on your behalf so your real name never gets attached to it.
However it is relatively easy to attribute a sim card to person simply based on its usage. You also leave the same movement patterns on the mobile network. I don't see a benefit here compared to just using a sim card from a service provider that does not sell their customer data.
Yeah. He addresses it without much of a response.
And there's good arguments to be made that my hotspot is still trackable. Plus some of the apps I keep aren't great for privacy (like Duolingo, for example). Try as I might, there's only so much “harm reduction” I can do, and I could certainly get more protection by doing more. But as I've written about before, privacy is a spectrum, not a binary state of being.
He keeps a lot of crap that has user names and passwords. A VPN won't really help with those.
He also uses free public WiFi. It's probably okay since a lot of phones have randomized MAC addresses now but with facial recognition, they can easily attach that address with your identity.
It reduces the risk surface. If the device with a sim card doesn't have a microphone, camera, or gps, then if it gets exploited you have a higher barrier to losing all your privacy.
Hopping from wifi to wifi, and turning on a cellular modem on demand can work. When I was in Japan I met a girl who didn't have a sim card at all, not for privacy reasons, her life had enough wifi that it wasn't a issue.
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