In the modern world of smartphones and constant connectivity, many people are concerned about their privacy and want to know if their phones can be tracked. While no phone is completely untraceable, there are some things you can do to make your phone more private and difficult to track.
Burner Phones
One option is to use a burner phone, also known as a disposable or prepaid phone. These are basic phones that you can buy without providing any personal information or signing a contract. You simply pay cash for the phone and minutes up front. Burner phones make it very difficult for someone to trace the phone back to you. However, they also have limited functionality compared to smartphones.
Removing the Battery and SIM Card
If you have a regular smartphone, you can make it untraceable for a period of time by removing the battery and SIM card. Without power and a SIM card, the phone is unable to connect to cell towers or WiFi, making it impossible to track. However, this means you also cannot use the phone during this time.
Using a Faraday Bag
A Faraday bag or Faraday cage is a special bag or enclosure that blocks all signals from reaching your phone. This stops your phone from connecting to cell towers and WiFi. As long as your phone remains inside the Faraday bag, it cannot be tracked. However, you also cannot receive calls or access any apps requiring an internet connection while the phone is in the bag.
Turning Off Location Services
All smartphones have location services built in that constantly track your GPS coordinates. You can make your phone much harder to pinpoint by going into your settings and disabling location services. This will prevent many apps and services from seeing your phone’s location. However, determined trackers can still approximate your location by triangulating the nearest cell towers.
Using a VPN or Tor
When you access the internet on your phone, your IP address can be used to determine your approximate location. Using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or the Tor browser routes your traffic through intermediary servers, masking your IP address. This makes your phone’s internet activity more private and anonymous. However, advanced trackers may still be able to determine your location through techniques like browser fingerprinting.
Using Airplane Mode
The simplest way to stop your phone being tracked is to put it into Airplane Mode. This disconnects the phone from all networks and stops any signals. However, it also means you cannot use your phone for anything until you turn Airplane Mode off again. It essentially turns your smartphone temporarily into a music player or handheld game device.
Getting a Dumb Phone
If you want to avoid being tracked entirely, you may want to get an old-fashioned “dumb phone.” These have limited functionality focused on calls and texting only. They do not have GPS or apps constantly sending out data on your location and activities. However, you also lose access to most of what makes smartphones useful.
Factory Resetting Your Phone
If you want to keep using a smartphone but make it much harder to trace, consider factory resetting it. This will wipe the phone back to factory default settings and delete any apps, accounts, and data on the device. However, any persistent spyware could reinstall itself after the reset unless you reflash the operating system.
Using an Old Phone
Older phones from 5 or 10 years ago lack many of the tracking capabilities present in modern smartphones. The older operating systems and more limited connectivity of these phones make them much harder to trace remotely. You can pick up an old used phone and use it without any accounts or personal data.
Not Connecting to Personal WiFi
Your phone’s frequent connections to your home, work, and other personal WiFi networks allow it to be traced and your activity monitored. Never connecting to any personal WiFi stops your phone pinging networks known to be associated with you. This makes your usage patterns harder to establish.
Spoofing Your GPS Location
Some phones let you download apps that spoof or fake your GPS location. The phone will report an incorrect location, misleading any tracking attempts. However, this only works on some operating systems and incorrect location data can cause issues with maps, weather, and other apps.
Conclusion
While no phone is 100% untraceable, there are steps you can take to make yourself much less easy to track such as using a burner phone, disabling connections, or spoofing your GPS. However, these come with tradeoffs in terms of functionality and convenience. You need to decide how much privacy is worth sacrificing smartphone features and connectivity.