cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/40154928
I doubt its even environmentally/economically sustainable for a whole crowd of millions to just buy burners to discard after every protest. Too much ewaste. Is there a strategy that everyone can use without generating too much ewaste?
That burner phone can still be traced back to you.
That burner phone is likely going to require you to sign into a Google account with a phone number before it will do absolutely anything. All “feature phones” are running some form of Android, and Android requires this in their ToS.
Depending on what that means, sure. Most likely scenario is that you get apprehended, can’t discard the phone for whatever reason, and the cops search it. In that case yeah sure it can be traced back to you.
If you are careful and only use it for (careful) photography and maps (as OP requested), then I feel like it can’t really be traced back to you if you discard it or give it to someone else etc, except maybe fingerprints and DNA (but cops likely won’t have the resources to do that for everyone in the entire protest). And for situations like this it a digital camera or a paper map could be traced all the same.
I’m not talking about “feature phones”. Just a regular old midrange smartphone. E.g. the original Samsung Galaxy A-series.
Some of them will, sure. Check before buying (or just make a new Google account without linking it to a phone number - might require a VPN to somewhere else but doable). I’ve had plenty of smartphones where you can just skip it. You won’t have access to Google Play and such but that might be a bonus :)
I’m too lazy to check but I highly doubt it - Google is not available in China at all and yet there are plenty of Android smartphones sold there. Also Android is mostly open-source and different vendors can and do build different versions of it.
It means they can find out where it was purchased and by whom.
Still runs Android.
All of them. Again, this is required by Android ToS.
Are we talking about China? If you live in China your cell phone is the least of your concerns. They don’t need it.
How? Do the e-waste centers keep track of the shit you take from there? Not where I live, they can sometimes give you stuff for free. Or you can just pick it up on ebay/craigslist/garage sale, that works too. Good luck tracking that.
I strongly doubt that because on my two last phones (OnePlus 5 & POCO M5) I didn’t have to log in to a Google account with the default ROM, there was an obvious “Skip” button in the lower left corner when prompted to log in. Can you point me towards that ToS or a screenshot of an unskippable “Sign in to Google” screen on a consumer smartphone?