Is the carriers' name displayed on the lockscreen a privacy risk?

Pavestone2734

I have been wondering, the name of my carrier is displayed on the top left of my lock screen, this may be information that can be used harmfully. Sure an attacker could just look at the physical SIM (if it's not a nondescript card) or just pop it into another device, But this is not the case with eSIMs. I feel there would be some benefit of hiding this. Is there a regulation that requires this? Otherwise is there currently a way to hide it?

de0u

Pavestone2734 I have been wondering, the name of my carrier is displayed on the top left of my lock screen, this may be information that can be used harmfully.

I am curious as to how a carrier name could be used against somebody. Note that it is possible for a variety of well-resourced parties to detect which carrier a device is connected to by monitoring, even without seeing the device.

Pavestone2734 Otherwise is there currently a way to hide it?

How about: Settings, Network & internet, SIMs, tap on the name of the SIM, tap the pen icon at the upper right of the screen.

DeletedUser215

de0u The pen-icon does not change the carrier name displayed in the statusbar. The pen-icon only change the display-name in settings, dialer- or messages-app.

de0u

DeletedUser215 I guess it is possible to submit an issue on the GrapheneOS issue tracker requesting that the status bar (including the lock screen) display the edited name instead of the name set by the carrier.

That said, if the request is just for a UI tweak I suspect it won't go anywhere, at least not without a detailed argument for how displaying the carrier's name would pose a plausible threat. In the past the GrapheneOS team has expressed disinterest in maintaining code that defends against casual adversaries but not against determined or well-resourced adversaries.

GrouchyGrape

@Pavestone2734 I agree with @de0u, if the party targeting you would benefit from knowing your carrier, it's unlikely they don't have the capability of determining this by other means. I don't see any practical privacy/security gain by hiding this

Pavestone2734

GrouchyGrape Someone taking a look, then it could be an indicator which carrier I'm with, which will make finding a phone number, private data about me easier, makes a SIM swap attack possible for example.