Is it worth buying a Pixel with cash?

eclecticeclair

My SIM is linked to my name, address, ID, etc. Is it worth buying a Pixel with cash anyway, considering it'd still get easily linked to me and I would be giving up the benefits of using a digital payment method?

Carrousel7956

What is your threat model

eclecticeclair

Carrousel7956 Big tech and state tracking/surveillance.

pizzadequeso Good point.

DeletedUser550 It's actually more expensive if I use cash, due to bank/wallet offers. Non-KYC SIMs haven't been a thing here for decades.

pizzadequeso

My guess is that retailers don't send your card info/device bought to google.

Vincent96

Probably not.

DeletedUser550

Cash is king, and you could probably leverage a better deal for cash.
Once you have your anonymous phone for cash, your next hurdle is getting a non KYC sim for cash....
Putting your used known sim in your phone, you bought for cash, to be anonymous, defeats the object, somewhat.

Carrousel7956

Silent Link and jmp chat are both non kyc

eclecticeclair

Carrousel7956 I really don't like e-sims.

Carrousel7956 What do I want to protect? - Mostly [inferred] location and browsing habits.
Who do I want to protect it from? - Big tech and state tracking/surveillance.
How likely is it that I will need to protect it? Low.
How bad are the consequences if I fail? Not that bad, but still annoying. I dislike tracking and data collection, is all.
How much trouble am I willing to go through to try to prevent potential consequences? Anything short of giving up on using the internet entirely.

Carrousel7956

You only gave one part of your threat model. It is hard for me to answer your question without more info.

From privacyguides.org
What do I want to protect?
Who do I want to protect it from?
How likely is it that I will need to protect it?
How bad are the consequences if I fail?
How much trouble am I willing to go through to try to prevent potential consequences?

newbie24689

eclecticeclair

I dislike tracking and data collection, is all.

Ditto that!

Sigh.... a lot of time and effort can be invested in trying to be invisible - making daily use a PITA.

And of course ONE small screw-up may be enough to get you into a data base.

gta3

Cash is king
Use facebook marketplace, Craigslist, Gumtree etc

Carrousel7956

I think based on your threat model that buying in cash could protect you from big data knowing that you bought a pixel. Besides that I don't see the benefits. The gains are going to be from using grapheneos.

Paying with cash gives less knowledge about what you buy from bank/credit card/ data broker. It negligible for government because of the sim. Since you are willing to do a lot I would reconsider the esim personally because that seems really invasive considering location. Idk how expensive it is where you live but the silent Link and smspool data is much cheaper than carriers in USA.

I do think cash and even more so Monero are great clean ways to transact when possible.

Definitely don't let these considerations deter you from getting a pixel with grapheneos.

eclecticeclair

Carrousel7956 I found it cheaper at a brick-and-mortar store, so cash it is.

I hate the idea of an e-sim because I can't take it out. I know, flight mode exists and taking it out doesn't mean much in the age of sim-free emergency calls, but still. Also, I can't get XMR or any other crypto anonymously with cash here. Price is not an issue as I don't even use 500MiB of cellular a year.