I am at work on the night shift and I have activated a 7 day mint mobile sim to test how things work with a sim card vs without.
I use a vpn, and Inam curious how mybride home will be using mobile data for the first time.

I want to test it by using my GPS to get home, and I am curious what my limitations will be since I am going off data sim vs WiFi.

Can I keep airplane mode on while using data for the GPS from my sim card? Any setting recommendations for my first outing with my sim card using mobile data vs WiFi?

    d9780 Can I keep airplane mode on while using data for the GPS from my sim card?

    I didn't understand the rest of the questions I am sorry, but for this specific one, you can't use mobile data (Internet from your mobile carrier) while Airplane mode is enabled. Airplane mode disables the cellular modem so your phone can't communicate over cellular networks.

    And GPS doesn't require Internet access (WiFi or mobile), it still works without Internet. Although Internet access helps to "bootstrap" GPS so that it can determine your location faster.

      evalda

      That's fantastic! You really cleared that up for me!
      I am glad I can use my gps to connect through airplane mode.
      I was thinking there might be some kinda way to connect to the network for wifi but stay disconnected from the cellular network, but I guess what you're saying is, they are the same network so if I want data I need to connect....

      I wish I could have gotten a data only card so I didn't need the phone number identifier. Does it register my number w the cell tower even if I don't make or receive any calls?

        d9780 Cellular network and WiFi are different and don't depened on one another. You can enable Airplane mode and then enable WiFi. This way cellular modem will stay disabled and WiFi will work giving you Internet access.

        With data-only SIM card (or even without any SIM card inserted into a phone) cellular towers can still track your location. The only defenses against that are Airplane mode or power down your phone.

        It won't associate your location with any phone number (no SIM or data-only SIM) but still track your IEMI continuously, so after a shot while it will be clear to them where you sleep at night and your other popular locations like school or work.

          evalda
          I thought our pixel w graphene had an IMEI randomizer that changed around the number so they couldn't track it?

            d9780 I think you're mistaken it with WiFi MAC address randomizer which is enabled by default.

            IMEI cannot be (legally and, to a large extent, technically) randomized. Most regular people don't need that capability either.

            For someone at risk, the next best solution is having Airplane mode enabled all the time and access Internet via external mini-router + an array of 4G modems that can be easily rotated.

              evalda
              Also, even if the cell tower can track my IMEI number ( can it with accuracy with my location services off?), How would it know that IMEI number belonged to me?
              I have a pre paid SIM card to a dummy email, I bought the phone in a private transaction and I am using Graphene totally degoogled except for sandboxed play services in my work profile which I am signed out of unless I'm downloading an app?

              Also, you said airplane mode would prevent IMEI tracking, which we can use and still get internet?

                evalda
                Thank you. I did mistake the 2 .is there any reason not to always be in airplane mode with Graphene OS?

                  d9780 Like I mention in my previous comment, even if the SIM card is not registered on your name they can relatively easy figure out who you are by your location patterns, e.g. where you spend nights, where you most often during the day, who are the people who are often close to you.

                  d9780 An average user wants cellular services like calling, SMS and mobile data.

                  People at risk can certainly benefit from always on Airplane mode if they have to use a mobile device at all.

                  evalda

                  I found out my GPS problem. It was airplane mode. Even with WiFi toggled on my Waze navigation doesn't work in airplane mode. Does that make sense? I thought u said gos didn't need any connection other than proximity to the satellite s, unless I misunderstood you?

                    d9780 Let me explain.

                    Location is is tracked is 3 ways.

                    1. As long as your main cellular antenna is "on" (airplane mode off) The cellular network can triangulate your location, know your IMEI, know your sim card. Even if you don't have a sim, your phone is still connecting to the cell network and the network knows your IMEI and your location. They don't give you this location information, they keep it for themselves. If at somepoint in the past or in the future they findout who the IMEI belongs to then they know who it was, retrospectively too.
                    2. The GPS system in your phone looks directly to the sky and finds sattelites, and gives "you" your location, and doesn't give it to anybody else on grapheneOS (not the case on other phones). it takes 2-4 minutes for this GPS to "find itself". Having internet access allows your phone to download a "file" from the internet which helps your GPS find "itself" much quicker than 1-4 minutes. But without internet it works just fine. Needs direct sky view, doesn't work indoors.
                    3. Wifi triangulation. Your phone gather's data about all nearby wifi devices and passes it to the particular map "app". The app then submits that info to its server, and the server tells you where you are, quickly and accurately. This requires being connected to the internet. I don't know of an app that can use nearby wifi data to give you location without checking in with some server through the internet (if I'm wrong please correct me someone).

                    Under the "location" setting there is a "services" tab, and if you enable wifi location, then when your location is "on" the wifi data is also passed on to the app. If this setting is off then the wifi data is not passed on (right guys? am I correct?)

                    If you ever put a sim card in your device that is registered to your name, it will permanently associate your IMEI with your identity in the future forever. And anywhere you go, as long as the entenna is on the "network" knows your IMEI.

                    If you want to "disappear" from the network and get location, you need to turn on airplane mode and use gps and use an offline map. For a map app to be able to use the wifi to help with wifi triangulation, if it doesn't have internet then it has to have a local database of all wifi names and their hard locations, which I don't think any map app does. If you want to use wifi triangulation benefits, likely you will have to have internet, and you can't have internet from wifi while you are moving, so you will need to turn on your mobile data, which connects you to the cell network. This means you get good location data but the network knows where you are as well. And since your internet is "on" if the map app you are using is "malicious" then it too gets all that data.

                    Damn, hope I've made sense!

                    I think waze needs internet to work. Thats why you have to have airplane mode off and have mobile internet on. ITs not an offline map.

                    d9780
                    Navigation apps need to load the maps. To load the maps, they need internet access. Waze, in your case, wasn't working not because GPS needs internet access (it doesn't) but because the maps need internet access to load up.

                    Nav apps often have the ability to download maps for a certain area, not sure if Waze has this or not, but if it does, download to the map for your area and then try navigating with airplane mode on.

                    a year later

                    evalda it's not illegal everywhere, but yeah. I agree with your point