WEBVTT - Are Burner Phones Really Anonymous?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff Lauren

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<v Speaker 1>Vogelbon Here. You may hear about them on the news

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<v Speaker 1>or in a movie with the suspect used a burner

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<v Speaker 1>phone to contact the family after the kidnapping, or you

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<v Speaker 1>might have seen them at a convenience store. Burner phones

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<v Speaker 1>are cheap phones that come with pre paid minutes. These

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<v Speaker 1>are simple devices that tend to resemble old flip phones,

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<v Speaker 1>though they often have touchscreens and smartphone features as well.

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<v Speaker 1>These burner phones come preloaded with a certain amount of

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<v Speaker 1>call minutes or text messages, which can also be reloaded

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<v Speaker 1>when exhausted. For the article, this episode is based on

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<v Speaker 1>How Stuff Works. Spoke via email with Shanel Agarwal, a

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<v Speaker 1>cyber expert who currently serves as a CCO for the

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<v Speaker 1>software and web development company tech Ahead. He said people

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<v Speaker 1>who want to remain private were anonymous for a variety

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<v Speaker 1>of reasons, such as journalists, activists, or people engaging in

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<v Speaker 1>illegal activities frequently use them. Other common users include those

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<v Speaker 1>who want to keep their identity a secret. This can

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<v Speaker 1>be great if, for example, a person trying to get

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<v Speaker 1>out of a bad home situation doesn't want their texts

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<v Speaker 1>or calls to be monitored by volatile members of the household,

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<v Speaker 1>but on a larger scale. Even if you pay cash

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<v Speaker 1>for the phone and the minutes, it doesn't mean that

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<v Speaker 1>you're totally incognito to the powers that be. A cell

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<v Speaker 1>phones can be easily tracked and mined for data by

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<v Speaker 1>app developers, third party advertisers, and even local governments. In

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<v Speaker 1>the United States, the legislative acts such as the Foreign

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<v Speaker 1>Intelligence Surveillance Act and the infamous Patriot Act have given

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<v Speaker 1>the federal and state governments great power when it comes

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<v Speaker 1>to tracking and retrieving wireless communications. Ostensibly, these laws concerned

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<v Speaker 1>matters of national security, but they've been used as a

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<v Speaker 1>pretense numerous times by law enforcement to surveil the lives

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<v Speaker 1>of ordinary citizens. In most cases, the acies invoking these

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<v Speaker 1>acts aren't even required to obtain a formal search warrant.

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<v Speaker 1>Some activist groups, such as the American Civil Liberties Union

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<v Speaker 1>or ACLU, consider this to be a violation of the

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<v Speaker 1>Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, which protects against unreasonable search

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<v Speaker 1>and seizure. More recently, law enforcement agencies have added a

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<v Speaker 1>tool known as the stingray to their arsenal. These devices

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<v Speaker 1>have been suspected to be deployed during mass protests, including

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<v Speaker 1>the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in twenty twenty. The stingray

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<v Speaker 1>is essentially a small temporary cell tower that inserts itself

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<v Speaker 1>as a bottleneck between mobile phones and their networks. If

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<v Speaker 1>you're in range of a stingray, then your phone will

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<v Speaker 1>automatically connect to it as if it were a legitimate tower.

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<v Speaker 1>You'll be able to use mobile data as normal, but

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<v Speaker 1>things like calls, text messages, and passwords may be covertly

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<v Speaker 1>intercepted by the party but controls the antenna. Private companies

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<v Speaker 1>can also declare open season on your mobile data. Given

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<v Speaker 1>some smartphone apps some permissions to access things like your location,

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<v Speaker 1>contact list, or microphone shady developers can then turn around

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<v Speaker 1>and sell this data to advertisers and government entities as

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<v Speaker 1>an underhanded way of making extra money. All that being said,

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<v Speaker 1>burners do have their advantages. Normal cell phones usually require

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<v Speaker 1>a carrier wireless plan, which comes with a contract that's

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<v Speaker 1>tied to the user's legal name. This means any data

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<v Speaker 1>scraped from your phone can easily be tied to your identity.

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<v Speaker 1>Burner phones add an extra layer of protection because they

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<v Speaker 1>can usually be purchased with cash and with no contract required.

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<v Speaker 1>Agarwall said burner phones can be beneficial for keeping privacy

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<v Speaker 1>and anonymity in certain situations, such as when dealing with

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<v Speaker 1>sources as a journalist, or while going to a new

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<v Speaker 1>country where local simcards may be necessary. To make sure

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<v Speaker 1>that their anonymity and privacy continues, users of these phones

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<v Speaker 1>will often disconnect or burn the dive after a certain

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<v Speaker 1>amount of time, or even throw it away. If anonymous

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<v Speaker 1>calls are still needed, they'll replace the phone with a

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<v Speaker 1>new prepaid number. If a third party happens to be

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<v Speaker 1>scraping the device for data, then this method ensures that

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<v Speaker 1>their information stream will end when the phone is burned.

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<v Speaker 1>Burner phones offer the strength of anonymity upon purchase, but

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<v Speaker 1>otherwise they possess the same weaknesses as other phones. Agarwal said.

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<v Speaker 1>While burner phones offer a higher level of anonymity compared

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<v Speaker 1>to regular phones, they're not completely untraceable. Burner phones can

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<v Speaker 1>be traced by law enforcement agencies using various methods such

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<v Speaker 1>as call detail records, location tracking, surveillance, and stingray devices.

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<v Speaker 1>But furthermore, if a third party has recordings of your

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<v Speaker 1>calls and texts, it's possible that they could identify you

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<v Speaker 1>using contextual information or simply by the sound of your voice.

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<v Speaker 1>Law enforcement agencies also possess voice recognition technology that can

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<v Speaker 1>assist in matching a voice to its source. It's because

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<v Speaker 1>of these ever present surveillance methods that burning the phone

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<v Speaker 1>every so often is important to staying anonymous. Agarwal said.

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<v Speaker 1>These methods can reveal information regarding calls made and received

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<v Speaker 1>by the burner phone, such as the time of day,

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<v Speaker 1>the length of time, and the location. Law enforcement authorities

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<v Speaker 1>have had some success in determining the identities of people

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<v Speaker 1>using burner phones in several instances. Of course, if you

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<v Speaker 1>log into your Facebook or TikTok account from your burner phone,

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<v Speaker 1>or buy some goods from Amazon, that will certainly blow

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<v Speaker 1>your cover. But burner phones are just one type of

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<v Speaker 1>gadget that can be used to boost your cybersecurity. They

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<v Speaker 1>aren't infallible, and they're best employed in conjunction with other methods,

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<v Speaker 1>Agarwal said. For instance, encrypted messaging applications like Signal offer

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<v Speaker 1>end to end encryption, which means that the only people

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<v Speaker 1>who can read the messages are the sender and the recipient,

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<v Speaker 1>not even the app providers. Themselves can access the information.

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<v Speaker 1>In addition, making use of a virtual private network often

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<v Speaker 1>known as a VPN can assist in preventing the parties

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<v Speaker 1>from tracking your location data as well as the online

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<v Speaker 1>activities that you participate in. Piling methods of data abstraction

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<v Speaker 1>on top of each other will go a long way

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<v Speaker 1>toward maintaining anonymity. Still, it's important to remember that none

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<v Speaker 1>of them are perfect. At the end of the day,

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<v Speaker 1>data can be tracked, the best encryption has the potential

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<v Speaker 1>to be broken, and the only one hundred percent secure

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<v Speaker 1>form of communication is face to face conversation with someone

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<v Speaker 1>you trust. Today's episode is based on the article are

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<v Speaker 1>burner phones really Untraceable? On how stuffworks dot com? Written

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<v Speaker 1>by Talenthomer. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership

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<v Speaker 1>with how stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang.

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<v Speaker 1>Four more podcasts from my heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app,

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