this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2024
103 points (86.0% liked)
Showerthoughts
29698 readers
1390 users here now
A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- Avoid politics
- NEW RULE as of 5 Nov 2024, trying it out
- Political posts often end up being circle jerks (not offering unique perspective) or enflaming (too much work for mods).
- Try c/politicaldiscussion, volunteer as a mod here, or start your own community.
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct-----
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I have considered getting a burner phone that I pay for in cash only, having it utterly unconnected from my real life, and turned off and stored in a Faraday wallet when not in use just so I can use the 'digital coupons' that food retailers keep pushing. I use a loyalty card because all they get from that is my buying habits--groceries--plus an address. But access to my phone? Absolutely not.
I tried this. I bought a phone with cash, bought a prepaid SIM with cash and a google play card with cash.
Used a throwaway email address, and I could not get the play credit into the account.
I even opened a support ticket with google and they could not help.
I am an IT professional and quite adept at navigating technical bureaucracy and wasn't able to do it completely anonymously.
My guess (and it's just a guess, i could be very wrong) is there is some internal, undocumented check that the account has been tied to a real person before it allows credit onto the play store.
If someone has had success doing this I'd be quite interested in hearing about their experience.
But what if I don't want credit in the Play store? What if I want to use the Graphene OS, and side load everything?
Well that may work for you. My goal was slightly different. I needed official apps for work. My goal was to have a work phone that was completely disconnected from my private life. Graphene and sideloaded app would not have worked for me.