They can kiss my bloody arse. I'm ready to go back to DOS-based games and VHS tapes for entertainment, and one of those flip phones if I need to call my wife. I got a Pentium III laptop running XP SP3 at a glacial pace, and I'll use it. Flip phones now have the same GPS chips in them that fancy smartphones have. They have similar processors as older smartphones . . . they’re just crippled for the user. But they’re still trackable. You call 911 on a flip phone and emergency services will come right to you. They know exactly where the phone is.
Well, then I buy burner phones by the crate, then. When I bought this house, I told the tech I'd go with a DOCSIS 3 modem for voice and data, but, I had three-wire copper as a backup that I wanted turned on at the pole, and he looked at me like I just surprised him with a pop quiz he never studied for. "Like, you know,
ANALOG wire?!?" This kid was so green, he still had sap running out his ass, so I gave up. We eventually gutted it down to our own modem, chucked all the ISP's gear, added a couple signal extenders, and have whole-house wifi and Internet television. Works great. I know the only way we could go completely off-grid is to live in a lean-to in the forest (even then, some self-important SOB would probably rat us out), but the less footprint, the better.
Sorry, kiddies, but this 20 year IT tech is here to tell you that technology did not set mankind free, because our wisdom to use it in that way is far outpaced by the technology that's at hand to be abused.
We have two android phones but I have to keep location services on due to mileage apps for hub’s biz and my rental properties. ARGH. I guess I could track it manually but seriously, with me having two full time jobs and hub’s loathing of paperwork...