An anonymous phone is a phone that is not tied to your identity. A burner phone is a type of anonymous phone that you discard shortly after use.
You can use anonymous phones for sensitive projects or actions where you have determined that the need for a phone is unavoidable. Unless the phone number needs to be stable in the long term, you should always prefer burner phones.
To setup and use an anonymous phone:
- Anonymously purchase the phone, its SIM card, and its plan.
- Do not turn on the phone close to where you live, because an adversary can learn the history of a phone physical location with mobile network operator collaboration.
Pseudo-anonymous phones are phones that you have purchased anonymously but you use close to where you live. They can mitigate network mapping — especially if all members of a scene or network use them — but you should not use them for sensitive projects or actions.
See Burner Phone Best Practices for more information on burner phones.
Techniques addressed by this mitigation
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Network mapping | Anonymous phones, since they are not tied to their owners' identities, can limit the ability of an adversary to achieve network mapping. |
| Service provider collaboration | If you use an anonymous phone, an adversary cannot easily use the collaboration of mobile network operators to establish a link between your identity and the phone number. |