I was reading a recent story about a UK based age verification company, Yeti, reportedly banning a user simply for using GrapheneOS. While going through the discussion, I came across the idea of dual wielding two phones: a GrapheneOS device (or any custom ROM or Linux phone) alongside a basic “identity” phone.
Dual wielding seems like a practical way to separate personal data from services that require real world identification. The tricky part, however, is handling SIM cards. In many countries, your primary phone number is registered with the government, so it needs to stay active if you want people, businesses, and official services to be able to reach you.
I’m thinking of putting my main SIM in the identity phone and treating it as the device that represents my legal identity. The identity phone would contain only apps that are directly tied to my real world identity, such as government ID apps, age verification apps, digital identity services, and any other applications that require official identification.
Then I’d buy a separate data-only eSIM and use it exclusively on the GrapheneOS phone. I can even try regular esim with separate number too, but those are rare. Every phone operator wants to know who you are nowadays.
Most people communicate through WhatsApp and other data-based apps these days anyway, so the GrapheneOS phone could remain my primary daily device while the identity phone simply stays powered on to receive calls and SMS messages associated with my registered number.
In theory, dual wielding like this provides a cleaner separation between identity and personal computing. The identity phone becomes a dedicated device for government and identity-related services, while the GrapheneOS phone handles day to day communication, browsing, and personal activities without being directly tied to the primary SIM or identity infrastructure.
Thoughts?
P/S: it’s Yoti. My apologise to the Yeti…
Nearly everything that both requires a phone and disrespects my privacy has been work-related, so using 2 phones has been a solid choice for me.
The work phone has a sim from a mainstream carrier and only gets powered on while at work during work hours. Maybe I’m spoiled that my workplace tolerates this arrangement. I couldn’t imagine having to be reachable any time of the day. I didn’t intentionally buy a separate phone, it’s just my old phone repurposed.
The personal phone has an “IoT” SIM which can be purchased non-KYC where I live. All FOSS apps and a personal number via VoIP.
I know it isn’t by any means airtight, but it gives infinitely more peace of mind than just trusting whatever sandboxing mechanism available on one device will be sufficient.
Siloing, or defense in depth, is always a good idea! In my country, there is no way to have a phone number or a SIM card without tying it to one’s government issued personal identification number, so personally, I’d use my compromised phone to tether Internet to the private phone. Using the gorgeous VPN Hotspot app, I can even tether a VPN connection without leakage. This of course doesn’t counter location tracking through cell tower triangulation, but then again, this post wasn’t specifically about that, so. 😄
Please avoid using the term “custom ROM”, use preferably “Android Distribution” (is also the term used by LineageOS themselve) as ROM is inaccurate technically speaking.
Source: https://lineageos.org/
Dual wielding can be PITA especially with current phone sizes. Nevertheless I’m doing it. In my case it personal life vs work.
Gos for personal stuff with multiple profiles. I’m now trialing Google devices in a private space on a primary profile. That way I do not have to switch to a second profile that often.
If something does not work on Gos, I don’t use it and if I really really really need that, I have a iPhone for work.
I think this can be overkill depending on your threat model, I personally went with Android profiles to seperate things.
I have 3 phones lol. 1 work assigned phone, one general use that I can’t really get away from having, and 1 private use only. I ended up running a hotspot for 1 device plan vs running multiple SIMs and costs.
Work reimburses me for the work use phone. Therefore work basically pays for the hotspot and I run 3 completely different devices. All Android, but all randomized the MACs when connected. I also have the private one running Lineage. So I use the VoIP phone app for work and all 3 have separate numbers device and stick all 3 on the 1 hotspot. The 2 personal are on separate VPNs.
Depends on location. It would be best to have one for each cell carrier’s network at your location +1 that is WiFi only. Therefore you can easily check where service is possible, and which one you’re going to run the battery down on. Always use different logins on each device so you can exploit multiple app-based freebies.
Note that any email can be used for a Google account, for instance my username is the same @gmail, @outlook, and @yahoo and all three can be used to log into android. Prepaidcompare if you’re in the US will give you the cheapest way to each network and typically Samsung, Apple, and Google (with Graphene) are the three phone brands to have.
I, too, have pondered what could be done in case the nightmare of
ageidentity verification rears its ugly head where I live. And I’ve come to similar results as you.I’d add that,if your means of communication do only require an internet connection and not a phone number, you might get away with not having a SIM in your personal phone at all. You might access the net through WiFi connections (even mobile hotspot), hiding your actual destination through a VPN (if those are still a thing). Not having a SIM removes yet another identifier linking PII to your personal privacy phone.
I’ve been using 2 phones for 14 years now.
