> during sensitive travel.

if your location data is continuous, but happens to "switch off" when you're doing something sensitive, then it's like a blaring alarm that this is the period of time that is "sus". It gives any sort of LEA/feds a time period to investigate, and might even be the evidence they need for a search warrant.

Therefore, you should not just hide your signal only when you are doing sensitive things. You should periodically hide it going to groceries, going to the shops etc. You might want to do it regularly, as part of your daily life. Camouflage only works if it cannot be used to tell apart your activities.

This is not quite true. They have to know roughly where your cell phone is but, helpfully, your cellphone starts the process as soon as you start it up and then it is a courtesy to you that the unit closest to you will handle your call(s) and other traffic because that will save you battery and reduces the amount of power your phone will use which in turn will allow others relatively nearby to use the same slice of the spectrum while you are transmitting. Phased arrays on the mast make this even more precise and further conserve power. But that really is a courtesy: it would all work without that luxury but less efficient and your phone's battery would be empty faster.

The part that really is optional is where the carrier then stores and even sells your location. They are mandated by law with respect to the first and they abuse the technical capabilities of the system for the second. And even if it isn't very precise for a single measurement it is in fact quite precise after you haven't moved for a while.

> Carrier tracking isn't precise as GPS tracking via the phone.

Not any more. 5G changes this now that the location spying is baked into the cell tech itself. The base stations are literally steering the beam to follow you in order to achieve such high bandwidth. See “5G NR Positioning Enhancements in 3GPP Release-18” (2024): https://arxiv.org/html/2401.17594v1

“New radio (NR) positioning in the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 18 (Rel-18) enables 5G-advanced networks to achieve ultra-high accuracy positioning without dependence on global navigation satellite systems (GNSS)”

“Release 18 (Rel-18) NR pushes the boundaries even further, unlocking the potential for applications in 5G-Advanced networks that demand ultra-high positioning accuracy – down to centimeter-level (cm-level)” (emphasis mine)

I use Ooma VOIP service and you can forward calls to a different number (I use that occasionally). I don't use it but they also have an iOS / Android app which lets you make calls from your Ooma VOIP number. The FAQ says you can't call 911 with it, so that's smoke anyway.

https://support.ooma.com/home/ooma-app-faq/#can-i-make-emerg...

Could just set up a phone farm like the Chinese run. They've got fun little adapters and boxes to get full "remote" control of a phone. Could rig one up for your own application, or maybe a pseudo-phone-RDP setup.

https://ebay.us/ynkSLq

Get a Direct Inward Dialing (DID) number and a VoIP host that speaks SIP. Dunno about iOS, but Android has had native SIP support built in since Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

How would this fool the network operator? Tmobile/ATT/Verizon will still know and be able to share your location.

Google Voice probably works like this?

> 4. Walk away

Run. Half phone will burst into flames.

all cars should have one

Asking to borrow someone's phone is a common theft tactic. I wouldn't do it, for fear of someone thinking you're up to no good.

Burners / prepaid SIM's are still a thing.

Even better - randomly pickpocket someone else’s phone, use it once, then toss it /s