We answer the questions readers asked in response to our guide to anonymizing your phone
About the LevelUp series: At The Markup, we’re committed to doing everything we can to protect our readers from digital harm, write about the processes we develop, and share our work. We’re constantly working on improving digital security, respecting reader privacy, creating ethical and responsible user experiences, and making sure our site and tools are accessible.
This is a follow-up article. Here’s the first piece, if you’d like to read that one as well
Throw your phone out. Get a small librebooted laptop and use an android emulator for any apps.
I have often wondered if you can take an android phone, drill and rip out all the sensors and radio transmitters, and use wired Ethernet through a VPN router and still be able to use just banking apps as that seems to be one thing I keep a proprietary phone around for.
Edit: I forgot the speaker and the mic though the mic could be classed as a sensor