privacySilent eSIM Team
Why your telco shouldn't have your name (and what to do about it)
Mobile carriers know more about you than any other company. Here's what they collect, who they sell it to, and how to opt out.
Why your telco shouldn't have your name
Your mobile carrier knows your real-time location, every number you've called, every website you've visited (without HTTPS), every app that pings home, and a precise model of your daily routine. They sell that data — legally — to advertisers, data brokers, and in many countries, to anyone with a subpoena.
What carriers collect
- Location: cell-tower triangulation every few minutes, 24/7.
- Call records: every number, every call duration, going back years.
- SMS metadata: who, when, how often.
- Data: which IPs your phone connects to. DNS queries unless you use encrypted DNS.
- Device: IMEI, model, OS version, apps with telemetry over cellular.
- KYC: your name, address, ID number, date of birth.
Who they sell it to
- Data brokers (Acxiom, LiveRamp, etc.) for ad targeting.
- Banks and insurers for "risk scoring".
- Law enforcement — usually with a warrant, sometimes without.
- Foreign governments — depending on where you roam.
The anonymous eSIM angle
If you buy mobile data without giving your real identity, the carrier still knows where the device is. They just don't know who it is. That decouples your location and behaviour from your identity in the systems most likely to leak them — ad networks, breaches, subpoenas.
Practical steps
- Use an anonymous eSIM (like Silent eSIM) for sensitive use cases — travel, journalism, activism, or just "I don't want my carrier knowing my browsing".
- Use encrypted DNS (1.1.1.1, Quad9) on your phone to hide DNS queries from the carrier.
- Use a VPN if your threat model includes the carrier itself being adversarial.
- Use Signal for messaging, not SMS.
- Disable advertising ID on your phone.