In my dream, SIM cards were kept in a central “Proton SIM hub” of some sort. When someone dialed your number, the hub would reach out to you through an internet‑based app—such as SimpleX voice chat—without ever learning your personal identifying information. You’d answer the call, and the hub would then route the SIM‑based connection to you. Because you were using SimpleX together with a Mullvad VPN, there were no triangular antennas tracking your location. When you wanted to place a call, you’d paste the other party’s number into the Proton SIM chat in the SimpleX app, and the Proton SIM hub would dial that number from its SIM card, establishing a voice chat in SimpleX on your end while connecting a cellular call to the person you’re trying to reach.

Payments to the SIM provider were made in cash, just like Mullvad’s payment method. At present you can’t pay for Proton services with cash, but in the imagined scenario you could acquire a Proton SIM card without supplying any personally identifiable information or tying it to a Proton account.

Would this be feasible in practice?

  • eleijeep@piefed.social
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    2 days ago

    Not if the SIM is in a SIM farm owned by someone else and you’re just interacting with it over the internet, which is the scenario that OP was talking about.

    • cassandrafatigue@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 days ago

      over the internet

      Yeah, that’s where I route my fiber optic cables through. I also hide my drugs there when searched. Nobody’s found any of it yet.

    • The Octonaut@mander.xyz
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      2 days ago

      What.

      There is a physical SIM or an eSIM (which registers with the device and network) in every cell-connected device.

      You can interact with a SIM over the Internet, but you still need to, y’know, connect to the Internet.

      • eleijeep@piefed.social
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        2 days ago

        If only there was a way to connect to the internet without using a mobile device. Oh well, I guess I’ll just sit and home and dream about it.

        • The Octonaut@mander.xyz
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          2 days ago

          If you are connecting to the Internet without a mobile network device then why would you involve a SIM card? Do you understand the point of this post?

            • The Octonaut@mander.xyz
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              2 days ago

              Oh I get it. In this scenario you’re not solving a real problem, you’re committing fraud so you can run a robocall farm.

              There is still no way to take triangulation out of ths chain, so OP is asking Proton to explicitly be a known facilitator of crime.

              • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                1 day ago

                Why in the world are you jumping to conclusions that far out of the discussion? It’s like accusing someone who wants to make cash only transactions of trying to buy heroin to sell to kids in the preschool.