Andy GreenbergThe new anonymous phone carrier startup Phreeli, launching today, will let you sign up for cellular service with almost no personally identifiable information—not even your name. All it asks for is a ZIP code, the minimum info legally required for tax purposes. https://www.wired.com/story/new-anonymous-phone-carrier-sign-up-with-nothing-but-a-zip-code/
Phreeli's founder is Nicholas Merrill, who became famous in the privacy world for refusing to comply with a warrantless FBI surveillance order sent to his internet service provider in 2004, demanding a customer's information. He spent a decade-plus in court fighting the order—and won.
Now Merrill is launching a privacy-focused cell service designed to know almost nothing about you. Phreeli will function as a kind of layer on top of T-Mobile's network. The cell towers are T-Mobile’s, but the contracts with users—and the decisions about what data to collect from them—are Phreeli’s.
Providing someone a voice and data plan without knowing their name is, surprisingly, legal across the US, Merrill says. Anonymous payments are trickier, but Phreeli will use a crypto system based on "zero knowledge proofs" to separate payment info from phone records—even if you pay with a credit card.
It's tempting to think of Phreeli as a phone carrier where every phone is a burner phone. But Merrill resists that description. Instead, he argues that anonymous cell service should be as normal as curtains on your home's windows.
Spark Purcell (they/them)@agreenberg almost a good idea, but... it's for profit, vc funded, blockchain based? No thanks.
FinchHaven sfba"...he argues that anonymous cell service should be as normal as curtains on your home's windows"
"anonymous cell service"
So
Is he running his own proprietary, physically private network of autonomous cell towers?
Oh?
No?
Then which major cell service provider is he leasing cell tower coverage from?
Oh
I see...