Discretion question

[Ehrengraf]

Google Voice was not built to provide anonymity. It's main purpose was to provide convenience for forwarding. It was made to consolidate multiple numbers into one.

As was mentioned above, the best way to maintain anonymity is to use a burner or Hushed. The app store keeps a record that you purchased a number from Hushed but not the number. To obtain purchase history from the app store , you would need a warrant.

If you consistently use the same burner , then you're creating logs and location history. Given a couple of weeks of data it would be pretty easy to identify the user. You would need to regularly change SIMs to avoid detection.

I think Hushed provides a good compromise of convenience and relative anonymity.

 

[BIGBOB62]

Wow. So what do you do now? For lots of reason a burner is not going to work for me.

Is there another option you have found useful?

Learn to live with the idea that your wife or SO is going to find out at some point, and start making up a good story. My excuse for a burner has always been as an emergency phone, kept in my car. If I got married, it’s the first thing I’d get for my wife, so she’s safe too.

 

[Avalon4me]

Just curious if anyone knows where I got that from.

One of the great movies so many never saw.. Dan Akroyd was really good and I think one of River Phoenix's last roles....Sneakers

 

[evox]

A premium subscription to LexisNexus can uncover forwarded numbers from VOIP services.

Or one of her clients is a cop who helps her out.

 

[Uniquelyme]

I use the text now app. So far so good it’s worked for me.

I use 2ndline and had a textnow app same owners. Had my 2ndline app now almost 6 years. @Unsure that's your best bet. Also it's Canadian based they are not giving up info unless it's a mortal crime most likely. So there is that as well. Goggle voice has never been reliable .

 

[Charlielima69]

One of the great movies so many never saw.. Dan Akroyd was really good and I think one of River Phoenix's last roles....Sneakers

So sad about River Phoenix, yeah it could have been his last movie. I like when Whistler was driving the box truck. I still watch it from time to time that and “Stand by me”.

 

[twotimesone]

Providers has tools to see what name you have in your GV phone number. One time I went to a provider I saw on her phone who checked out my phone got the fake name in my google voice account. So if you put in your real name in your google voice account, they could find out who you are.

 

[mayfair2]

Providers has tools to see what name you have in your GV phone number. One time I went to a provider I saw on her phone who checked out my phone got the fake name in my google voice account. So if you put in your real name in your google voice account, they could find out who you are.

I might have to try one of the services that showed up that claims they can find out info.

I think it’s like $2.99 per search to get a peace of mind

Some of the suggestions we see from others about 2ndline and text now are good too. They do cost anywhere from $5 to $14 a month it seems when I looked them up earlier. Probably no big deal considering opsec.

 

[BIGBOB62]

If you’re using these apps from your regular phone, your location is trackable. It’s beyond the reach of most people, but a skilled person can, after a few occurrences, map you.

 

[fromqueens]

Is your GV linked to your personal google/gmail account (with real name) or it is using some fake google account.

 

[jfox987]

If you consistently use the same burner , then you're creating logs and location history. Given a couple of weeks of data it would be pretty easy to identify the user. You would need to regularly change SIMs to avoid detection.
.

Aren't burners completely anonymous? How would someone get identified from it?

 

[Ehrengraf]

Aren't burners completely anonymous? How would someone get identified from it?

Assuming that you keep it at your office or home , the location logs would show those as a frequent points that you visit. There are far more sophisticated algorithms to help identify people based upon the places that they visit and the frequency. This is not something that the average person will do from their laptop, but is readily available to investigators and the police.

If you make calls from those locations the carrier will have records of what cell towers were used.

In reality for any legal infraction involving providers there is not a police department that is going to spend any resources to try to track you down via your burner. However, if you have a significant other who wants to hire a private investigator...

If you really want to know the details perform a Google search for something like " identifying cell phone users based on activity patterns" And you will find a number of papers.

 

[BIGBOB62]

Assuming that you keep it at your office or home , the location logs would show those as a frequent points that you visit. There are far more sophisticated algorithms to help identify people based upon the places that they visit and the frequency. This is not something that the average person will do from their laptop, but is readily available to investigators and the police.

If you make calls from those locations the carrier will have records of what cell towers were used.

In reality for any legal infraction involving providers there is not a police department that is going to spend any resources to try to track you down via your burner. However, if you have a significant other who wants to hire a private investigator...

If you really want to know the details perform a Google search for something like " identifying cell phone users based on activity patterns" And you will find a number of papers.

If you were that worried about it with a burner, you replace it regularly. But that’s overkill for this use.

But also you shouldn’t leave it on for long amounts of time, and make calls from it while you’re in transit so as to be harder to track down who you are by watching office cell tower and home one. Our main use case is really the suspicious wife, not LE. So in that case, they know who you are, where you live, where you work. She just wants to find proof.

 

[Bultaco103]

Simple answer. The provider is your wife. Go have fun, but don’t leave too big of a tip.