[off-topic] Dumb mobile phones

[Daniel]

Hi Margaret
If you get a cheap smart phone and turn wifi and data off … I think you still get text messages but not fancy ones with pictures and I suspect that stops voip with faked numbers? 

Will you just get a number and not a url for authentication? 

Is that adequate security that would allow you to confidently get a low priced smartphone (sold without updating the operating system and already out of date and despite suggestions that security would be enhanced many may never get updates made for it let alone made available )?

You may be quite sensibly flinching at the cost of a smart phone you don’t intend to use much  … 

Daniel 


> On 1 Jan 2024, at 11:53, M S R Wood <msrwood at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I don't want a smart phone, but I have reluctantly decided it is time
> for me to get a moblle phone. The main reason is to receive codes from
> banks and other organisations who think this is the best/only method
> of two-factor authentication. I only expect to make outgoing calls in
> a emergency (e.g. car breakdown), and will hardly ever send texts.
> 
> So my ideal phone would be voice calls and text only - no internet, no
> apps, no camera, no torch, no music. It would have keys/buttons rather
> than a touchscreen, and a display in muted colours - preferably text
> only, rather than icons. That's probably impossible to find nowadays,
> but is there anything that comes close?
> 
> I'm also looking for a low cost, pre-paid phone plan, where unused
> credit lasts as long as possible,
> 
> Any recommendations?
> 
> Margaret
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