digital privacy
Metadata
Data about your communications — who, when, how long, from where — which reveals more than most people expect.
Metadata is data about communication rather than its content: who you called, when, for how long, from roughly where — plus the same for texts. Carriers retain it, and it can be legally compelled.
Metadata sounds harmless and is anything but: call patterns reveal relationships, routines, workplaces, and beliefs without a single word being read. This is the honest floor of phone privacy — every cellular device produces carrier metadata, dumbphones included. What dumbphones remove is everything above that floor: app telemetry, ad IDs, browsing history, and cloud message archives.
Related Terms
View all →Data broker
A company that buys, aggregates, and resells personal data — location trails, purchases, profiles — usually without your knowledge.
IMEI
The unique serial number identifying a phone to the network — used for allowlists, blocklists, and activation checks.
Location tracking
The continuous recording of where your phone — and therefore you — goes, via GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cell towers.