Whenever people ask about ways to make their smartphones more private or which is the most privacy-respecting phone to get, there’s always a few people confidently asserting “all smartphones are spy tools, get a dumbphone with no apps if you want to be private”. Which is ridiculous advice for a few reasons
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Dumbphones usually run either proprietary operating systems or outdated forks of Android. They’re almost never encrypted. They rarely get security updates. They’re a lot more vulnerable than even a regular Android phone
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With dumbphones, you’re usually limited to regular phone calls or SMS/MMS messaging. These are ancient communication standards with zero built-in privacy. Your ISP can read any text message you send and view metadata logs of any phone calls you make. In lots of places (like Australia where I live) ISPs are actually required to keep logs of your messages and phone calls
With even a regular Android phone you at least have access to encrypted messaging apps like Signal or Session so your conversations aren’t fair game for anyone who wants to read them. Of course there are better options. iOS (not perfect but better than most bloatware-filled Android devices) and a pixel with GrapheneOS (probably the best imo) are much better options; but virtually anything out there is going to be better for privacy than a dumbphone
Edit: Thanks everyone for giving your thoughts. Some really good points I hadn’t thought much about
Why would my Internet Service Provider have anything whatsoever to do with my dumb phone?
Yes, texts and calls aren’t hidden from your mobile phone provider, they never were. I agree it’s not great, and the government is likely spying on you as they have been for decades.
But alas, I don’t see a solution without using a non dumb phone and encrypted apps, which will require the internet and at that point you’ve not got a dumb phone any more.
My Nokia 3310 still works great. Sure, the government could spy on me, but I don’t discuss anything sensitive over the phone (traditionally one doesn’t, for this very reason, wiretaps and the like). It’s a tool for casually staying in touch and arranging to meet up _
Your cellular provider is an ISP.
No not necessarily. And people don’t call there mobile provider their ISP
They provide internet to your device, which makes them an internet service provider. And if nothing else, they also offer fixed wireless, which makes them an internet service provider.
Sure, Comcast can’t log your phone calls because they are a cable or fiber provider, but T-Mobile can absolutely log your calls, and they are still an ISP.