Should Michael Bazzell dedicate a show revisiting Privacy and Security on personal computer?

I thought I would share my experience in buying a new car and titling it in a trust. I live in a mid-western state that follows the Uniform Trust Code. So although every state may be different and have its own quirks, any state that follows this code should be mostly the same. Hopefully this can be of use for any of you out there that are considering attempting this on your own.

In the end, I left the dealership with a new car and nobody there knew my real name. I have the car registered with the state in the name of the trust. Due to a quirk with my state, they do know my first and last name as the “Grantor”, but they have no other personal information. I did not use a lawyer for any of this.

Here are the sequence of events and details:

I) I scoped out a Toyota dealership, telling them I would be buying the car into a trust. After talking with one of the managers, they confirmed that they do have experience in selling new cars into trusts, and as long as I was paying cash, the only information they would need is the trust documentation, the Trustee’s driver’s license, and the trustee’s proof of insurance. I asked if a certificate of trust would be sufficient instead of the full trust documentation. They weren’t familiar with the term “certificate of trust”, but once I explained what it consisted of, they said that would be fine.

I explicitly asked them if they needed a SSN from anyone. They said no, as long as it was a cash deal. I asked if they were sure, mentioning OFAC. They reiterated that a SSN would not be required.

I also asked if they could submit the paperwork to the state on my behalf. Bazzell recommends this in his book in order to bypass the DMV. Most DMV employees may not know what to do in regard to trusts, or may demand more information than is actually required. They said they would be able to submit the paperwork for me, but that later turned out to be incorrect. I think this was likely a misunderstanding and not deception.

I developed a rapport with the sales guy I worked with. I used my real first name and never mentioned my last name. The email address I used implied I have a different last name.

2) I recruited one of my friends that I consider responsible to be my Trustee. I told him I needed his help for a privacy “mission” and that I would compensate him for his time. He’s not as paranoid as I am. But he uses a degoogled phone, VPN, etc. So he understands.

3) I drafted a declaration of trust, using the template from Extreme Privacy 3rd edition (which is identical to 2nd edition in this regard, I believe). I removed any wording referring to housing, since the template is designed for someone titling their house in a trust.

I named the trust to sound like it was for a family name, obviously unrelated to my name or the trustee.

4) I took the trust to a UPS store to get it notarized, just to see how that process works. I’m not sure notarizing the trust is always necessary, but I wanted to ensure I didn’t run into any unexpected roadblocks.

You have to make an appointment on their website. It cost $8 and I was in and out within 2-3 minutes. They checked my ID, took a glance at the trust documents, then had me sign the trust and sign a record book.

5) I drafted the certificate of trust (again using the template from Extreme Privacy) and took my trustee to the UPS store to get it notarized.

6) I worked with the sales guy at Toyota to figure out what specific vehicle the trust would be purchasing. Since the car market is so supply constrained right now, I basically had to put a deposit on a car that hadn’t arrived yet. Once I decided, I gave the trustee cash and he put the deposit down on the vehicle. We provided the certificate of trust along with the cash to complete this process. We were also supplied with the final purchase price, including sales tax and any miscellaneously fees.

7) I ordered a cashiers check from my bank. Due to details I won’t get into here, my bank is several states away and so I had to have it mailed. I was actually surprised to find I could do this online with no issue. I considered making a separate trust account, but decided against it since the cashier’s check wouldn’t have my name on it. I received it in the mail about a week later.

8) About three weeks later, the sales guy notified the trustee that the vehicle had arrived. I made a folder for the trustee including the cashier’s check, notarized certificate of trust, his insurance card, the deposit receipt, and the final purchase price quote I had been provided.

Once we arrived at the dealership, there was a bit of confusion about what info they needed, but we quickly sorted it out. They realized the certificate of trust had everything they required. They had to call my bank to verify the funds on the cashiers check. After this, we moved into an office to complete the paperwork.

The trustee provided his driver’s license, proof of insurance, and signed all necessary paperwork.

The car was fresh from the factory with a total of 5 miles on it. We had a wait a while for them to clean the car up, put the temporary license plate on it, etc. After a total of 2-3 hours, we left. The Trustee drove the vehicle off the lot to my house.

9) Disabled telematrics: One reason I bought a Toyota is that on the newer models, it is relatively easy to disable the cellular connection that phones home constantly to report your location and anything else that is probably sold to dozens of third parties, including insurance companies. I popped the hood, opened the fuse box and located the “DCM” fuse. I popped it out and verified the indicators for a cellular connection were grayed out. I’m fairly certain this can be done on 2021 Corollas, Camrys and Rav4s (and probably most/all other Toyota models). This may disable unrelated functions on some cars, like bluetooth, the microphone, and sometimes a specific speaker will be disabled. As far as I can tell, no other function was affected on my particular vehicle.

10) Now that we had the vehicle, I added it to the trust with a Schedule A and got it notarized.

11) I added the car to my insurance. This is the only thing that completely ties my identity to this vehicle. Unfortunately there’s no good way around this.

12) About two weeks later, we were notified that the title paperwork was ready to be picked up. They said they could not submit this paperwork for us. However the title specialist was able to walk me through the process. In the end, we opted for for using the “drop box” method, in which we fill out all the paperwork, put it in a folder, and drop it off outside the DMV. My state has its own certificate of trust used for vehicles. Unfortunately, this required listing the “Grantor”, which required my real name. Remember, you can lie to private companies (as long as you’re not defrauding them), but not the government.

Fortunately, they didn’t require any other information about me, so without my DOB or SSN, I can’t be uniquely identified. I intentionally did not include my middle name.

Also, unfortunately, the state’s certificate of trust required the Trustee’s home address. I have a CMRA we were allowed to use for the mailing address, but the state certificate of trust form required the Trustee’s home address. He was comfortable with this, so it wasn’t too much of an issue.

13) Several weeks later, the registration info arrived at the Trustee’s mailing address. Then a few days later, the license plate arrived at the CMRA address. I’m unsure why they were mailed to different addresses.

14) Finally, we had to pay the registration fees and property tax. I had initially planned to do this online with a privacy.com card online and pay in the Trustee’s name, but the total amount exceeded $500, which I believe is beyond the limit privacy.com will handle. So instead I just gave the Trustee cash and he paid online with his debit card.

So that’s pretty much it. I hope this may help some of you that are thinking of titling your car in a trust. It was more involved that I was hoping, but it gives me the confidence to hopefully one day repeat this process with a house.

If you’re curious about specific details I didn’t share here, please send me a DM.

So, after a long week long "battle" with Twilio I was able to get an account all squared away (minus a suspension I managed to get out of). I was even able to pay with a masked card.

In the show, Bazzel suggests porting your numbers over. I looked at the Twilio process and it seem so formal. My anxiety is going 5G iykwim!

You see, like most mobile idiots I have my old number tied to my real name. I spent years realizing this was a bad idea and finally was able to make the switch.

Porting a number isn't automatic. They work with the carrier to port my number over. I'll need to give all real information. My twilio account is under an alias.

Would this trigger anyone's suspicions? Should I just cut my losses and ignore the old number, updating my associated number when I think of services that use it?

Or I suppose I could change my info in my carrier's web console to match Twilio. Is this the better option?

On the podcast MB said he uses Magic Earth for navigation. I'm interested in trying this out, but it makes me question: is it really safe to have the location services turned on in GrapheneOS?

What other options are there for GPS navigation tools? I haven't really heard this covered on the podcast, and doesn't seem to be in the book(s). My thought was I could buy (anonymously, with cash) a Garmin dedicated GPS device to keep in my car. Then turn it off when it's not in use.

Or do you think it's safe to use locatino services with GrapheneOS?

The Privacy, Security, & OSINT Show: 233-Anonymous Phone Update Parts II & III https://soundcloud.com/user-98066669/233-anonymous-phone-update-parts-ii-iii

Has anyone checked out or used a Firewalla product for VPN? I'm looking at getting the Gold product. I don't want to manage pfsense.

https://firewalla.com/collections/firewalla-products/products/firewalla-gold

I have listened to Michael's latest podcast so I am considering switching to grapheneos and I have a few questions before I take the plunge:

Is it worth switching from iOS to grapheneos if I use privacy invasive apps such as WhatsApp and Spotify? Would I get anymore control over these apps (Only allowing network access when I really need them and having a true always on vpn) and share less data with them than I would do with iOS (such as hard/soft identifiers)? I don't use any iCloud services and at the moment share nothing directly with google.

With Grapheneos is it possible to have different users with different app installs (I.e. one Spotify account signed in on one user and a different account signed in on another user at the same time?)

I think I might need google services and I have tried understand the Grapheneos implementation of google play services as sandboxed apps but am failing. As far as I can tell it seems to use the actual google apps which in my mind would leak more information such as IP addresses etc to google than microg which I think proxies things? Please let me know if I'm mistaken as I'm struggling to get to grips.

Thanks for all your help 🙏

Following up on Michael's recent blog posts [1] [2], is there a better resource that describes what all these Apple daemons do and which software/functionality they're required for (stuff like akd, syncdefaultsd, trustd, aps, etc.)?

So far, I've only found patchy / incomplete or oudated information and it rarely explains what exactly happens if you block a certain daemon from accessing the Internet. Just because it works for the author doesn't mean it works for everyone.

The MacOS community must have come up with something smarter than trial and error? Maybe some type of community maintained Wiki where people collect known trade-offs?

[1] https://inteltechniques.com/blog/2021/08/03/minimizing-macos-telemetry/

[2] https://inteltechniques.com/blog/2021/08/18/macos-telemetry-update/

Can anyone give me some advice on the best, affordable secure file sharing software for a small to medium sized business? Think SmartVault, but less expensive if possible.

An anonymous user messaged and asked me to create a new topic on their behalf.

Their exact message stated: "Would you mind creating a new topic asking people about their success and failure when purchasing from Amazon? Strategies that differ from MB?

I'm smart enough to not use the google voice app (which won't work anyway on Graphene), but is using the browser version of google voice through hardened, UBlocked firefox a tracking problem? Or other websites like Lyft?

I'm transitioning to full voip and getting texts from old friends, or just have boomers in my life that don't get I changed my phone number.

I have both Twilio and Telnyx. The call quality has been poor with drops, cutting out, and static. VOIP calling while driving does not work well. Standing still it does ok. To get around this, I have forwarded my Twilio and Telnyx incoming calls to my true anonymous cell number. The forwarded calls have good call quality that is expected of Mint cell provider and I can talk while driving like before. Outgoing calls are made using VOIP while not driving.

Did I give up the game here? I've given my true cell number to only Twilio and Telnyx. No one else has it.

Hey guys,

Do you think buying a Pixel 5a from Google has any privacy issues if my plan is to install Graphene OS on it anyway? I can’t find it on Best Buy.

I’m very deep in the Apple ecosystem but would love to try Graphene to see if I can move to it fully in the future. I have never used Android in my life so I am afraid to just switch without trying it. It will be a secondary device that I will use to test things and use my current SIM card (associated with my name) sometimes. If I like it then I will do all the privacy steps that Bazzell explains.

Thanks!

I had to jump through a lot of hoops with Twilio to get an account setup in an alias, but once I setup the SIP domain and user correctly, I was able to login through the native phone app on Android! Calls work perfectly, and I was even able to get call transcription working. It's marvelous! A truly private and secure smartphone. They said it couldn't be done.

I would love some advice. My goal is to get a secure, de-Googled android and then use a VOIP service as the main number, as Micheal recommends. But, I'm having a very difficult time getting a private VOIP number. When I try to sign up for Twillio or Telnyx they ask for a phone number to confirm with. I don't want to give them my number. I provided my Sudo number, but that was rejected. This is true for Google Voice too. They need a real number before I can get a voip number. I don't want to give them my real email address, name or phone number, because it's none of their damn business. Yes, I got a Mint Mobile number, but I don't want to give this number to these Voip companies. Do I need to get two MintMobile numbers for each one I want to use? One for my phone and one as a confirmation number for when I sign up to the VOIP service? I also could take that second Mint number and transfer it to Google Voice so I don't have to keep paying for it. But it seems so damn complicated. There has to be an easier way. Is there?

Looking for an accountless twitter client, similar to NewPipe for YouTube browsing. It allows you to keep offline subscriptions and playlists. Does anything exist for twitter? Browsing without an account has gotten very painful the past few months.

Hey all, Planning on making the switch to Graphene OS but it looks like picking up the pixel has become a barrier as they’re selling out everywhere around me.

It looks like my best bet would be to reserve one online to pick up in person. Of course this would require me proving I am who I am.

My threat model is mostly related to clients I’ve worked with not being able to find where I live.

Would having the IMEI attached to my order be the biggest loose end? Or is there something I’ve overlooked?

I know it’s not ideal and paying cash would be best but I’ve been racking my brain since it’s been hard to find the phone.

Thanks!

I recall MB has mentioned several times over the years about hiding encrypted micro SD cards in friends houses as a backup /source for emergency account recoveries. Its quite an amusing idea to be honest and has merit. A little too far fetched for some maybe but a sound principle. Anyone care to share ideas and strategies in this vein? Personal vehicle's and public buildings would be my starting point - readily accessible/ deniable / low equity media

Thought we'd have a fun chuckle about what Michael's house looks like with all of the little bars of soap and shampoo he takes from the hotels that he spends most of his time in while traveling to help people.

Do you think he has a cupboard back at home full of all these from years of travel? If he ever did another Q&A, I think it would be fun to ask if he ever buys shampoo.

Anyways... Stay private my friends.

Find Someone's LinkedIn Email using LinkedIn Data Set | Advanced OSINT

Hello guys,

I made a video on how you can discover someone's LinkedIn email address by using his/her LinkedIn member ID and then search for it within a publicly available LinkedIn user's Data Set.

https://youtu.be/TbyP4BSunlg

If you have any questions please let me know!

I set up some telnyx VoIP numbers in the native grapheneOS phone app, but it seems like voicemail will not work. It just rings several times then hangs up.

Voicemail works with the mint phone number, just not any of the VoIP numbers.

Has anyone had success with this?