Leosghost - 12:18 pm on Apr 24, 2011 (gmt 0)

If you only need a phone for outbound calls, then the most privacy protected way is a non-smartphone with a pay as you go SIM

They can be and are being tracked..My wife got a call on hers last week from the Gendarmerie Nationale ( national police )..they asked he if she had seen anything suspicious 2 months ago on a specific afternoon ..her "candy bar"phone with prepaid sim card ( along with 120 other phones ) was know to have been within 100 yds of a place where someone was found dead on the beach in suspicious circumstances..She had made no calls that afternoon ..but they knew her phone was in the radius ( body was found at the bottom of a cliff ) My wife was visiting someone in one of the houses along the cliff top road that afternoon.

A friend in the police here said they are phoning everyone who had a cell phone and was around that afternoon..and when they finish with the static phone lists ( phones that they know belong to locals and that show as regularly in the area ) they will begin on the list of those who belong to people who were probably in passing vehicles over a 6 hour period ..about 1400 cell phones .

Cell phones talk to the towers all the time, as long as they are on..if they didn't ..the cell phone networks wouldn't work.

Anonymous PAYG cards are illegal most places ..you can get a "top up" recharge card with out photo ID and something else with an address on it..But opening a cell phone line with a fresh card ( the usual legit way ) takes photo ID and maybe a bill or two with a fixed address on it in most places in the world.