It was good to have it as a backup. I primarily use wireguard but now its a single point of failure.

https://youtu.be/ZNK4aSv-krI?t=31410

for the lazy

Am I missing something or is the price higher after the 2nd year?

Yearly: $500 for first year, $400 thereafter
Quarterly: $150 every three months

$600 for 3rd year?

Thanks for clearing up my WiFi mix-up. From my understanding the same attack path still applies even to https://grapheneos.org/features#lte-only-mode and respectively https://grapheneos.org/usage#lte-only-mode correct?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Mobile_Subscriber_Identity states the phone would send a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobility_management#TMSI most of the time? But your point about the IMEI still stands. So there is no real way to protect yourself other than to turn off cell tower roaming?

Right, that’s what I understood. So using a VPN, a CSS will be able to identify that my phone is active, but not the content I’m accessing, or who I am accessing it from, correct?

From my understanding your statement seems correct, but it’s also lacking a bit. Unless you also randomize your mac address (grapheneOS does this) they can still map your position and visiting times. Additionally not all of your phones data goes through the VPN, something like a phone call/SMS isn’t encrypted unless you’re using an app to make the call.

The previous comment said VPNs do nothing against this type of attack- were they just referring to identifying your device?

Yes, they are thinking of a VPN as a privacy tool, not strictly as a security tool as in your example. Privacy will be compromised.

That’s not how a VPN works. A VPN masks the information you are actually accessing by showing you query the VPN instead. To make a connection to a service you still need an address. This info is what they are using to identify your device.

Most traffic is already encrypted (httpS) so someone spying on you wouldn’t know the content of your communication only who you contact. But without a VPN a man in the Middle could see who you are contacting. E.g. looking up pornhub. With the VPN it only shows you looking up the VPN.