Yes, I have a car[1]. There is little comparison between license plates and cell phones. If you think they are remotely comparable, you don&#x27;t understand how COTRAVELER works. Maybe I should revise my assumption that it was common knowledge on HN.<p>License plates do not give away your location every few minutes. License plates only show a <i>car&#x27;s</i> location, which may map to one or more <i>people</i>. License plates do not follow you into buildings, across different cars or other forms of transportation.<p>More importantly, it is difficult to participate in modern society without a form of transportation, which is usually a car. The cell phone is absolutely <i>not</i> a requirement, even though a lot of addicted people like to claim otherwise. A landline has none of these tracking issues, and suffices perfectly well for most <i>needs</i> (which are different from <i>wants</i> aka <i>luxuries</i>).<p>So yes, unlike with a car, if you choose to carry a cell phone, you are absolutely contributing to the surveillance state, and pretending otherwise doesn&#x27;t make your culpability in it go away.<p>[1] It doesn&#x27;t see much use these days due to an unfortunate medical situation, but I would be driving that car if it was safe.