[deanhills]

What exactly do you mean with "air time"? It's 2G and 4G by the way.

Apologies. Air time here in South Africa means time you pay for when you have a pre-paid SIM package.  You can buy either just telephone time or a combo of telephone and data and you buy it by units and use it until it is finished. I don't buy data at all and use WiFi on my Smart Phone only - and data is completely disabled on my phone settings, however if you have by accident data enabled on your phone, the SA providers here are clever in draining your phone time for data.  Also if you have any tracking enabled or other similar options, it uses additional phone time - in essence you're paying for vendors to be able to track you if you have tracking enabled or other smart options.

The government of SA is sending you messages via WhatsApp or text messages? If you get text messages from them then they probably let it be sent at carrier level as a "broadcast" message. So basically everyone in the network gets the message. You could try to block the number that sends the SMS if it is always the same. If they send you messages over WhatsApp I think you can also block the number/contact.

Not WhatsApp.  Hopefully and thankfully yet.  But yes, probably a broadcast text message and I'm not sure whether the direct source is Government or the SIM provider.  I have been considering blocking it, but then so far have thought while we are in a state of an emergency, and until I feel sure I want to block it to wait a little while before I do so.  But yes, that is an option while I'm on my Smart Phone.

Anyway. About tracking. Even if you change back to an older phone you can be still tracked via silent messages or cell tower triangulation tracking which by the way can be pretty accurate in terms of tracking of your position. Cell tower triangulation tracking can be as exact as a few meters difference to the real location. And silent messages are messages sent to your phone that you don't even know about. No notification, they don't show up on the phone or anything else. The silent message also known as silent SMS or stealth ping is used to activate the tracking procedure. It bascially helps to trace/track the number.

https://cellphonetrackers.org/mobile-gsm...tions.html
https://edri.org/edrigramnumber10-2silen...-suspects/
https://github.com/CellularPrivacy/Andro...silent-sms

Thanks for this Hidden.  Exactly what I wanted to learn about.  I thought one could only be tracked if tracking was enabled, but I guess as long as you have a SIM card, it can be tracked anywhere exactly the way you mentioned.  But then I guess only if they have cause and authorization to track you.  What about when the Government is in a State of Emergency?  Can they universally try to track individuals leaving their homes when they're not permitted to do so?  Like write algorithms to take control of movements and provide results that they can zero onto - like xyz people traveling X miles further from home than they should including excluding individuals like service providers with permits who have authorization to move for longer distances during lockdown?