burner phone

[ bur-ner fohn ]

nounInformal.

a disposable cell phone with prepaid service, often used with the intent to temporarily obscure the true identity or contact information of the user: Members of the cartel used burner phones to evade federal surveillance. I always give out the number from my burner phone when I’m going on a blind date.

Origin of burner phone

2000–05; burn¹ (perhaps in the slang sense “to disclose the identity of”) + -er¹ + phone¹

Think of a burner email the way you might a burner phone used to evade police surveillance.
Media Briefing: How publishers are pushing podcasts to new audiences | Tim Peterson | April 15, 2021 | Digiday
Many digital activists have burner phones and backup computers, and work away from their families to protect them.
A guide to being an ethical online investigator | Tanya Basu | January 14, 2021 | MIT Technology Review
To further cover their traces, the hackers were careful to use computers and networks to communicate with the back door at a given target only once—the equivalent of using a burner phone for an illicit conversation.
How Russian hackers infiltrated the US government for months without being spotted | Patrick Howell ONeill | December 15, 2020 | MIT Technology Review

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