What makes this cellphone (and the weird instructions) so privacy-friendly?

Question

I stumbled upon this weird product in a webstore primarily selling Cannabis-related products (not the actual herbs): https://smoketower.com/nyheter/Anonym-3310-mobiltelefon

I've manually translated the Swedish product description for you into English:

Small cellphone for the more sensitive calls. Keep anonymous by setting up the telephone to completely hide your number from the person you are trying to call. The phone has a 2 Mp camera and a socket for 2 SIM cards plus 1 micro-SD for extra storage. Micro-USB cable included for charging.

To ensure your anonymity, you must follow these instructions:

1. Press the Menu button
2. Go to Settings
3. Choose Call Settings
4. Choose Hide ID
5. Choose the first option 'Hide ID'

The price (449 SEK) is about $54 USD.

What exactly makes this "3310" (is that supposed to refer to an old Nokia model from the late 1990s or early 2000s?) such a privacy-friendly phone? And what's with the instructions to set some setting inside the phone?

I know for a fact that this is a real store with lots of customers, so it can't very well be a complete scam. I just wonder what they mean by this and how this could possibly make anyone anonymous, especially as the SIM cards cannot be bought anonymously since many years now, and that phone will just leak the physical location whenever powered on anyway?

Is that "Hide ID" setting unique for this particular phone? Is it a standard feature? What does it mean? Why can you "hide your ID" in some setting? I'm very confused about this.

Answer 1

Nothing. The phone simply has an option to not your send caller ID (i.e. your phone number) to the person you are calling. Nothing too special about it. In fact a lot of telephone network providers already provide a way to do this, so you don't need a special phone for it. Note that this will not prevent law enforcement from tracing your calls if they want to. All it does is not send your number to the person you are calling.

Answer 2

It's actually an original Nokia 3310 (see: https://www.nokia.com/phones/en_int/nokia-3310 ), and in the call settings you can choose to hide your caller ID, which is equivalent to adding a special code (for example #31#) in front of every number you call. That functionality is already provided by the telecommunications provider and the original phone itself (see for example: https://devices.vodafone.com.au/nokia/3310-2017-proprietary-os/calls-and-contacts/turn-your-own-caller-identification-on-or-off/ ).

If on that store it's not even clear we are talking about an original Nokia phone, then yeah, I think I would personally call that a scam, or a dishonest way to market that product anyway.