Relevant here is the relatively unknown(by modern standards) Hugo Award winner The Terminal Experiment by Robert Sawyer.

Man invents a high resolution brain scanner and is able to identify the exact moment of death. Book largely explores the implications of that and the existence of this tech, all wrapped up with a murder mystery.

Not the best cyberpunk I’ve ever read but a solid read if you find this premise interesting.

Can you elaborate on why having the phone removed was itself a source of pride?

I do appreciate the hacking around aspect, particularly with respect to old phone systems, but having a free student phone removed seems like it would be a bad thing for everyone, no?

I was a rebellious teen. I'm not proud of it now.

Breaking the rules so bad that the ability to even interact with the thing the rule was made for was taken away?

Thank you for sharing this--I was also confused by the hand photos but viewing them again with this reference point gave me a new appreciation for the entire work!