Privacy@lemmy.mlbyDefinitelyNotBirds@lemmy.ml
3 hours

Your phone is a snitch in your pocket, and the law won't save you. It's time to break the surveillance machine.

Your smartphone tracks your location, listens to your conversations, and sells your intimate moments to data brokers.

The law pretends to regulate this, but lobbyists write the rules and enforcement is a joke.

Encryption apps aren’t enough when the hardware itself is designed to betray you.

The phone is a spy device marketed as a lifestyle accessory.

We need radical technical solutions, not incremental privacy policies that change nothing.

The surveillance economy depends on your ignorance and inaction.

Break the chain: use open hardware, de-Googled Android, or build your own tools.

#privacy #surveillance #digitalrights #antitrust

How much of your life are you willing to sell for a slightly more convenient map app?

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    • Matt@lemmy.ml
      30 minutes

      Me reading this on Pixel 9a running GrapheneOS:

      • ☂️-@lemmy.ml
        11 minutes

        graphene is pretty good, but be careful with cell network triangulation. also careful with what apps you run on it.

    • jabjoe@feddit.ukEnglish
      27 minutes

      This is a legal/poltical issue more than a technology one. The good guys are the EFF, OpenRightsGroup, EDRi and others in the same side. Increasingly phone apps are forced on us to do things at all, and those apps are not only closed but only run on locked down OSs. It’s anti competitive, anti-freedom, authoritarian, etc etc.

      We need to get better at convincing non-nerds. We need to stop fighting political fights by burying ourselves ever deeper in tech. Which I’m guilty of too!

    • HubertManne@piefed.socialEnglish
      9 minutes

      I don’t like smartphones and im kinda paranoid so turned off and in an rfid blocking bag. Even with dumbphones because who knows what is hidden away active without me knowing. I would have laughed at such paranoia 15 years ago.

    • araneae@beehaw.org
      2 hours

      Is this a post just tilting the blame and impetus for escaping closed hardware on the user and nothing else? Because I’ll buy a Jolla or a Fairphone when my current phone dies, maybe, if I can afford it. All your post does is position true privacy as a hobbyists niche.

    • 14th_cylon@lemmy.zip
      3 hours

      i dream about a phone with hw switch, which would be used to lock the screen and at the same moment it would physically disconnect microphone, camera, and gps module.

      not saying it is complete solution to the privacy problem, but it would be good start.

      • cunnililgus@sopuli.xyz
        1 hour

        Fairphone 6 with e/OS can use its physical switch to disable camera & microphone. Its only SW disabling but it forces app that want to use it request it. There’s also privacy setting that gives apps fake geo data.

        Its not perfect but any improvement is good.

      • Pika@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        3 hours

        the pinephone does that, its not built into the lock screen button but, it has a switch for most the privacy central features.

        • 14th_cylon@lemmy.zip
          3 hours

          did not know that. but from the image, that seems like something that is inside of the phone? not really something you casually flip on the street.

          my idea is that anytime you would flip the switch and lock the screen to put the phone in the pocket, its spying capabilities would be physically disabled.

          • girsaysdoom@sh.itjust.works
            14 minutes

            I actually have one I’m not using at the moment. The switches at within the back cover but that’s easily able to be reached within 5 seconds or so with no tools. It’s not exactly something you would be flipping on and off regularly though unless you had a very specific use case.

            Anything that isn’t a hardware switch potentially leads itself to being bypassed, so the switches are your best bet for being sure it’s disabled.

            Edit: there’s also this (I linked the case which shows the switches) phone which has switches on the outside for this purpose. I don’t know anyone who has used this one however.

          • Pika@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            2 hours

            Yea you are right, the privacy switches are under the battery cover, so it requires taking the cover off flipping the switch and putting it back on again.

            The cover is made similar to how the Acatels are if you have ever used them, so its a pry instead of a slide which is annoying, but at least its there, in my opinion its a design defect, I think the switch would have worked better if the cover was a slide like how the old Samsungs were prior to going to the non-removable battery layout

    • bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works
      2 hours

      Can someone explain what data Samsung would be harvesting If you disable google play store and only use f droid apps? How can I see what data ia being keamed from my phone?

      Of course, we know for a fact if you install the Facebook app it records you night and day. But none of us use that garbage.

      I have to stay in this phone for a couple years still until i get a graphene pixel. Ive disabled everything I can on it and never update it.

    • Cherry@piefed.socialEnglish
      1 hour

      I would love to think its just a hardware and software issue, it is a habit issue too - i am keen to get away from my phone. I am starting to detest it.

      But we do still need things that genuinely aid us. People do need maps. and bank apps on the go. I am trying to break my habits. I have been tempted to go back to a nokia flip but i need a map. I miss the days of flips, that satisfying clip closed. The actual physical act of opening it.

      I will be moving to graphene pretty soon but its still a touchscreen, and even if i buy second hand it bumps google prices, i begrudge that. Jolla is too far away and a tad on the pricey side. Motorola is still another big brand just producing touch screen smart phones that lean towards bad habits. I would love a physical switch too.

      • Auli@lemmy.caEnglish
        22 minutes

        Google gets nothing from you if you purchase second hand.

    • jdr@lemmy.ml
      3 hours

      How much of your life are you willing to sell for a slightly more convenient map app?

      30% max

      • Pika@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        3 hours

        However much is earned by time saved by that app.

        I stopped using openstreetmap because it wasn’t reliable enough for me. I found myself going the wrong direction, or not finding what I wanted to find and having to swap back anyway.

        I liked the goal but, it just wasn’t a valid tool for me.

        • CodenameDarlen@lemmy.world
          3 hours

          The thing is changing your life to not need a precise maps app, instead of looking an app to fit your life.

            • CodenameDarlen@lemmy.world
              10 minutes

              There’s a bullet proof old tech called communication, you reach someone in the street, or any business around there and ask questions about where the specific location you’re looking for is located.

          • Pika@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            2 hours

            I firmly agree. It’s a give and take, I don’t have the time or energy to spend a couple hours mapping the local area on OSM that way it can be properly used. I did that for my home town, and then realized that outside of big corporate entities, it wasn’t done at all for any of the surrounding towns or even cities. To me having an accurate map with ability to give directions and traffic reports is worth more than my location data.

          • lumpenproletariat@quokk.auEnglish
            2 hours

            Not having a map when going to a new location is one of the most anxiety triggering things for me. They have been lifesavers in helping me get out more.

            • CodenameDarlen@lemmy.world
              1 hour

              But OSM provides a map. What exactly are you talking about?

              I thought the problem was people depending too much on Google Maps because its privacy invasive data harvesting.

              • lumpenproletariat@quokk.auEnglish
                1 hour

                You said precise maps apps and ‘an app to fit your life’, not closed source corpo map sources.

                I’m fine with using open source if it’s capable of navigating me around without issue, I’m not fine with not having an app too fit my life or be precise.

                • CodenameDarlen@lemmy.world
                  1 hour

                  Yea but the main thread of this comment is talking about:

                  How much of your life are you willing to sell for a slightly more convenient map app?

                  Usually when people say that on a privacy perspective it refers to how impossible is to ditch Google Maps because of its live traffic things and other things like Android Auto.

                  So I replied saying you should change your life to not depend on such apps, not your apps to fit in your lifestyle.

    • CodenameDarlen@lemmy.world
      3 hours

      Can this be true if you use a device without any connection to the internet and no SIM card?

      I mean could a hardware connect to some kind of network to send private information? Let’s assume it can read wireless network even with wifi turned off, it still needs to find a network and a password to connect to it.

      Because the basic thing is, it won’t expose your data if doesn’t leave your phone, right?

      • pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip
        2 hours

        Can this be true if you use a device without any connection to the internet and no SIM card?

        You’ve got the idea. There’s a bunch to unpack here:

        • If the device is truly offline, your privacy is okay.
        • But there’s lots of ugly ways vendors work around “being offline”
        • Denying the device a SIM card means the device is not authorized to get online, but certain emergency services that require a network will work anyway. The SIM is to make sure we’re paying to be online, and is otherwise not actually needed to connect.

        I mean could a hardware connect to some kind of network to send private information?

        If you’re asking if it is possible to hide a secret antennae in an officially offline device, yes, absolutely.

        I’ve heard privacy nerds theorize that these will become common in smart TVs, so the TV can phone the vendor with screenshots, even (especially) when playing pirated local media.

        Because the basic thing is, it won’t expose your data if doesn’t leave your phone, right?

        Exactly. And you’ve also caught the tricky bit - it’s hard to be 100% sure a device isn’t phoning home if the device is a closed proprietary (secret) design, running closed proprietary (secret) software.

        • CodenameDarlen@lemmy.world
          1 hour

          I mean you could in theory disassembly your phone, remove antenna, wifi, mic, camera and sensors parts.

          Then you still have a tool, transfer things you need via USB only.

          I really don’t think something can leak from your phone after that, even emergency calls might not work if you removed the antenna.

          I know this might cross the line of paranoiac but some people do this, I’d do it too if I was too concerned about privacy, which I’m not. I’m just an average privacy enthusiast.

      • 14th_cylon@lemmy.zip
        3 hours

        Let’s assume it can read wireless network even with wifi turned off, it still needs to find a network and a password to connect to it.

        rather than hacking wifi, it connect to mobile internet even without sim card. that is much simpler, the mobile internet is basically anywhere and it is free as part of some spying cartel with the mobile network operators.

        any new car also spy on you and you don’t need to provide sim card for that.

      • paper_moon@lemmy.world
        2 hours

        It depends on what kind of devices you’re using.

        It’s my understanding that SIM cards in phones are just to tie an account and identity to your phone, for purposes of enforcing people to be paying customers for the phone/data services, and tracking your usage based on what level service you’re paying for and what you should receive (5GB of data monthly, unlimited texts, etc)

        But if your phone doesn’t have a SIM card in it, its still connecting to cell towers for purposes of emergency dialing, and the phone itself can continue to be tracked by cell carriers based on what physical cell towers its connecting to, as you travel around. The cell phone modem itself can control and connect to networks independently of what the OS running on the phone tell it to do, its a self contained black box.

        If you have something like a desktop or laptop, both Intel and AMD have “management engines” embedded in the CPU’s themselves that can take control of the device for purposes of shutting down, wiping, etc a company machine that has sensitive information or access on it, and has been reported stolen, not returned by an ex employee, etc. These management engines have direct access to the network stack and can phone home whenever a network connections is present, either from a WiFi network, physical Ethernet cable, or 4G/5G WWAN card.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Management_Engine

        If you have a device that is basically air gapped, no WiFi, no cellphone chip, than it’s still possible to exfiltrate information off the device, but the software running on the device would have to be programming to be searching for methods to do that. Your average device, unless it’s running malicious software, probably won’t be doing that.