Improving Smartphone Privacy

[@goldmastersimulations]

It’s baffling no mainstream smartphone has a physical kill switch for microphones and cameras.

[@Jbrimbelibap]

@@ADUSN Android 12 and upwards does, so my xiaomi phone has it on the custom rom I installed. It's part of AOSP so you might be able to trust it, but it's not as safe as unplugging hardware

[@yniekac8851]

My boyfriend’s Motorola has a phone where the front camera pops up (out of the phone). Really useful but very rare

[@danilodistefanis5990]

Glowers wouldn’t allow such thing.

[@愛]

@@danilodistefanis5990 thats what i was thinking

[@amnottabs]

@@thealienrobotanthropologist yeah no headphone jack cause "no room left" but they squeeze 3 microphones and half a dozen of cameras on current devices

[@supernoob17]

lol your room looks exactly like those "men think it's okay to live like this" memes. i love it, stay strong king

[@tontsar91]

Haha good point!

[@Buttersaemmel]

A "funsie" for everyone: you can request ALL your data that google holds onto and check it out your self. if you got some time you should definetly do that and also place your self in the mind of a stalker for example. it's honestly scary how much information you could gather from location+time alone of a person for example and should make everyone realise that you can extract even more from it than it seems at first glance. but you know the standard phrase "i've got nothing to hide"...ye

[@metal-toilet7999]

How do you get that data? Send them an email?

[@Mi.i.i]

@@metal-toilet7999 google dashboard for looking at it, google takeout for downloading

[@LGB-FJB]

Do you actually trust google from removing that data?

[@Buttersaemmel]

@@LGB-FJB i don't really. but this comment wasn't about removing the data but rather about obtaining what data they got from you.

[@LGB-FJB]

@@Buttersaemmel Do you trust they will give everything they have on you? Has google ever been fully audited?

[@goatboyhicks8195]

I remember an interview with Snowden, and for the microphone part, he would desolder the mic and use a wired headphone with mic when he needed it. A pain in the ass, yes, but, if you care, it's an option. Great vid

[@lateral1385]

It’s good security practice to always assume that any network connected microphone or camera can be accessed by a third-party.

[@swagmuffin9000]

I ordered a soldering iron yesterday because of it. I hope I don't brick my phone, or burn myself too bad

[@Shephardsatan]

@@swagmuffin9000is the phone bricked? Are you now roast?

[@Catge]

Deepfake algorithm has improved a lot. So life like!

[@xeno4162]

True

[@Moolassy]

@@StreetN1ckel it's an ongoing joke

[@notuxnobux]

@@StreetN1ckel Mental outlaw is luke smith's vtuber channel

[@yourma-uh5um]

@@Moolassy No it's not.

[@emiktra7929]

@@yourma-uh5um How do you know

[@breezyx976]

In regards to triangulation, theoretically they only need 2 towers because with 2 circles they touch at 2 points. As long as they have 3 towers on you at some point they can track your movements and so they can know which point you're in. Until you go exactly between the 2 towers at which the 2 points merge and so they lose track again.

[@PhilfreezeCH]

Its also pretty important to note that most (if not all) police have access to sting rays, which are just fancy mobile antennas that are used for tracking (and in the US they can also capture data, in the EU this is only granted in special cases like if the police already have substantial evidence of you planing a larger crime).

[@ichi1082]

Theoretically, but practically all they have is the LQ and LS for your connection and to actually pinpoint that to a location is not trivial at all because these values don't drop linearly away from the tower. But since in practice you have more than three towers near you at all times, it's still possible to somewhat locate you.

[@miguelcastro9706]

I read a book that says that one of those two points it's an impossible answer Like a negative one or it so high that it's just ridiculous,(talking about GPS) But I'm not quite sure,it was an old book

[@janekmuric]

Yes, in theory. In practice, signals are not emmited as a spherical point source. They also interfere and bounce off surfaces and buildings which makes locating with two towers very inaccurate.

[@boldCactuslad]

think of it more as a 3D heatmap of where you could be located. with one tower, you get a strange large vaguely sphere-like shape, with tons of shaded/unknown areas for the reason pointed out by Jan here. One is most likely to be found in the middle of it, but it is (in practice) a large torus. You only get a vague impression of distance from the source. With two, it is more of an extruded slice of a cylinder or conic section. Think of a poorly drawn triangle or two, shaded in. Much better than the circle or torus, but again it is an impression or probability map. Being inside or outside would greatly effect it. Obviously, if there is only one tower connected to you, a quick trip to the map store or the drones r us shop would reveal you to be the singular guy standing next to his desert shack 8 miles away lol

[@N.S.A.]

This is done only for your safety.

[@rabbitdrink]

thank you nsa for protecting honest americans like me, who have nothing to hide and nothing to fear!

[@lateral1385]

Much respect to our 🚨Law Enforcement 💜😪👮‍♀️👮🏻‍♂️agEnCies 🙏🇺🇸 Thank U for protect from the ISIS god bless

[@hicoop]

Improving your privacy is always a good thing but do not give up the luxury of modern technology for the unreachable goal of perfect privacy. Perfect privacy on the internet does not exist, and you will go insane trying to achieve it.

[@discodasco7356]

You are right

[@sonicfan82]

I agree

[@rune.theocracy]

just go guru in the forest lol

[@1984daydream]

I actually tried it and man it was so tiring trying to switch to almost anything because some of the proprietary apps/tools have been so much embedded into our life it's so hard to live without them.

[@rune.theocracy]

@Basil i've heard many security experts confirm just as much too!

[@Dearminder]

Android permissions are sometimes missleading, dev may want to do something not vulnerable but to make it he need to ask for group of permissions that also can do weird stuff (like permission to do calls) its android fault and it should be more separated or even show that specific usage android want to use it for rather than whole permission and scare user

[@xCwieCHRISx]

You mean Google/Linux?

[@thefrogge]

@@xCwieCHRISx You mean Google/Java/Linux?

[@chitrabarman8531]

@@thefrogge You mean Google/Java/Linux/Dalvik

[@MaebhsUrbanity]

No, it's important though it is almost all made by google to distinguish between Android(Java/ART/Linux) and Google Android(Google/Java/ART/Linux), most notably play services.

[@wolfiy]

@@xCwieCHRISx as I’ve recently taken to calling it Google plus Linux

[@0xsupersane920]

GrapheneOS is amazing. I'm so glad I switched to it. Although, I wish it wasn't on a Google Pixel because I don't necessarily trust the hardware. Once open source hardware/firmware with removable batteries are compatible, GrapheneOS will be unstoppable.

[@fusion9619]

When will we get open source hardware/firmware?

[@sierra715]

I wonder if there was some way to get GrapheneOS to run on a pinephone pro or librem 5. Really dont like PureOS that much

[@Cookiekeks]

@mewtwoy You can install lineageOS on the Samsung Galaxy S5 (with removable battery).

[@dorferino]

@@fusion9619 When the price of electron microscopes goes down and you slice open some risc-v SoCs to make sure it matches spec. It'll be a while until risc-v is completely open though, almost every module is proprietary such as video codecs, networking, etc. And I think there are either one or none cellular modem chips whose firmware is open source.

[@v9466]

Can you get it on Samsung s21? I’ve wanted to get it but the only thing that’s holding me back is how I cannot get grapheneOS and possibly other similar open-source hardware on Samsung

[@t1mos]

Wow! You really opened my eyes to the dangers of mobile technology. Great and informative video as always, Luke!

[@GenericMeme42]

Luke? I thought his name was Kenny

[@lukejohnson5435]

Kenny? I thought his name was Luke

[@satyarsh665]

@@GenericMeme42 thats the joke

[@GenericMeme42]

@@satyarsh665 okay I caught up on the deep fake lore 👍

[@BogdanWeiss]

One eye opened ? kzbin.info/www/bejne/iaPYZZKOdr6ofLc

[@marssguy]

It's worth mentioning that tin foil is simply not enough to block some antennas. There are many videos showcasing that, without using enough EMF-blocking material, signals can still be sent and received.

[@flipwonderland]

but nothing could penetrate a double layer of tinfoil

[@flipwonderland]

I didn't think that tinfoil actually did anything at all

[@surreal9239]

It's hard to tell this is actually a cat with 4 eyes using deepfake technology at this point. Very impressive.

[@tictac1020]

Thanks to his new Threadripper rig he can really kick the deepfake and ray tracing up a notch.

[@jannikheidemann3805]

Excerpt from the german wikipedia article about farraday cages (this isn't properly explained in the english article), translated using DeepL: Shielding of alternating fields (electrodynamics) An ideal Faraday cage also shields high-frequency alternating fields, because eddy currents are induced on the surface of the cage, which counteract the external field according to Lenz's rule. In this case, however, the shielding effect is not ideal, but is characterized by finite shielding attenuation and penetration depths into the shield. Faraday cages made of non-ferromagnetic metal shield high-frequency alternating fields due to their finite conductivity when the metal layer is significantly stronger than the penetration depth of the induced currents. Slits lead to the interruption of induction currents in the shield. Electromagnetic waves penetrate the shield comparatively well when slots in the shield are parallel to the magnetic fieldcomponent of the wave. The shielding attenuation decreases with increasing aperture and becomes small when the wavelength of the incoming electromagnetic wave is of the order of the slot dimensions. That basically means your bags are not impenetrable, espicially if they aren't closed off tightly. 5mm or 1/5" is enough for 60GHz (a 5G freq.) to get through. That kind of gap might be a zipper, an unseen tear in a foil bag or the slits in the visor/between the armour plates of medieval armour. Your phone might connect unexpectedly through an improperly made/maintained EMF bag. Also stay away from metallized plastic like chips bags or space blankets! They can't conduct enough induced current to cancel out the electromagnetic waves. A tight thick metal box is to go sure.

[@seronymus]

Please try making something like a "How to Install a Better OS for Dummies" video, for normie appeal. I mean Android etc in this case but maybe PC Linux too. I think it would do well. I loved this one

[@bz7842]

A tutorial from Mental Outlaw would be nice. Meanwhile though, most of the common Linux distros have plenty of tutorials online. I recommend Linux Mint for beginners. The installation is fairly straightforward, plenty of tutorials online, and the UI is very similar to Windows

[@madmoddingman24]

Techlore has a video on installing Graphene OS; I think he rushes a bit but it's good overall.

[@SMJSmoK]

You can find tons of PC Linux tutorials online. Phones are more problematic though. Phone hardware isn't as standardized as PC, so the stuff you have to do to flash a new OS differs from model to model and it's usually a bit more involved (and risky) than an OS reinstall on a PC. Custom ROMs also usually only support a selected group of phones. Your best bet is looking up a tutorial for your specific phone model.

[@jannikheidemann3805]

EMF bags could still leak sound, including ultrasound that you can not hear. Devices near you might be used to pick up ultrasound from your phone or send ultrasound encoded data to your phone. That technology is called soundbeacon and is officialy used for advertisments.

[@DiogenesTheCynic.]

Any way to block ultrasound?

[@jannikheidemann3805]

@@DiogenesTheCynic. Ultrasound gets mostly reflected by hard surfaces. I don't have any other idea for now. You could test what works with two smartphones and the right apps. Audio stuff isn't locked behind such nasty walls as our phones SDRs are.

[@teacon7]

solution: make it SUPER crinkly. alternatively, give it to a toddler.

[@jannikheidemann3805]

@@doctorwhoknows6348 Those wouldn't be in the same frequency range. You would have to jam the ultrasonic audio frequency range. Luckily jamming soundwaves is not illegal like jamming electromagnetic waves is under most jurisdictions.

[@ent2220]

Very informative video. At first I thought "just remove the SIM card". The moral of the story is you need a phone with hardware switches, or a phone with a removable battery and wrap it in tin foil to be completely certain. Damn.

[@gmakerc1]

You could always keep it in a faraday cage, as well.

[@frankmerker630]

I only use mine whilst in a Hadron collider vacuum chamber

[@BogdanWeiss]

close, but not quite - one red pill down - plenty more out there - kzbin.info/www/bejne/iaPYZZKOdr6ofLc

[@Gigachad-mc5qz]

I wish librem 5 wasnt this fucking expensive

[@PySnek]

@@gmakerc1 I wonder if the cage still works, when I have my headphones connected while it's inside such a bag.

[@n-steam]

If I were one of the alphabet boys wanting to track your phone's location after losing connection, I'd prioritise recording of accelerometer data. Theoretically that could reconstruct any route you take after lining it up with the locations where you both lost and regained connection.

[@mattizie91]

This doesn't work. At all. There is more acceleration up/down from walking or bumps in the road then there is acceleration in the direction you're going. You're more likely to end up on the moon than where you actually are using this method.

[@n-steam]

@@mattizie91 Bumps will cancel out, gravitational acceleration can be accounted for, yes Chaos Theory applies, and I did say 'theoretically'.

[@tiagotiagot]

Would be very approximate, possibly too much to be of any use, phone IMUs are not precise/consistent enough for dead-reckoning; just look at how easy it is to disorient an AR app just by getting something too close to the camera or getting close to some big metal object or a magnet.

[@PySnek]

Yes, the built in pedo-, accelero-, magneto- and barometer, plus the gyroscope can give you a good reconstruction.

[@PySnek]

@@tiagotiagot So the cage also has to be magnetic as fuck for the ultimate tinfoil-head experience?

[@fusion9619]

If we ever fix digital privacy, that's when they'll roll out brain implants.

[@boltez6507]

Yup...

[@ultra.based.27]

Over my dead body

[@ultra.based.27]

@@afinelad3673 and?

[@ultra.based.27]

@@afinelad3673 who asked

[@Kodeb8]

@@ultra.based.27 It'll be mandated like the vaxx.

[@iboy883]

Thanks, man i appreciate you looking into this subject whereas no other famous tech youtuber did ,all they do is review the phone but never talk about privacy when using it.... Im glad i saw this video now cuz i know for sure this subject will blow up one day

[@MgtowRubicon]

"That thing that we all use that's technically the largest collection of human wisdom and knowledge in your hand, but also is basically the thing we use to look at pictures of cats." -- Anton Petrov

[@comradesusiwolf1599]

you watch Anton? nice

[@bufordmaddogtannen]

About the phone keeping the time, once the battery has been removed, there is no dedicated RTC battery involved. On "modern" phones the time can be automatically pushed to the phone via the cellular network, via GPS, or via the Internet through the use of an NTP server. One could argue that capacitors could be used to store energy. These would be fine to power an RTC circuit, however GPS and cellular radios would need more power and I do not see "super" capacitors on PCBs when watching the many teardown videos out there.

[@BHBalast]

There are electronic circuits that use RF energy harvesting to transmit data. In the past there were even working radio receivers that used harvested energy to play radio stations. There is not much energy in RF signals, but phone modems are extremely efficient, so I'm sure it's possible, especially for low range.

[@bufordmaddogtannen]

@@BHBalast everything is possible, not in a market where margins are very slim and manufacturers remove components to save a few cents though. Unless these functionalities are embedded in a SOC without the need of "expensive" external components I would not worry about them.

[@BHBalast]

@@bufordmaddogtannen Today everything is in SoC including a modem with it's control software, maybe except SIM which btw. has its own microcontroller. And all of it is proprietary. I don't know if it's done, but it wouldn't cost much.

[@bufordmaddogtannen]

@@BHBalast I agree. What I meant is that if non essential additional functionalities are not added to a SOC by companies like qualcomm, it's unlikely that a phone manufacturer will spend money to implement them as it would cut into profits. Hence dedicated battery/capacitor backed RTC, or RF energy harvesting circuits for now are not a thing. One possible scenario to push RF energy harvesting could be attached to Apple Pay/Google Pay. Marketed as "No battery?No problem", where a circuit could harvest enough power and allow contactless payments when the phone is off.

[@BHBalast]

@@bufordmaddogtannen Agree. Technically phone manufacturer doesn't even have to implement or know about a backdoor if it's implemented on a silicon level with it's own logic, RFID already does similar thing with just silicon + antenna. I'm sure some ppl would buy that functionality, the technology is already there and it's basically credit card chip connect to an antenna.

[@tacitus_]

The pinephone also allows you to disable the cellular modem, BT and WiFi via hardware switches

[@idcrafter-cgi]

and it has native Linux support what makes it even better and if you really need android you can use waydroid

[@theodis8134]

Yeah I have a pinephone myself and was going to point that out as well.

[@PySnek]

@@theodis8134 How long does the battery last and can I swap it?

[@sasha2209]

@@PySnek this reply for getting notifications

[@terrydaktyllus1320]

@@idcrafter-cgi (Gentoo) Linux has been my main OS since 2003 (and I started using Linux in 1996) but it is a less secure solution on a phone (as of today) than AOSP Android.

[@bartekm3878]

One thing that always comes to my mind when I'm watching any videos about online privacy is: how do you live a privacy respecting life without becoming a social outcast? I mean you're telling me if I don't want to be tracked by NSA I should have my phone wrapped in tin foil and only take it out when I want to call/text someone but what about others? I have my phone on me all the time because I need to be available for others in case something comes up. Also Signal is great and all, but how am I, a GNU/Linux nerd supposed to convince others to use it?

[@Buttersaemmel]

you can only get some privacy but never 100% privacy. let's say you meet up with a friend but let your phone at home for privacy sake... well you probably talked with that friend about when to meet up and where and that maybe even happened with the same phone you let at home. but now you got nothing from keeping your phone at home as it's known you meetup with that friend and so if someone gets your friends position he knows where you are. and thats just one case i thought of right now just out of the blue. even if you do everything needed to achive 100% privacy there are still things out of your control, that weaken your privacy. so in conclusion: if you do something for your own privacy you also do something for the privacy of the people around you. and also the other way around: if you're sloppy with your own safety you're also sloppy with other peoples privacy.

[@Buttersaemmel]

@Hoovy Simulator 2 better safe than sorry

[@Fred-mv8fx]

Tracking with the real-time clock (RTC) battery would be very difficult, maybe impossible. I doubt it provides enough voltage, and even if it does the GPS / cellular chipsets in phones can draw so much power on boot they overwhelm that tiny little coin cell. Because of this, the coin cell should be isolated from the rest of the components so it doesn't get consumed for anything except the RTC.

[@DrinkingGin]

Kenny is fully embracing the bachelor minimalism style of home decor

[@L0tsen]

Adb is a life saver for me. Helped me get rid of most of my bloat.

[@tristanfranken9486]

I'll be watching this when I get home. Good timing. I recently removed all the zucc apps for privacy reasons, but I think the KZbin app is also listening to my conversations as I spoke to a friend about schizophrenia and an hour later KZbin started recommending me videos on schizoaffective disorder. (Wow, talk about irony -- just realized).

[@erikledmad]

"If Uncle Sam wants you, he will find you" -Mental Outlaw a few days ago. if you want privacy just quit the internet.

[@anotherarush]

Yeah, total privacy is near impossible and should only be used if you have done something to trigger Uncle Sam. I prefer to use the amount of measures to where I block out most privacy threatening things, without being so unique as to have a unique fingery

[@PySnek]

@@anotherarush Total privacy is only nearly possible if you are rich. A regular job makes you very vulnerable.

[@anotherarush]

@@PySnek Very true, and your friends can also ruin your OpSec too, especially if they arent good at opsec

[@lateral1385]

But it’s *our* internet.

[@swagmuffin9000]

Even not on the internet, you could be on white pages or someone's ig post in the background. You'll be somewhere against your will

[@svampebob007]

I'm so disappointed in the modern smartphone. When I first started using smartphones I was expecting a computer that can connect to cellular network, what I got was bloatware. Nowadays what I have is a 6 year old smartphone that didn't break after a week of me abusing it to shit, and that I only use when I have no access to my computer. I don't mind using google or what ever app my employer ask for, but that stops there, I'll sign inn with my "public email" use google to find what I need, use a couple apps that I might need in my daily commute, but even signal is not allowed to see my contacts, storage, or position. can they still see it? I assume so, that's why I only take pictures of my dog on my phone, I wouldn't mind a couple extra leaked backups of my good pupper on the internet. everything else is going through a remote access to my computer, or simply "hotspot" to my laptop that I know is clean of spyware like screen peek or packet sniffing. What I really wanted was a pocket computer, what I got was a open door to my whole life story, with the ability to log, and back track... but no customization for "my safety".

[@coolbrotherf127]

Drake sure does know a lot of techy stuff.

[@minespeed2009]

One problem with Faraday-bags is that a LOT of them aren't faraday bags (or atleast they don't attenuate the signal enough). Tin-foil for example also only works if the wrapping is thick enough. A good way to test the blocking of signals is playing music on a bluetooth speaker and then putting the phone in the bag. If the music keeps playing the bag is useless.

[@NameUnknown-]

As a kid, watching a show i discovered the jammers and got the idea of, in the future, getting a pocketsize jammer. The tinfoil pocket sounds a lot better, and respectful with your surroundings

[@chancepayne3013]

Faraday cage's are like 1911 handguns, it's never not going to work for what it needs to do.

[@TheFrantic5]

The tinfoil is also a lot more legal. Jammers get you in trouble with the FCC.

[@deusvult980]

Calyx OS and Graphene OS are great android based option with one fatal flaw. They only work on GOOGLE Hardware. So there goes all your security out the window.

[@Shodan-lf1yv]

Wrong. Calyx is being made available to some additional brands. Stay up to date.

[@Cookiekeks]

@mewtwoy That's not true.

[@crzyruskie86]

Doesn't matter what the hardware is. There's no way you can "activate" anything unless the software permits it. So being google hardware doesn't matter when its sanitized with Graphene OS or some other privacy OS.

[@DiogenesTheCynic.]

@@crzyruskie86 hardware backdoors can still be an issue. Regardless I own several nexus and pixel phones from google

[@deusvult980]

@Alex Bolidov Could you specify those security features?

[@panqueque445]

This is why I leave my phone at home unless I'm going to be out the whole day. I don't even take it to work. My work phone stays in the building and I never bring it home. It's the company's phone so if someone steals it then I just get a new one.

[@terrydaktyllus1320]

So the "mobile phone" you purchased is now not "mobile"?

[@phucprice6698]

@@terrydaktyllus1320 lmao

[@nightfr09]

I'd keep something on me for life or death emergencies. Even if it doesn't have a sim card, just something to call an ambulance w

[@moister3727]

I leave my phone for calls only with a custom secure rom applied, not connected to the internet or anything. I use the computer for mostly everything.

[@panqueque445]

@@terrydaktyllus1320 I bought a phone to call and text people. I'm not interested in having a phone/computer in my pocket everywhere I go.

[@Dragorach]

I don't care so much my info is being sold, I care more that I'm not getting a cut of it. We need the privatization of selling your digital information. I should be able to sell my info at rates I find fair and reasonable.

[@eustice2811]

Best take I've seen in this comment section

[@nac9880]

I ain't selling shit that shit is too precious to trade

[@eustice2811]

@@nac9880 meh, I wouldn't care, I use adblock on everything

[@nac9880]

@@eustice2811 there's fingerprinting too. I should return to monke and be happy with nature instead of being sold as a commodaity in this dystopian tech hell world

[@TheDiner50]

... ... Troll. Every "free app" is paid by tracking and selling you ads. To some extent the hardware and software is made possible to be sold at the price it is sold at thanks to the "info" being sold. Google (Android and monopoly of the internet) That part is less defendable since most of the reason is cheap is due to labor in China. And the fact that software ones written cost basically nothing to fit into millions of devices. But the point is that part of the deal now is that your data is not yours. Since people DID NOT go agents this early on so now we have lost our rights to it apparently. It is bad enough that they sell the data. Trying to use it to sell ads etc. But it is far worse then that. And really all this unwanted data transfers kills battery life. FYI. That they have position and sound/video access. Knowing every move and every interaction we have. Is fine if you get KZbin RED for free? Since that is about what you data is worth now. Not very much every year. Since this crap was allowed to being with and now people have no clue about basic concepts anymore. Like how speech assistants are not really there to help you but THEM. Try and explain the modern "trade" to someone say back in the 60-80s. Heck even in 1922. You can have a device that shows you endless cat videos and stuff out of this world that fits in your pocket that can do literally magic. But the catch being that you have to give up ALL YOUR PRIVACY and actively pay and service this spy device 24/7. If you do not carry it and service this device you lose any chance to a job or social life. And you have to pay and service this device EVERY DAY. Charge it EVERY DAY. Replace it EVERY 3 years. What are they going to ask you about? What else you can do on the device or WTF insane world did you come from? Why would anyone allow this for cat videos? I myself ask the same question. When did we go from the expensive device being a tool to a spy device? First Iphone really did not track you. So it is not really the smartphone that did it. It is a private tool as anything before it. But after 2008 or something what happened? Google. Social media. Annd?

[@notsaab]

I would like to point out some things that may are misleading: Since Android Marshmallow, any app can't access a sensitive data (like the internal memory, GPS, contacts, etc.) without your explicit consent, and by Android 10 you can actually give temporary consent (let's say you want to give Google Maps the access to your location only when you're actually using the app) And by Android 12 you can block the microphone via software, so it's something

[@K9arcade]

true, and it's an option to have it remove permissions if an app hasn't been used for a period of time.

[@Kodeb8]

13:57 for this reason you should get a mic locker. It's this plastic thing you stick on the headphone jack (or the power plug if your phone doesn't have a headphone jack) and it hugs the mic, basically disabling it.

[@CrazyPlayer-pf2hv]

Kenny when he builds his next house: "Yeah yeah, just put 20 Layers of tin foil into the walls and let me turn the protection against EMF on or off via a switch"

[@visheshjawa1408]

it doesn't happen that way tho (I get its a joke) you can't just turn off your physical faraday cage

[@PokeNebula]

Cant you make a mechanical lever that opens an aperture in the foil?

[@CrazyPlayer-pf2hv]

@@visheshjawa1408 I would think of it such as like a moveable wall or like the curtains they use in gym halls. Basically if tin foil is stacked up at the top everywhere else there would be phone service and if tin foil is lowered down theres no phone service like here in Germany xD

[@markmuir7338]

My 1980s house seems to be already like that. So hard to get WiFi signals to reach the yard, even when you're standing right on the other side of the wall to a base station! They don't make 'em like they used to.

[@JohnDoeagtfdyutasgdjak]

>Smartphone >Privacy Impossible

[@fisi]

You need preferences... privacy > knowledge? Don't get me wrong privacy is important but even if you could get 100% privacy there are times wher it's better to go back... It's just your personal preference. I mean it is complex indeed. I use linux and I won't switch back to windows but I also use much closed source software and wine ther privacy isn't more important than usability but it's more important than your comfort... Just a personal preference but might be better if some would stick to that as well

[@tontsar91]

Incredibly hard to achieve but theoretically possible. It comes down to preferences, do you value privacy over convenience or the other way around.

[@fisi]

@Toni Rajalammi True facts. You're completing me 😂

[@hoax0889]

Nice video 😃😃😃, really needed to keep social distance with the big brther, thank

[@jer1776]

Another good tip is to avoid installing apps on your phone in the first place and just use your web browser. Unfortunately many websites like Reddit are getting very coercive in pushing you to use their app.

[@MaebhsUrbanity]

I remember the blackberry used to in its quick settings cellular connection, actually turning off the radio in it. Of course, it's software so not entirely trustable as well as having removable battery, and I've done enough with cellular networks to know that an RTC battery cannot operate a cellular radio unless they used some LoRa like tech hidden and basically this would involve obvious large components/silicon that the repair community would've found. also as others have discussed all modern phones I've seen do not use RTC batteries, my guess would be they get GPS/Dedicated time radio signals(I don't know how this varies by country though) time generally this time can easily be got during power on time.

[@p5eudo883]

I was really sad to see Blackberry get overshadowed by iPhone and Android phones. Blackberry did a lot of things right, which Apple and Google do not.

[@vinching926]

Even on computers people still just press next to the end when installing things, just like allow permissions on smartphones. A file management software doesn't requires permissions to know your location, however there's a search engine plugin included in the package that requires location permission. You're done

[@Lazabaza7752]

When enough ppl support the privacy industry more options/competition will start to better improve our options, so support some company with patronage to help this growing industry. Thank you for your vids man

[@UniqueBreakfastTaco]

10:00 kinda like a CMOS. i can see it being able to send out a short burst, but those are small cells with limited capacity. now that we cant remove batteries, its more probable that its always transmitting. short of a faraday cage, which absolutely works on 4G, its always online at a hardware level.

[@evanjrowley]

A lot of phones with 3.5mm headphone jacks use the headphone cord itself as an AM/FM antenna, so potentially, a phone inside an anti-EMF bag with wired headphones plugged in could still recieve radio broadcasts.

[@desktorp]

I have only ever owned 2 cellphones. First was a Palm Pixi Plus.. used it sparingly for 10 years. I was forced to begrudgingly 'upgrade' and ended up getting a Blackview BV5500 Pro, but I leave it off most of the time and rarely take it with me when I leave the house. Sometimes it lives in a metal box to fully cut it off from the outside world. I miss the physical keyboard of the Palm device. Been using the 1 year plans from Net10 that end up costing about $15 a month. Still too expensive for what I get out of it. Might not renew it next year. I hate these things. I hate that the batteries are such a pain to remove and often not removable at all.

[@BALJIT147]

The Pinehone also has switches to disable all the things you mentioned. Also the Pine phone costs under $200 were the Librem phone is an absurd amount of money.

[@KeizerSinbad]

Note, I work with RF professionally and I can say that even one of those mylar bags or (faraday bags) will only attenuate the signal strength, not completely block it. Most phones will be able to get a small signal from within a satchel like that.

[@Viper54K]

About tinfoil: I tested this with my phone but BE AWARE - I needed to use two layers of tinfoil to succeed. I was actually surprised at how my phone was able to penetrate one layer of tinfoil. I was completely stunned. Two did work though.

[@tiagotiagot]

There was probably still enough leaking with two layers that if you got closer to the mast/WiFi router you might still be able to get a connection.

[@Viper54K]

@@tiagotiagot Yeah. This really blew me away. I worked with EMF stuff in college and I had always figured a metal would be enough to block any waveform, even if its thin. Moreso because it was dense enough to prevent any radio waves from getting out + conductive enough to absorb the waves. I should retest this with the foil being grounded in some format to see if it would be more effective. I dont quite understand by what function the waves are getting thru the metal. Are they too small? Are they reflecting thru gaps in the material? Need more insight.

[@Viper54K]

Actually, come to think of it - the material may be too light and be functioning as an antenna rather than a sink. By adding mass you may be causing the material to sink enough of the energy that it reduces the range to near 0.

[@necronomazarathian9506]

You look so much friendlier than what I imagined from your voice!

[@Player_X_YT2]

Regular tin foil is not going to work, a faraday cage works when the metal is in a specific pattern that blocks any electricity en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage

[@PySnek]

thank you

[@axmoylotl]

It sucks you have to destroy the functionality of your phone to have it not track you

[@PySnek]

You don't destroy it. You use it in a selective way.

[@dafoex]

With the point at the end, I'd say securing your start phone is the most important thing. With the exception of assistive solutions like glasses, hearing aids, wheelchairs, etc., your phone is likely the only thing in your life that you carry with you all day and likely don't even have further away than arm's reach while you sleep. It has the capacity to know much more about you than anything else you own.

[@AlexZanderMuro]

pencil case + tinfoil + antistatic bag = cheap and ez faraday bag. i also reuse some of those foil takeout tins that have the foil lid, and they actually work pretty well. been working on designs for a RISC V linux phone the past month or so. hopefully i can get it finished and tested by the end of the year.

[@minespeed2009]

what riscv microprocessors/ SOC's are out there that actually have as decent enough performance to be used inside a phone? the only ones i know are the SiFive chips but they sip way too much power and everything else is more akin to a microcontroller. (and most are imac and not gc)

[@PySnek]

@@minespeed2009 He won't need much power, if it's 90% of the day in his tinfoil bag, turned off xD

[@AlexZanderMuro]

@@minespeed2009 im designing mine around a custom spec sifive u7 chip (more cache, more fancy features enabled, 6 cores) but im not too worried about power draw atm since the phone im planning on is going to be about the thickness of one of the old HTC Tilts that ran windows mobile, but with a screen/chassis about the size of a 5x7 notecard with a slide out kb. im aiming to make it like the rog phone where you can plug it into a dock and use it as a "desktop" but also a "mini mobile workstation" that just so happens to also work as a cell phone. slide out kb, 4-6000mah battery (minimum), dual usb c (one with an ethernet breakout cable and one for normal usb c stuff), 5g, 8gb dram, and a few other goodies. i really dont leave the house much anyway so the most itd have to stay charged for is about 8 hours. also dont even know if ill be able to get a one-off custom spec U7 anyway, so its kind of just a pipe dream/passion project/proof of concept atm to see if i can actually design something that does what ive wanted from a phone natively for the last 8 years.

[@haxwithaxe]

GSM (probably 3G+ too) has a time signal as part of the protocol (CDMA does not have a time signal as part of the protocol). When you put the battery back in it's able to get the current time even on just voice and text only capable devices. You can test if it's getting it's time from the network by putting the battery back in while inside a metal mesh bag or faraday cage and checking the time before removing it. The mesh doesn't need to be super tight to block cell signals (less than one wavelength). A "faraday" pouch is 100% guaranteed to block the signal but it might be convenient to be able to just pull the battery rather than carrying around a pouch.

[@xmvziron]

I've been waiting for this! Thank you Mental Outlaw!

[@Gh0_-st]

bruh, i love this channel more then my gf. 😂 well sad story we broke up 3 days ago XD

[@randomforest8774]

Microwave ovens also have same protective qualities as those bags since they're literally faraday cages

[@-my4skinwastakeninasickjew426]

Yeah mine does not block anything.

[@CUBKITS]

The difficulty for me is going without all of these critical technologies. For me, the main services I couldn't really live efficiently without would be Google maps, KZbin, Gmail, and the Drive suite. But here's the thing: while I am acutely aware of big tech's tracking and even misuse of my data, I think this tradeoff of my data for a free service that makes my life that much easier is fair. Of course I oppose censorship and deplatforming, and the centrality of it all, but until those things become major life hinderances for me, I am okay with them sipping off of my every-day life choices. If there were ANY other services that came close to these critical services for me, I would be jumping ship as soon as humanly possible, but as of now this would require "working around" issues in nearly every way. Unfortunate.

[@owndampu1731]

fun thing about location access, I'm currently developing a bluetooth android app. And if you want to scan for nearby bluetooth devices you have to ask for location access. Which was very odd to me, but yeah I dont want to have to ask for this permission as I don't even use the location for anything.

[@410Here]

god damn. this guy is litterally absorbing light

[@ArlindoDestruidor]

Please continue doing those kinds of vídeos, you dont have idea how much they are usefull

[@Leo.K.]

Idea for the deepfake commission the channel icon as a painting in the background. Feels like it would bring more to your 'cover' since in all honesty who has a photo of a cat in their living room and is below 27 according to the deep fake technology you are using. Long story short. Would you want to put the channel icon at the back as a painting?

[@Metruzanca]

Love your room. It validates my also equally empty looking house.

[@edgarssva6359]

video idea: 1) buy smartphone (one of best for privacy, based on your beliefs) 2) record how you install custom os and apps, try to solder off wifi chip, sim, radio , battery and make switch for them, make custom back case, by using 3d printing (witch will be bigger because of switches) You will learn how to solder and 3d print. plus very exclusive content, and make your 4d print model public so others can recreate that super privacy friendly phone and where you bought soldering iron and switches ofcourse.

[@azy3929]

love your content, so much to learn

[@GAMIR_SFM]

Wished the cops in my country had that info when my old phone was stolen

[@mattizie91]

They did. They just don't give a fuck. My bike was stolen in full view of an active security camera. Cops did nothing. Called up the station a week later and the cops hadn't even bothered to request the footage.

[@GareWorks]

The lack of hardware options, especially internationally, is a real problem. I'd love to get a Sony phone but those aren't sold in many countries any more and they have poor (almost non-existent) custom ROM support. So disappointing. I might just import one and jump through hoops for 5G and LTE at some point but that's a lot of money to essentially gamble.

[@DanielAgafonov]

Could you discuss a "degoogled" phone if you already haven't

[@deathkeys1]

a very nice topic, I mean, I do not own a model that has a custom rom available. so, degoogling would be the next best thing.

[@primary_magic1227]

I wish grapheneOS wasn't so limited with supported devices.

[@stevecooper6578]

He did like 10 months ago kzbin.info/www/bejne/jpKriJaqqaljqq9m Also the CalyxOS videos

[@John-ru4gz]

What can you do with past pixel devices?

[@lowwastehighmelanin]

Yeah I'd love his opinion on that subject

[@m4rt_]

14:05 then the best combination if probably the phone with hardware switches for the microphone, camera, antena, etc, and one of those bags.

[@CaptZenPetabyte]

I have been looking into this subject for a year now, and have been making notes and using all my skills and maybe one day I will find a solution ... thanks for the channel, I appreciate your work and recommend people follow all the time. I think, in the end the solution will be to have something that can 'layer on top of' (as in maybe sandbox/obfuscate?) so that ANY Google mobile can be used the same as Samsung One layers on top of android because (a) the Privacy OS's only work on certain phones, (b) the alternative OS's are great but not good enough at the moment for a 'daily driver' and (c) it needs to be 'easier' to achieve for the 'everyday person' who is interested but cannot (or not savvy enough) do the bunkum and swticharoo that you have to do before the install. I think this may be the future of Android, at least until the Security and Privacy OS's can work on ALL hardware like the current releases of Android thrown out there by Google.

[@R.K_Chalkboard]

If you are paranoid about your privacy, and you have an iphone, they are ways to install Android on there, and install Graphene from there. Though it takes a lot of work, so would recommend buying a new phone altogether. But you can do that, if you have free time.

[@ghost-user559]

How?

[@thegreenfather1978]

An idea came to mind: a crystal radio can produce sound using radio waves as its unique source of power. Couldn't it be possible to have in your cellphone a component that produces and emits a signal with some personal data on it, using only radio waves as a power source? I know very little about electronics, but it might be something relatively cheap and easy to put in a phone. It would always be turned on, and by soldering it to the circuitry, maybe even incorporating it into an essential part of the phone, it could be extremely inconvenient to remove. The only way to escape big brother would be to own no electronics, and keep clear of it at all times. Maybe that's why governments seem to make computers and smartphone near mandatory for so many essential things... Anyway, gonna make me a new pair of tinfoil gloves, for the microchips they put in my hands.

[@seventhgreeter5416]

Lol, did you mark your KZbin Sponsorblock yourself? Also, what lbs grippers are those Iron Mind's behind you? And also, the Pinephone ALSO has physical kill switches on their phone. And also, great video as always.

[@horrorhotel1999]

Your accelerometer can easily be used to continue inferring your position even after live position updates are no longer possible. Yes, the error in those predictions will accumulate over time, but they are still insanely accurate, especially if coupled with other built-in sensors like barometric etc. Depending on your emf bag, it won't even fully shield your compass sensor

[@billallen6109]

I gotta say it's nice putting a face to the voice in your videos lately

[@darrennew8211]

If the phone is communicating with the tower, it's sending radio waves, which you can detect from outside the phone. No amount of phone compromise will prevent someone from noticing that, just like no malware uploading stuff to servers is going to go undetected in a lab where people are watching the router traffic.

[@emiel333]

Great and insightful video.

[@TheChemisch]

I feel like the hardware is there. Just someone needs to implement it. I dream of the day I can run say proxmox to virtualize android while sinkholing every packet I don't approve of. Or alternatively a quebes-esque distro for smartphones.

[@cornheadahh]

based and privacy pilled

[@Spidapida006]

Root your phone, install and flash Xposed framework, and install something like Xprivacy. You then can completely control spoof data and control permissions. Yes, you can control some permissions on newer versions of Android, but you cannot disable all permissions.

[@BurgerKingHarkinian]

Literally what I did and I couldn't be happier. :) Well.... It would be nice if the phone automatically rerooted itself after a system upgrade but still.

[@eustice2811]

The problem with root is that you can't have proper encryption since the decryption keys don't get properly wiped from memory with an unlocked bootloader

[@BurgerKingHarkinian]

@@eustice2811 what does rooting have to do with an unlocked bootloader? Unless you have a Pixel, the thing is going to stay unlocked anyway as there doesn't seem to be a way to relock it with a custom ROM afaik. Also, do you have any source for that? That's the first time I'm hearing this.

[@eustice2811]

@@BurgerKingHarkinian This is how I know you've never rooted before. How do you plan on flashing a modified boot image to root your device with a locked bootloader? Additionally, with a rooted device anyone, including law enforcement can recover any data from device, even if it's password protected because they are able to either sideload their own programs or boot into recovery and recover any piece of data from there. Why do you think the ceberus government malware works so well by unlocking a phones bootloader and rooting or jailbreaking the device?

[@eustice2811]

@@BurgerKingHarkinian Also, relocking a bootloader after flashing a modified rom is a terrible idea, especially if the rom is unstable, the risk of bricking your device is pretty high

[@RedVRCC]

3:54 you can, but it's incredibly challenging. I remember back in 7th grade someone was showing off their iPhone 4 that they managed to get android running on, and they just simply called it the "iDroid" Tbh this shit sounds like too much effort for very little gain. Besides, I'd basically never be able to communicate with any of my friends anymore.

[@skywz]

Note that Calyx OS is adding support for the OnePlus 8T, OnePlus 9, and Fairphone 4, so you're not stuck with a Pixel.

[@frank-2martialoffrankoslav151]

Fun Fact, Corporations and Companies are Different. One is Private, the Other is Public. There Are More Differences, but interestingly Enough, They Have the Almost Same Name as the Idea of "Corporatism".

[@burhanbudak6041]

There should be a barometer for privacy. Yes I use MicroG that sends crap data but I can't modify the ROM.

[@salpertia]

At least not the stock rom

[@burhanbudak6041]

@@salpertia signature spoofing and microG install is way to hard. There are ROMs ready to go.

[@AcidiFy574]

PinePhone has killswitches too & it's truly FOSS (in spirit at least)

[@marlz11]

Mental Outlaw, excellent video! I see you use Captains of Crush hand grippers, what number?

[@K9arcade]

I'm always proactive with my devices. I use android phones and I very strictly check my permissions on all my apps. I also always have location data and other buttons turned off most of the time, only manually enabling them when I need to. I don't do much browsing on my phone and have it set up to wipe the search and cookies when I'm done since I don't want anything saved on there. I also go into apps settings and any apps i can't remove i disable them to save ram and to turn off junk. There's more you can do I guess but this is a great start.

[@animeknight99]

Samsung use to have a software known as Odin to flash Roms or make Custom Roms but now it no longer exists unless you download a copy of it from another site. Sumsung also locked their Bootloader in their newest phones so you won't be able to use Lineage OS or a custom Rom you want to use

[@jamesshaw3500]

As long as metal doesn't touch metal, that bag works... if it touches the metal in the phone, you just made a bigger antenna.

[@alejadroigoyanes]

we need some sort of qubes os for phones. With the option for a panic switch that erases your E-Sim data, changes your phone's IMEI & Serial numbers to some random numbers and wipes all phone data clean ... Also the ability to have multiple device profiles with different IMEI numbers would be awesome there needs to be a team researching this also a way to ran any android APp in an isolated virtual android machine with all traffic routing through Tor would be bananas... If you can get all this... Then bun u can have a smartphone and truly be invisible

[@alejadroigoyanes]

With the option for a panic switch that erases your E-Sim data, changes your phone's IMEI & Serial numbers to some random numbers and wipes all phone data clean ... Also the ability to have multiple device profiles with different IMEI numbers would be awesome there needs to be a team researching this also a way to ran any android APp in an isolated virtual android machine with all traffic routing through Tor would be bananas... If you can get all this... Then bun u can have a smartphone and truly be invisible

[@Yung-f5i]

Glad you’re using the webcam more nowadays!

[@yura2110]

i love your videos, keep going.

[@jimbo-dev]

In my opinion LineageOS is the best Android distribution. You can get it with open source "google" services preinstalled (MicroG apps) so that there would be open source replacements for all the nasty google background services. Some proprietrary apps require google apis which MicroG can offer without contacting google. I still use iPhone, because at least Apple advertises privacy, meanwhile google is company for targeted advertising. It is valid to not trust either, but I rather trust the one who at least claims some sort of an privacy as in factory configuration. I don't use android at the moment, because it encourages me to hack it and last time I had android I couldn't resist myself trying all kinds of os level modifications, so my phone didn't work most of the time. Luckily the pinephone is relatively cheap so I could afford it soon as my secondary phone. Edit: Pinephone has those hardware switches too, Librem 5 isn't the only one.

[@woldemunster9244]

You trust advertisements? "Apple says it respects my privacy so i give them money and it makes me feel safe". Maybe that's why people pay absurd money for inferior platform, they tell you it's the "best"?

[@lord_khufu]

how'd you know if apple are tracking your every moves themselves

[@woldemunster9244]

Esimerkki yksityisyyden suojaamisesta: älä käytä oikeaa nimeä "someissa". Suomi on niin pirun pieni maa että teikäläisen niminen heppu löytyi sekunnissa Kuopiosta.

[@woldemunster9244]

Ellet tietenkin halua jakaa yksityiselämääsi kaikille tuntemattomille.

[@jimbo-dev]

@@woldemunster9244 Yes I trust advertisements. And if some company claims to do something for privacy and even if they do only a little bit it's still better than nothing. Of course doing a little bit doesn't mean perfection

[@PinakiGupta82Appu]

Most of the time, I hit the like button while watching your video with anticipation of seeing something interesting and informative. And, most of the time, it turns out to be the case. Greetings! Could we not install Gentoo on a flashed ROM and melt the thin copper traces to the spooky nosy circuitry? Oh! I'll put a switch in between the traces. That'd have been much better.

[@User-yx7tg]

Step one: Dont use a Smartphone.

[@nabri-nfg3262]

Nice spin move last night Jason

[@RegularEarthlingEngineer]

at 8:38 you talk about phones with hardware poweroff switches for stuff, and the pinephone has that functionality for stuff and runs fully fledged linux.

[@NomadAlly]

When he said that I thought pinephone also