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Vendors must start adding physical on/off switches to devices that can spy on us

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Re: Vendors must start adding physical on/off switches to devices that can spy on us

#4
Note that a physical switch can be overridden just as easy as a soft switch, the vendor can just put a soft switch in parallel with it and you would never know it. The hard switch could turn off the display, speaker etc. while the processor and radio can stay on.

Re: Vendors must start adding physical on/off switches to devices that can spy on us

#5
post #4

Note that a physical switch can be overridden just as easy as a soft switch, the vendor can just put a soft switch in parallel with it and you would never know it. The hard switch could turn off the display, speaker etc. while the processor and radio can stay on.

Hopefully this would easily be detected, and the brand damage from the resultant public shaming should be enough of a deterrent. But maybe it's really well hidden and eludes detection, or people just don't care and there is no brand damage, or maybe even there's no "real" brand to damage (OEM crapware).

Re: Vendors must start adding physical on/off switches to devices that can spy on us

#6
post #4

Note that a physical switch can be overridden just as easy as a soft switch, the vendor can just put a soft switch in parallel with it and you would never know it. The hard switch could turn off the display, speaker etc. while the processor and radio can stay on.

We may be back to building our own devices again.

Re: Vendors must start adding physical on/off switches to devices that can spy on us

#7
post #4

Note that a physical switch can be overridden just as easy as a soft switch, the vendor can just put a soft switch in parallel with it and you would never know it. The hard switch could turn off the display, speaker etc. while the processor and radio can stay on.

[deleted]

Re: Vendors must start adding physical on/off switches to devices that can spy on us

#8
post #4

Note that a physical switch can be overridden just as easy as a soft switch, the vendor can just put a soft switch in parallel with it and you would never know it. The hard switch could turn off the display, speaker etc. while the processor and radio can stay on.

Yes. You could also plug it into a power strip with a physical switch, but again, the device could have a battery backup!

Re: Vendors must start adding physical on/off switches to devices that can spy on us

#10
post #4

Note that a physical switch can be overridden just as easy as a soft switch, the vendor can just put a soft switch in parallel with it and you would never know it. The hard switch could turn off the display, speaker etc. while the processor and radio can stay on.

Yes. You could also plug it into a power strip with a physical switch, but again, the device could have a battery backup!

Of course, the devices most people carry around intimately all day have batteries sealed inside them. Even if the batteries were removable, and there were no secondary battery, a device could still (and perhaps increasingly will) be able to harvest power, or be actively powered wirelessly and even at some distance.
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