There is no mentioning of NFC, not here, not there? I like NFC for payments and things?
Not sure if it has NFC but I really doubt you're ever going to find a bank willing to do payments on a fully open phone.
Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi
61–70 of 149 posts
Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi
#62Off-topic but IMHO what is really needed these days is a privacy feature allowing all the UIDs to be changed freely by the user (without the need for rooting and firmware thinkering). Including randomized IMEIs and randomized Android ID (In addition to the already offered randomized MAC and Ad tracking ID changes). Especially IMEIs which are commonly used by many applications and law enforcement to track users (see B…
You may actually be very interested in the work here: https://xnux.eu/devices/feature/modem-pp.html https://xnux.eu/devices/feature/modem-pp-reveng.html They were able to get root access within the modem. Depending on how the IMEI value is stored, it may actually be feasible here.
Not sure if it’s possible from running Android on app CPU, but people with copies of QXDM all knows how to do it from PC
Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi
#63Off-topic but IMHO what is really needed these days is a privacy feature allowing all the UIDs to be changed freely by the user (without the need for rooting and firmware thinkering). Including randomized IMEIs and randomized Android ID (In addition to the already offered randomized MAC and Ad tracking ID changes). Especially IMEIs which are commonly used by many applications and law enforcement to track users (see B…
Changing the IMEI is illegal in the UK FYI and has been since 2002. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/31/introduction Perhaps this legislation gives you a clue about how on the ball some Govt's are when it comes to security matters? What you are suggesting is a phone that changes its obvious identifiers, but the problem with that is some services may not work, maybe an app purchased from an app store, or the…
> Whether you like it or not, Science stole your privacy the day you were born
I don't follow.
I think you have 3 paragraphs describing that the problem comes from irresponsible government agencies, entrenched private companies, and existing public infrastructure. But then you conclude that the reason GP can't have privacy is because science is in the way. I don't see how you got from point A to B.
> your best bet for some privacy is to limit your contact with other entities whilst also trying to change the laws for the better but as this requires interaction with other entities, it seems like you want a paradoxical situation to exist.
This is a somewhat strange way to think about privacy. Privacy isn't binary, and personal information isn't fungible. It's possible to reveal some information about yourself in some contexts, and then hide other information in other contexts.
Of course, lobbying is harder if you're trying to be private (heck, voting in the US is harder if you're trying to be private). But engaging with the system doesn't immediately mean you lose all of your privacy across the board. Yes, we do sometimes talk about privacy in bits -- but the full scope of privacy ultimately can't be represented by a single number in a math equation.
Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi
#64Off-topic but IMHO what is really needed these days is a privacy feature allowing all the UIDs to be changed freely by the user (without the need for rooting and firmware thinkering). Including randomized IMEIs and randomized Android ID (In addition to the already offered randomized MAC and Ad tracking ID changes). Especially IMEIs which are commonly used by many applications and law enforcement to track users (see B…
Changing the IMEI is illegal in the UK FYI and has been since 2002. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/31/introduction Perhaps this legislation gives you a clue about how on the ball some Govt's are when it comes to security matters? What you are suggesting is a phone that changes its obvious identifiers, but the problem with that is some services may not work, maybe an app purchased from an app store, or the…
The IMEI just identifies your phone. The IMSI identifies your number.
So it's perfectly possible to change the IMEI if you leave your IMSI alone. The network will think you just stuck your SIM in another phone. Everything will work fine. You can't change your IMSI as it's hardcoded on the SIM (technically you could with an eSIM but it simply would be unrecognised and just not work then).
Of course they still know who you are, and they need to to connect your calls. But apps that look at the IMEI for identification will be confused. Not sure how much it helps in terms of privacy. I doubt it helps a lot as any app can just make up a random number and dump it in their long-term storage to know it's you (just like a cookie).
And yeah the illegality of changing it is an issue in some countries. Also, if you 'clash' with another live IMEI weird things happen :)
PS: IMEI changing was outlawed in those days to stop people stealing phones and changing IMEIs to resell them and bypassing carrier blocks of the stolen phone. It was never that successful as thieves are lawbreakers by nature and don't care at all whether they break an extra law or two. Apple and Google's activation lock were much more successful. I'm personally not a big fan of laws when there are technical solutions that are equally or more effective.
Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
The answers won't be complete without mentioning the Maemo/Meego series of phones, including the Nokia N900 and N9. The N900 keeps its appeal today because it's fully programmable (even if toolchains are woefully outdated), and the community is still (after 10 years!) vibrant. It's also small, offers a hardware keyboard, has decent battery life, and has the usual gimmicks expected from a smart phone: camera, GPS, GUI…
Just curious, but if you enjoy a Nokia N900, would you not consider the Cosmo Communicator or the Fxtec a good follow-up? It has modern hardware, still a good hardware keyboard. Together with the more updated Sailfish OS you get something much newer and faster. I can imagine criticism about Jolla not having everything open sourced, but what I remember it was the same situation with Nokia for the N900 and N9. Also, in…
Is the keyboard really good? I’ve tried one of Cosmo, Gemini, or Fxtec in person, can’t remember which, and utterly disappointed upon first touch. It looked like a proper laptop but keys tilted on roll and pitch axes like a TV remote. Good hardware keyboard seems to need a lot of iteration and investments to do so.
Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi
#66In January 2020, Pine Microsystems Inc. was dissolved [1]
Anyone know if they just closed their US entity and now operate from another country or are they having financial difficulties?
[1] https://businesssearch.sos.ca.gov/Document/RetrievePDF?Id=03...
Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am using Sailfish OS on a Sony Xperia XA2. I am using it now for about 1 year. Before that I used Sailfish OS on the original Jolla 1 for 5 years. I have also used a Nokia N9 with Meego Linux, which can be considered a forerunner of Jolla/Sailfish. It uses Qt, Wayland, Systemd. The original Jolla 1 even used Btrfs, which was deemed a mistake. Sailfish OS is available on more devices, like the Pinephone, Fxtec, Cosm…
> The original Jolla 1 even used Btrfs, which was deemed a mistake. Why is that? Was it too young or is it generally impractical on a phone?
What I remember (not a linux developer) is that sometimes you have to rebalance the filesystem. You can have free space in megabytes, but no inodes left. (If I am wrong someone might correct me). There have been instances, especially later on in its lifecycle, where a system update was aborted due to no space (inodes) which ended in a lot of trouble.
Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi
#68That’s cool, but hardware kill switches don’t help your privacy.
Why?
Because nobody is ever going to want to turn off that functionality. I don’t know anyone who turns off the software switches, why would they turn off hardware ones?
A smartphone without a camera, mic, Bluetooth, cellular data, and WiFi is basically useless.
What we need is a way to make these technologies more private while they’re in use.
Also, the PinePhone is barely usable, and I say that as an owner. It’s a neat toy but it’s got a long way to go.
Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi
#69No kill switch for GPS though.
Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am using Sailfish OS on a Sony Xperia XA2. I am using it now for about 1 year. Before that I used Sailfish OS on the original Jolla 1 for 5 years. I have also used a Nokia N9 with Meego Linux, which can be considered a forerunner of Jolla/Sailfish. It uses Qt, Wayland, Systemd. The original Jolla 1 even used Btrfs, which was deemed a mistake. Sailfish OS is available on more devices, like the Pinephone, Fxtec, Cosm…
Does Sailfish OS get updates regularly?
Yes, every few months. Communication is not always that clear, the same with the roadmap :) Early in the life of Sailfish it was decided that being behind on upstream software versions was not a problem, since in embedded software things are different then with desktop and server. In the past few years many work has been done to amend this situation.
There are some other factors in play. It is a small company which is short on developers and keeping the system Gecko browser updated has proven to not be very easy. Then there is the issue that some software is closed source, which works fine with Qt 5.6 which is LGPL, but with newer Qt versions it is either full GPL or full commercial. This is a business decision and developers don't have much say in this. What I suspect is happening now is that it gets postponed untill it can no longer be postponed, which does save money :) Then there is the issue that untill now Sailfish was tied to Android drivers and thus is using Android kernels. In that sense the Pinephone is an interesting development with mainlined drivers.
So yes, in the community there are some complaints, but in the real world I can understand it the situation from both sides. For my practical usecase, a daily driver with whatsapp, I haven't seen a better linux phone yet. Again, I am really happy with my phone, even though the situation makes it easy to be critical towards it :)
edit: Oh, just to add to this, updates can last a long time for a hardware iteration. The Jolla 1 from 2013 is still getting updates. Ofcourse the Android layer is not updated due to old Android drivers, but the rest of the system is just the same a the newest hardware that is being supported. I hop my Sony Xperia XA2 from 2018 will last me 5 years as well, or hopefully even longer.