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Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

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Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#71

Post by GekkePrutser »

mschuster91 wrote: post #31
Cantbekhan wrote: post #15

Off-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…

In Germany it's punishable by law indirectly ( https://tipps.computerbild.de/hardware/firmware/imei-nummer-... ), in UK it is a direct crime that may yield 5 years of jail time ( https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/31/notes?view=plai... ). Be fucking careful when you are traveling with a phone that has an IMEI in the software that does not match the one on the sticker.

True, in some regions this is not allowed. It was mainly for the purpose of blocking stolen IMEIs though which is not really a thing anymore (since Apple/Google's activation lock is so good there's no more need).

Also, for avoiding tracking purposes there is really no point in changing your IMEI. There's many other ways they can track you. In fact I don't see any real reason to do it at all.

Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#72

Post by syshum »

actionowl wrote: post #66

In 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...

From this Comment on Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/PINE64official/comments/g8dqx9/pine...

------

The Pine Microsystems becomes Pine Store Limited. Two reasons on such move:

1. Increasing complexity of business compliance and reporting paperwork when operates in California. Since Pine Store primary business is not in California, no interest to keep continue to have such burden.

2. Avoid legal mafia similar to what happens to Gnome on Q4 last year. Unfortunately, there are a lot of such legal mafias operate in State.

This move is not due to financial or politic reason. Pine Store Limited locates in Malaysia and Hong Kong.

-------------

Given the state of relations with HK and the US now this may makes things more complex for them as well

Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#73

Post by GekkePrutser »

actionowl wrote: post #66

In 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...

n January 2020, Pine Microsystems Inc. was dissolved[7] while Pine Store Limited was incorporated on December 5, 2019 in Hong Kong[8] and store.pine64.org claims to operate under the laws of Malaysia and China.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine64

So just an entity move to a more favourable country.

Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#74

Post by syshum »

627467 wrote: post #33

So, I like the accessibility of physical switches but how are they more trusting than software ones? Or light indicators such as Apple's green Dot? Already trusting Open Source requires non technical people to trust others who can read the code to vouch for it. Here, we would need to expect an electronics engineer to understand (from looking at a disassembled device) that the switch actually does what it says it does…

>>Already trusting Open Source requires non technical people to trust others who can read the code to vouch for it.

That is not the the benefit of OpenSource. With open Source you have MORE technical people looking at the code, finding things, and reporting things than you do with Closed Source

There is also less risk to researchers when reporting things to Open Source than to Closed Source Companies who often respond not with "thanks for the info" but with "I am Lawyer from X Bad software vendor, we are reporting you to law enforcement and reserve the right to sue you if you tell anyone about your finding"

Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#75

Post by AnthonyMouse »

autisticcurio wrote: post #56
Cantbekhan wrote: post #15

Off-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…

> How will your friends know its you calling if they dont recognise your number?

Apps could handle this sort of thing quite easily. The app itself could have its own ID (i.e. the username you use to sign into that service) and then that's what's presented to your friends and kept in their address books. You could change that whenever you wanted to as well (and then your friends would have to update their address books), but you wouldn't have to in order to change the other IDs, and that ID would only be used for that one service rather than allowing correlation between different services.

> To have a cellular network that allows random identifiers, you would need a system which accepts prepaid communication time

Not at all. If you wanted to change your IMEI, you would just have to give your carrier the new one, which could be an automated process. And your carrier could be a MVNO you trust not to share the correlation between your current IMEI and your account information with anyone. Meanwhile the towers then only have to know that that IMEI is authorized as a customer of that MVNO and send the bill to the MVNO.

Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#76

Post by Ardon »

tpxl wrote: post #59
blihp wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got a Pinephone (the UBports CE, though I'm mainly running Mobian right now) Short term, the use cases are as hacker mobile Linux devices with most of the mobile hardware working (device drivers are still a WIP, Linux text/server software works flawlessly, GUI software is hit-or-miss right now) Long term, I'm expecting them to be perfectly serviceable basic mobile handsets. But they are still a ways off from bei…

How is the battery life? On UBPorts a few weeks ago I got about 8 hours standby, which truly is atrocious. I would probably switch to it being my daily driver if I can get 3 days standby on a distro.

They recently got power management working for more components, I've heard people are getting ~40 hours standby now.

There's still some gains to be made here, so this may still improve.

Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#77

Post by syshum »

kop316 wrote: post #41
Y_Y wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The librem phone is $750 and the pinephone is $150.

With the Librem Phone, the extra money is also paying for the development of the software ecosystem. I would argue that's worth the investment. For reference, a lot of the Pinephone distros are using the software developed by Purism. I am not saying that's bad, thats the whole spirit of open source!

PinePhone appears to come with PostmarketOS, and they give a small amount of every sale to PostmarketOS.

Other than PureOS what other "pinephone distros" are using Purism Software? On top of that, how much of "Purism Software" is upstream linux?

Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#78

Post by GekkePrutser »

Cantbekhan wrote: post #46
swiley wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was almost certain changing your IMEI was a serious federal crime in the US.

Absolutely not (yet).

Also, swapping the modem chip would (well, should) be a permitted use, as the IMEI is meant to be bound to the modem. When a separate modem module is used, the modem is the communication device, not the phone.

The pinephone is more similar to a laptop with an optional LTE module rather than an integrated setup like an smartphone where the CPU contains the baseband. It's not illegal to swap out modem cards in a laptop anywhere AFAIK.

Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#79

Post by labawi »

GekkePrutser wrote: post #64
autisticcurio wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

AFAIK, a SIM card itself has a card id (ICCID), which should not be changed and is not used often. The subscriber id (IMSI) is in the "application" layer of the card and theoretically could be changed by the provider, or as a speciality, multiple ones installed.

That being said, I've never actually seen a card's IMSI changed. They usually give you a new sim and IMSI, even for a replacement card.

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