Stealth Wear, Coming to a Store Near You • Hacker News Board

Re: Stealth Wear, Coming to a Store Near You

#41

Post by eksith » Sun, Sep 01, 2013, 8:52 PM UTC

leokun wrote: post #40

rdtsc wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Store and forward what? 1) Well, surprise, your location. Just store tuples of position and time where you were 2) Everything you type, passwords, patterns 3) Picture of your face if you have face lock 4) Accounts you use and maybe passwords

How would it know where you were if it can't use GPS or connect to wifi networks? Obviously if you take it out you're not protected anymore.

Presumably, you'll need to take it out of the pouch to make a call. At which point, it will upload all it has gathered via nearby open wifi access point or, with the cooperation of your carrier, through the data link. If the carrier has any special incentives, the extra upload of data won't count against your usage so you may not even know that the upload took place.

Re: Stealth Wear, Coming to a Store Near You

#42

Post by MayankGoyal » Sun, Sep 01, 2013, 9:02 PM UTC

But if you take your phone out of the packet, your location will be "broadcasted" to the network. That is, everytime you want to make or receive a call, or do anything with your phone, the network will know your location.

Flight mode would provide the same level of protection as this and at a much cheaper price.

Re: Stealth Wear, Coming to a Store Near You

#43

Post by MayankGoyal » Sun, Sep 01, 2013, 9:03 PM UTC

MayankGoyal wrote: post #42

But if you take your phone out of the packet, your location will be "broadcasted" to the network. That is, everytime you want to make or receive a call, or do anything with your phone, the network will know your location. Flight mode would provide the same level of protection as this and at a much cheaper price.

Unrelated to the product: Is it possible to throw the tracking off by blocking some cellular towers and only connect to one? Then they have a radius you are in, but not the exact location.

Re: Stealth Wear, Coming to a Store Near You

#44

Post by ars » Sun, Sep 01, 2013, 9:12 PM UTC

mitchty wrote: post #7

ars wrote: post #4

Um, what is the use of a shield that blocks signals from going to your cellphone? What is the value of a cellphone inside such a shield? You can never take it out of the shield, and you can never use it.

The use is knowing your phone isn't sending or receiving a signal. The value is anonymity with the option of being able to use it when you want. The true value is having a real "off" switch.

> The true value is having a real "off" switch.

Despite the conspiracy theories, your phone already has an off switch.

Re: Stealth Wear, Coming to a Store Near You

#45

Post by ars » Sun, Sep 01, 2013, 9:14 PM UTC

srivast wrote: post #8

ars wrote: post #4

Um, what is the use of a shield that blocks signals from going to your cellphone? What is the value of a cellphone inside such a shield? You can never take it out of the shield, and you can never use it.

I think you'd use it to connect to the grid when you want to, make your call and then go off the grid quickly again. It gives the power to you to have a untraceable one-way communication device (if you don't have landlines available ie).

An "untraceable one-way communication device"? Really?

It does no such thing. Your phone is completely traceable when on, and it's not one way, and the pouch does nothing because the phone can still record where you are and what you say when in there, and then transmit it later.

Re: Stealth Wear, Coming to a Store Near You

#46

Post by ars » Sun, Sep 01, 2013, 9:15 PM UTC

rdtsc wrote: post #36

dguido wrote: post #34

This kind of stuff has been around since 2005: http://difrwear.com/ If you want to turn off your cellphone... turn off your cellphone. It has an off switch and airplane mode. This kind of protective casing is really only needed for the type of things you can't turn "off" like all the RFID chips embedded in credits card you own (and probably don't even realize you have). Also, this is pretty lol: "Mr. Harvey said that…

Unless you take the battery out how do you know your phone is ever off. It doesn't just have hardware toggle button probably. So you'd have to take the battery out. Well then isn't it easier to put it in a Faraday cage than mess with the battery.

And how exactly do you plan to use your phone?

As soon as you take it out it can transmit everything it captured while in there.

This thing is useless for a cell phone.

Re: Stealth Wear, Coming to a Store Near You

#47

Post by switch007 » Sun, Sep 01, 2013, 9:15 PM UTC

mindslight wrote: post #30

switch007 wrote: post #29

So we pay $400+ for these devices every couple of years. But we don't trust the manufacturers nor the carriers. Some are paranoid that they're tracking every detail and transmitting at every opportunity. Yet we continue to buy them? Seeing the picture of the phone in the case, I can't help but think that this is a rather ridiculous state of affairs. If we don't like being tracked, if we don't trust them and if they b…

Reread your Kaczynski.

What are you trying to say?

Re: Stealth Wear, Coming to a Store Near You

#48

Post by ars » Sun, Sep 01, 2013, 9:17 PM UTC

matthewbadeau wrote: post #20

PilateDeGuerre wrote: post #10

What material are they using that creates the Faraday cage effect?

A conductive cloth will give the Faraday cage effect.

It's not that easy.

I put a cell phone in a metal lunchbox with a metal lid and it still rang when I called it.

Re: Stealth Wear, Coming to a Store Near You

#49

Post by rdtsc » Sun, Sep 01, 2013, 9:17 PM UTC

leokun wrote: post #40

rdtsc wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Store and forward what? 1) Well, surprise, your location. Just store tuples of position and time where you were 2) Everything you type, passwords, patterns 3) Picture of your face if you have face lock 4) Accounts you use and maybe passwords

How would it know where you were if it can't use GPS or connect to wifi networks? Obviously if you take it out you're not protected anymore.

If it was in the pouch and you wanted to hide the time it was in the pouch during that time you never took it out, then yes that would work.

Re: Stealth Wear, Coming to a Store Near You

#50

Post by ars » Sun, Sep 01, 2013, 9:19 PM UTC

andrewljohnson wrote: post #33

switch007 wrote: post #29

So we pay $400+ for these devices every couple of years. But we don't trust the manufacturers nor the carriers. Some are paranoid that they're tracking every detail and transmitting at every opportunity. Yet we continue to buy them? Seeing the picture of the phone in the case, I can't help but think that this is a rather ridiculous state of affairs. If we don't like being tracked, if we don't trust them and if they b…

Some would ask why we keep using electricity and fossil fuels, when we know we're running out of energy. The answer is that we think we'll arrive at a solution for energy before we run out of oil. And the reason we keep using cellphones is because we believe we'll fix the privacy issues before we become enslaved. Boycotting cellphones would just be boycotting a symptom anyways. Governments have always been corrupted…

> when we know we're running out of energy.

This is a side note, but we're not running out of energy, we have enough for at least 10,000 to 100,000 years (depending on the rate of energy use increase).

And that is NOT including solar - just nuclear.