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Blackphone

blackphone.ch

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Re: Blackphone

#141

Post by biafra »

brudgers wrote: post #103
kybernetyk wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, I'd say the real privacy issue is the user who installs and runs all those Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. apps and freely shares his private information with everyone. You can't really prevent that with technology unless you start to educate kids/users better. But who am I kidding? People will forfeit their private data for shiny stuff as long as there will be shiny stuff and private data.

There are two different connotations of 'privacy' that are often conflated in discussions about Facebook, Google, etc. Conflating them probably obscures the more important connotation to the benefit of such companies' bottom lines. The first connotation is the one my mother warned me about. It's Facebook photos of that tequila weekend in Tijuana and those two PM Tuesday tweets from the beach bar when I called in sick…

> why doesn't my browser sandbox cookies for each website?

You can do that with Fluid.app (http://fluidapp.com/ only for MacOSX) It is a Single-Site-Browser-Generator with the option to have a separate cookie store for each SSB.

I have one instance for facebook, one for Google+ etc.

Re: Blackphone

#142

Post by dobbsbob »

treenyc wrote: post #81
revelation wrote: post #33

The privacy issue in smartphones isn't the freaking application processor running Android. Sure, that ones terrible enough. But the actual problem is the baseband processor running completely non-free software, with an enormous attack surface and access to all the interesting periphery (GPS, microphone). There is not just opportunity to compromise your privacy, Qualcomm and others actively implement such features at…

by looking at the video I know some of the people in Spain who are involved. They are in Bilbao. We did a consulting project with them in 2009. They are more in the creative educational industry. I am not sure about the technology, however from look of the video I can say it is mostly aim at non-technology experts, with nice fancy design. Can I ask what kind of people do we need to design all the chips hardware such…

Silent Circle is for business use to avoid industrial espionage. If you are an activist or suspected criminal I would imagine they would cooperate with any court order to feed you a malicious update that allows federal access just like Hushmail does. They swear up and down this is impossible but it's a for profit business they arent going to risk it protecting whistleblowers, wanted hackers or enviro activists. Redphone at least you can build it yourself and prevent targeted updates

Re: Blackphone

#143

Post by ianlevesque »

redacted wrote: post #35
soci wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, looks like an Android powered device. So, at the end is just another OS right? One of the big drawbacks when I first started my nexus5 was that I was being spyed. Why the hell do I need a gmail account to get started?! I wonder if it would be possible to install this Android flavour in a Nexus device ?

You don't actually need a gmail account for what its worth - Google just makes it difficult. On the screen where it requests a login you (seriously) need to tap each corner of the screen in clockwise order starting from the top left. That should skip the step.

That's useful, and user-hostile. On iOS you can just tap "Skip this step" if you don't want to use an Apple account with it.

Re: Blackphone

#144

Post by deno »

thrwwyusr543 wrote: post #138
deno wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) Buy prepaid card with data plan. 2) Access Internet (and VOIP) only via VPN or better yet TOR. 3) Only give out your VOIP number. No one must know your direct number, it’s only for emergencies. This severs all the important connections to make any use of that data, assuming you don’t have any leaks.

To expand on this, does anyone know of a reliable service provider (accepting bitcoins is a bonus) for SIP Trunking[0]? Or any VoIP workflow that can perform calls to PSTN[1] (the regular landline/mobile telephone network). Or even any VoIP provider that offers a basic answering service, where the voice mail box can be checked over the internet a la google voice/skype voicemail? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIP_…

Don’t have any recommendations here, just thought I’d mention that for the stated purpose—​preventing the tracking of the cellphone location (i.e. where you go)—​running your own VoIP to PSTN/​ISDN/​GSM bridge at home would be sufficient.

Completely anonymous hosted PSTN bridge would be very open to abuse, so I imagine not many of them are/will remain accessible via Tor. But for completely secure and/or anonymous communication you don’t need or want PSTN, all you need is (encrypted) VoIP–VoIP that you control, and can optionally expose via Tor (as a hidden service).

Bonus points: GSM bridge at home raises less flags. You could even “take it for a walk” from time to time to make it appear even less suspicious.

Re: Blackphone

#146

Post by dobbsbob »

thrwwyusr543 wrote: post #138
deno wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) Buy prepaid card with data plan. 2) Access Internet (and VOIP) only via VPN or better yet TOR. 3) Only give out your VOIP number. No one must know your direct number, it’s only for emergencies. This severs all the important connections to make any use of that data, assuming you don’t have any leaks.

To expand on this, does anyone know of a reliable service provider (accepting bitcoins is a bonus) for SIP Trunking[0]? Or any VoIP workflow that can perform calls to PSTN[1] (the regular landline/mobile telephone network). Or even any VoIP provider that offers a basic answering service, where the voice mail box can be checked over the internet a la google voice/skype voicemail? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIP_…

build your own ostel or asterisk server, I think asterisk does voicemail.

Re: Blackphone

#147

Post by tunap »

sushirain wrote: post #76
kybernetyk wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, I'd say the real privacy issue is the user who installs and runs all those Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. apps and freely shares his private information with everyone. You can't really prevent that with technology unless you start to educate kids/users better. But who am I kidding? People will forfeit their private data for shiny stuff as long as there will be shiny stuff and private data.

No. The problem is not the common user who just follows common hardware and software. The problem is common hardware and software, which put security last.

And Opt-Ins first.

Re: Blackphone

#148

Post by BuildTheRobots »

Love the idea of a GSM handset that believes in protecting my privacy, however all their features seem to revolve around a secured Android OS.

Does anyone know if the actual baseband/wireless side has been designed with security in mind? -for example I'd love to be warned when I'm connected to an A5/0 "encrypted" GSM network, but I haven't been able to find a handset build in the last decade that's willing to warn me.

Re: Blackphone

#149

Post by ilovecookies »

Isn't the problem more connected to the hardware and the fact that most people are already willingly using tons of applications who are giving information about you to companies like google (maps) twitter, facebook etc. If you install the apps with consent on your phone, and those apps have access to the linux or ios kernel runtime and syslogs then you're basically fucked from start.

Re: Blackphone

#150

Post by IgorPartola »

npsimons wrote: post #136
IgorPartola wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand. If I come to a carrier and say "Here's a codebase for your baseband. It's OSS, well tested, secure, and supported. Buy support from me." why won't they go for it. Surely, an OSS solution is cheaper for them than developing an in-house crap solution that I'm sure it is now. Also, is there any harm in just open sourcing their baseband code? It seems to me that it's worthless without the license to u…

Ironically, the market seems to be not optimizing for optimal net revenue (income minus costs, where here you're minimizing costs), but for control. This is partly because of the control freak nature of these companies, partly because the government demands it, but also, again ironically, because of long term thinking: if these companies can lock people out and control them, that helps to guarantee future profits. Th…

Sounds more like the market is stuck at a local profit maximum instead of a global profit maximum. As in, they think they are making as much profit as they can, but in reality if they invested more into something that's not directly consumer facing they'd be end up making more money in the long run. Except this long term thinking is less appealing than the status quo so they just stick with what they know.
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