For privacy-minded people, hardware switches are a nice thing. I remember when I had a Xiaomi Mi 9T with its popup camera, and it was interesting to see that some websites would trigger said popup camera. While the camera was never actually used, the thing would go up and down. This was even with an ad blocker installed.
this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2023
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I have a Mi 9 t pro. Never experienced anything like that.
While I do have hardened my settings, debloat with adb etc. privacy whise and use the EU MIUI rom.
Do you rememher said websites?
Man, it has been a while, as I don't use the 9T as the daily phone now. I think I recall The Verge as one of the sites, because I wasn't expecting it from them. It happened only a few times, and it wasn't site-wide. Can't remember which pages triggered it though.
My friend had one, and Instagram would often pop it out and back in quickly. That was way back when though.
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Only mic and camera? It should also turn off GPS, accelerometer, etc. Filming the inside of my pocket isn't the biggest tracking concern. People are just afraid someone's watching them masturbate all the time.
The article states that there is second switch to diaable wifi, data, gps etc that is essentially an airplane mode.
That's only a soft switch. A compromised device could turn them back on.
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Isn't GPS just 3 sattelites passively shouting their clock to any who could listen? There's no GPS kill switch because there's nothing transmitted. WIFI kill switch is more understandable.
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Better off with a used pixel and grapheneos
Poorly yes. Even though
- no headphone jack
- super expensive
- damn huge
- no SD card slot
- no hardware switches
- repairable? Idk
- yeah no headphone jack is a bummer
- a used pixel is cheaper than than
- my pixel 5 seems pretty small, but idk what they are now or what that is so you're probably right
- even bigger bummer than no headphone jack imo
- I don't think those are that important, a piece of tape over the camera is fine imo
- you're probably right there too, I wish fairphone could run grapheneos 😞
Fairphones have no secure element. The devs may be annoying, but what they dont do for a second is waste time.
Hmm, camera maybe but tape? Also microphone is not that easy. GPS, phone antennas and internet antennas are also way shadier
Fairphone uses the latest snapdragon. Unless qualcomm messed up, their processors do support and have supported secure element for a while. What you probably meant was a dedicated secure element chip. That's present on tensor but not on most other smartphones.
Fairphone uses Qualcomm snapdragon chips but they don't use chips made for mobile phones, it's chips for industrial use they buy, so the secure element might be missing. The reason is: they are supported for way longer which allows fairphone such long update periods. The shortlist of other phonemakers who can do the same are the ones who design their own chips: Google, Samsung, Apple.
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I wasn't meaning to fault the grapheneos devs, like you said it's fairphones fault for not making it possible 😞
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i really don't care about degoogling trusting some random ass company and their VPN.
There's no better kill switch than the ability to remove battery
Some would argue that phones dont work without power.
Exactly.
That kind of defeats the purpose, though.
Having your mic and camera disabled, but being connected to the internet kind of defeats the purpose aswell. It's better than nothing, but even with a device like that, powering it off doesn't gurantee that no one is tracking it. Taking off the battery does.
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Fairphone 5. Just got mine. Love it. I'm now waiting for the /e/ or, at least Lineage image to be released for it.
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I'd still prefer a Pixel running GrapheneOS with aggressively-restrictive permissions.
I'd also like the ability to use sandboxed Google services.
Interested in the built in VPN. Is that going to a monthly cost? If not, how are they funding it?
By stealing and selling your private data, the cycle continues!
Worked well the first time, why not try again :D
Yea that's the first thing that came to mind when I read that headline
They can take my nunchucks and they can take my Adderall... But they'll never take my
$27!!!
For anyone wondering how to get the same feature on your device (not only mic-camera)
- Go to developer settings (after
)
- Quick settings developer tiles
- (enable) sensors off
- Open your quick settings
- (for Samsung) you will find the tile in the 1st row 1st position
- (for aosp) you may need to add the sensors tile
- now turn this tile on
- now your camera, mic, gyroscope, etc... are off and apps will think that there's an error with the camera or some privacy policy rule being applied
⚪ Note: this does not turn off GPS, Bluetooth, wifi, or mobile networks
EDIT: forgot to mention (as comments said)
🔴 Warning: core system services can override this setting...
a phone call will have the mic working while app calls (Whatsapp..etc) will be muted
Core system services will still override that setting, just something to keep in mind
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To further expand at least for samsung:
- the mic will be re-enabled for regular phone calls
- the mic won't be re-enabled for other calls, e.g. WhatsApp, Telegram, Whatsoever
No 5G is a deal breaker for me.
You just get two COVID vaccinations instead, should kind of work the same
Does it have a hardware switch to prevent apps from taking screenshots? I hate so much that they can do it at any time without you ever knowing.
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Where can I get more information? Is the software open sourced? Has it been independently audited?
Its /e/OS, a softfork of LineageOS, mostly superficial. Only GrapheneOS is extremely secure, although to be fair really degoogled LineageOS will probably be very nice too
really degoogled LineageOS
Also called DivestOS
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