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Smartphone Users Are Paying For Their Own Surveillance (truth-out.org)
Nicola Hahn writes: While top secret NSA documents continue to trickle into the public sphere, tech industry leaders have endeavored to reassure anxious users by extolling the benefits of strong encryption. Rising demand among users for better privacy protection signifies a growth market for the titans of Silicon Valley -- this results in a tendency to frame the issue of cybersecurity in terms of the latest mobile device. Yet whistleblowers from our intelligence services offer dire warnings that contrast sharply with feel good corporate talking points. Edward Snowden, for example, noted that under mass surveillance we're essentially "tagged animals" who pay for our own tags. There's an argument to be made that the vast majority of network-connected gadgets enable monitoring far more than they protect individual liberty. In some instances, the most secure option is to opt out.
Even if a phone call is encrypted, the very act of making a call provides a wealth of data to spies.
implying you know what a phonecall looks like encrypted. TLS from services like signal on android look indistinguishable from any other VPN traffic you might see on the wire. Couple the phone with openvpn's client, and you have a phone that well, doesnt emit phonelike traffic at all.
non-smartphones can be viewed as superior to smartphones as they generate a smaller data footprint. Going a step further, a pager can be viewed as superior to a non-smartphone because communication on the user's end is further constrained, as well as not anchored to a particular phone line.
but that footprint is guaranteed to use public infrastructure that is readily intercepted by a malicious state actor. you no longer have a cryptographic option, or very much insight into what traffic is leaving the phone. A pager routinely hits a cell tower and emits user-identifiable data that will always be relayed through a carrier network that is part of the state apparatus for spycraft. Pagers havent been safe since the DEA realized they could intercept them during drug investigations.
Perhaps, in certain cases, the best solution is to follow the lead of Russian spymasters and simply opt out.
In some cases, yes. Do you absolutely need your cellphone on you at all times? you would be surprised how many events dont require it but its present anyhow; do an audit. For events that do require a cellphone, use your situational awareness to limit its emissions, and ensure the device as well as its traffic is encrypted. Check out Prism Break for more information on how to avoid state sponsored unlawful surveillance.
Good people go to bed earlier.
like if someone were to hit my car i can snap a location/date tagged photo after the event for evidence so the perp can't lie their way out of it. and my phone keeps a record of where i go, just in case the cops arrest me for something i didn't do like happened to a lot of people back in the good old days