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Volunteers Around the World Build Surveillance-Free Cellular Network Called 'Sopranica' (vice.com)
dmoberhaus writes: Motherboard's Daniel Oberhaus spoke to Denver Gingerich, the programmer behind Sopranica, a DIY, community-oriented cell phone network. "Sopranica is a project intended to replace all aspects of the existing cell phone network with their freedom-respecting equivalents," says Gingerich. "Taking out all the basement firmware on the cellphone, the towers that track your location, the payment methods that track who you are and who owns the number, and replacing it so we can have the same functionality without having to give up all the privacy that we have to give up right now. At a high level, it's about running community networks instead of having companies control the cell towers that we connect to." Motherboard interviews Gingerich and shows you how to use the network to avoid cell surveillance. According to Motherboard, all you need to do to join Sopranica is "create a free and anonymous Jabber ID, which is like an email address." Jabber is slang for a secure instant messaging protocol called XMPP that let's you communicate over voice and text from an anonymous phone number. "Next, you need to install a Jabber app on your phone," reports Motherboard. "You'll also need to install a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) app, which allows your phone to make calls and send texts over the internet instead of the regular cellular network." Lastly, you need to get your phone number, which you can do by navigating to Sopranica's JMP website. (JMP is the code, which was published by Gingerich in January, and "first part of Sopranica.") "These phone numbers are generated by Sopranica's Voice Over IP (VOIP) provider which provides talk and text services over the internet. Click whichever number you want to be your new number on the Sopranica network and enter your Jabber ID. A confirmation code should be sent to your phone and will appear in your Jabber app." As for how JMP protects against surveillance, Gingerich says, "If you're communicating with someone using your JMP number, your cell carrier doesn't actually know what your JMP number is because that's going over data and it's encrypted. So they don't know that that communication is happening."
SIP over XMPP? Already had it. It doesn't work well. And towers still need to know where you are in order to reach your phone. Amazing.
As of right now, I've walked MANY through getting google voice going on mobiles and ditching the monthly bill. Works good until they catch on and force you re-verify the number you setup, at which point it seems your no longer able to make calls (originating from that number) but you can still receive voice mail. The privacy trade-off is obvious when working with any google product, but for quick and dirty free wifi phone it worked great (last time i set it up for somebody)
It sounds like this is pretty damn close to the same thing, only without all the snoopy big tech middle man garbage. I'm going to try it.
These phone numbers are generated by Sopranica's Voice Over IP (VOIP) provider which provides talk and text services over the internet.
Regarding the encryption, where does it take place? Is this privacy-centric un-named VOIP provider/DIY network subject to NSLs?
I suppose I should RTFA....
You are being ripped off every second of every day, so that advertisers can help rip you off even more tomorrow.
How's this different than using SIP over one of the http://www.talkonaut.com/ clients?
It's at least 11 years old.. Can't reinvent the wheel.
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Another voice over internet protocol app! Wooooow
SIP over XMPP... revolutionary. We have had this happen already with Signal/RedPhone, and previously, PGPphone and other items.
Problem is that they tend to not be bothered with. If they are, it will be likely someone who used it to help figure out where to perform yet another mass murder. Then, governments will crush it, and it will go the way of Skype, BIS, and eGold.
> they are really encrypting it, then they are tunneling UDP (SIP) over TCP (for TLS)
Just finished Chapter 1 of Basic Cryptography?
"Encryption" doesn't mean TLS, and TLS doesn't require TCP. Plenty of common applications use encrypted UDP, some do TLS over UDP. IPsec, which is built-in to the Linux kernel, encrypts IP. Some apps, such as Cisco Anyconnect, can set up EITHER an IPSec connection, OR a TLS-based connection.
I wrote an IPSec / ISAKMP / IKE client a couple of months ago, so that's one I'm rather familiar with. As mentioned above, IPSec encrypts *IP* packets. Those could carry UDP or TCP fragments, or icmp, cdp, etc. It's encrypted at the IP packet level. To *set up* the IPSec connection, it uses UDP packets.
Another client I wrote this year spoke encrypted RDP, which is TLS over UDP. Some other Microsoft products use roughly the same protocol. OpenVPN is another example. It uses encrypted UDP, and can use optionally TLS authentication within the encrypted UDP channel.
This coming week my task is Microsoft SQL Server. It's TLS over TCP - hopefully STANDARD to over TCP.
Waste Management consultants?
We need to replace the commercial infrastructure... We need people to set up hotspots that are limited to this application only somehow, and for those to prevent abuse. For example voice data should be small so we can limit bandwidth, and limit amount of users per hotspot. Just needs people to volunteer their support.
As for emergencies we can already use a phone with no sim for 911 so just turn off cellular, and only turn it on when you need 911.
So no news, really. If you are talking of using the free spectrum wirelessly, I'm listening.
But don't let that get in the way of using a nice vowel-less name.
Sopranica is a portmanteau of the words "Sopranos" (i.e. The Sopranos, criminal activity and shady dealings hidden from public view and the authorities) and "Silica" (i.e. the chemical compound used to make silicon wafers for manufacturing microchips).
Crime through Technology.
Sopran-ica.
Not all of it! But, replace every aspect of the cellular network by installing an app on my cellphone? Am I going to read about how our governments are not going to be able to spy on me?
ok so all you need to do to is to
- create a free and anonymous Jabber ID
- install a Jabber app on your phone
- install a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) app
- get your phone number from Sopranica's JMP website.
- Click whichever number you want to be your new number on the Sopranica network and enter your Jabber ID.
- receive Confirmation code in your Jabber app.
- (supposedly) learn how to use all the above to place and receive calls, messages.
They should do an app that does everything above for you without you having to know anything about jabber, sip, etc.
If they don't cut this to a 1-2 step thing this will never gain adoption.
That's a stretch!
Not really. No more of a stretch than Googles parent company being called Alphabet when the NSA, CIA, FBI etc have been called the alphabet agencies for decades. You can guess where I'm going with this...
If people want to get surveillance free networks they have to get a handheld radio (or base station at home) and get a transmitter for it (with range up to ~100 km). The problem today is that no easy way to network together many transmitters over the internet and it requires a licensed frequencies (public channels are off limit for this type of usage). It is possible but last I knew the set-up is both difficult and not necessary a stable one (might require a lot of DIY hardware). Radio to radio communication is always possible over the public channels (licence free), but the problem with that is anyone can listen into any conversation that happens since the frequency band is both analogue and in the clear. There is a frequency allocation for digital channels but I have not seen any handheld radio able to use that frequency. I do not know why that is. There is also no data transmission over this type of frequency as the bandwidth is limited to few kHz.
I'm Denver, "the programmer behind Soprani.ca", and specifically JMP. Feel free to ask me any questions about JMP, WOM, or Soprani.ca as a whole that haven't been answered in the comments section yet. I'd be happy to hear from you.
If you want to build a goddamn mobile network why don't use use something proven and reliable. Let's see; GSM, Nah; CDMA, Nah; IDEN, nope, IMTS, not enough channels; how about AMPS.
This. Saw the headline wanted to try it. Saw the steps, said fuck it.
... but as some already said, it's just an app more... :-D
If really you want to see what an actual, independent mesh network can be, please go to http://www.servalproject.org/
And yes there is an app
But this one, works -including from tablets with no SIMcard inside.
IMHO the only issue is, this will become useable only when thousands will run it, including some in your neigborhood...
Herve S.
There are better ways.
This is bogus. You cannot hide your location from the cell tower ISP by tunneling your communications over a secure protocol using that same tower. The only way it makes sense is for the "Freedom network" to actually own towers and not divulge or log the location data generated. Fat chance getting all those towers created.
I wonder how Sopranica and Jitsi compare. Are their missions overlapping? Different use-cases? I know that Jitsi's big push is enterprise stuff whereas Sopranica seems more of a hobbyist endeavour.
'He who has to break a thing to find out what it is, has left the path of wisdom.' -- Gandalf to Saruman