"Off"
this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2024
115 points (100.0% liked)
Privacy Guides
697 readers
1 users here now
In the digital age, protecting your personal information might seem like an impossible task. We’re here to help.
This is a community for sharing news about privacy, posting information about cool privacy tools and services, and getting advice about your privacy journey.
You can subscribe to this community from any Kbin or Lemmy instance:
Check out our website at privacyguides.org before asking your questions here. We've tried answering the common questions and recommendations there!
Want to get involved? The website is open-source on GitHub, and your help would be appreciated!
This community is the "official" Privacy Guides community on Lemmy, which can be verified here. Other "Privacy Guides" communities on other Lemmy servers are not moderated by this team or associated with the website.
Moderation Rules:
- We prefer posting about open-source software whenever possible.
- This is not the place for self-promotion if you are not listed on privacyguides.org. If you want to be listed, make a suggestion on our forum first.
- No soliciting engagement: Don't ask for upvotes, follows, etc.
- Surveys, Fundraising, and Petitions must be pre-approved by the mod team.
- Be civil, no violence, hate speech. Assume people here are posting in good faith.
- Don't repost topics which have already been covered here.
- News posts must be related to privacy and security, and your post title must match the article headline exactly. Do not editorialize titles, you can post your opinions in the post body or a comment.
- Memes/images/video posts that could be summarized as text explanations should not be posted. Infographics and conference talks from reputable sources are acceptable.
- No help vampires: This is not a tech support subreddit, don't abuse our community's willingness to help. Questions related to privacy, security or privacy/security related software and their configurations are acceptable.
- No misinformation: Extraordinary claims must be matched with evidence.
- Do not post about VPNs or cryptocurrencies which are not listed on privacyguides.org. See Rule 2 for info on adding new recommendations to the website.
- General guides or software lists are not permitted. Original sources and research about specific topics are allowed as long as they are high quality and factual. We are not providing a platform for poorly-vetted, out-of-date or conflicting recommendations.
Additional Resources:
- EFF: Surveillance Self-Defense
- Consumer Reports Security Planner
- Jonah Aragon (YouTube)
- r/Privacy
- Big Ass Data Broker Opt-Out List
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Exactly. When I put a device off, it's supposed to stay off.
Nooooo, but it's all for your security and convenience, see? They know better than you when to turn your device on or off, don't you worry your pretty little head about it one bit! Plus, I bet it also protects the children and prevents terrorism too! Why would you turn your device off, are you like a terrorist pedophile or something? /s
Off means Off
That's great.
I like a phone that's able to just run little Bluetooth beacons when it's powered off. Especially ones that can't be disabled except by disassembling it.
I'll take it. I'd rather not lose my phone above it pinging the Bluetooth while powered off, and they sell Faraday cage boxes for pretty cheap if I have reason to not want any signal coming or going to my cell phone, which I would trust more than any phone pre android 15 with, if I want to be paranoid about it. So even now I don't trust that my phone being off means it couldn't be located. None of the hardware in my phone is open source.
I don't like how privacy is becoming more of a binary. If the choices really become "either let the phone turn into a beacon or stuff it in a Faraday bag" then that's one hell of a choice isn't it?
And hypothetically, if phones were always capable of doing this to some degree and we just weren't informed somehow, then they're finally rolling that functionality out because it's become culturally normalized. Which frightens me more, frankly.
Bro, how many years you been seeing movies and TV shows where they stomping on phones and pulling batteries an trashing them "so they aren't tracked". They do it in the movies because that public perception has been there for ages. True or not.
I would want the Faraday cage to have a beacon on it, so that I could find my phone even if I lost it while it was in its Faraday cage. Logical.
You are a brilliant man.
I wish pinephone pro's weren't booty. Hardware switches to cut power to everything from the WiFi module to the camera sounds pretty hot in light of this.
That feature is right on the border between real neat tech and deeply unsettling.
"Hey, my phone uses its last few electrons to turn into a bluetooth beacon to stay findable" sounds like sci-fi "reserve power emergency mode"
"I can't turn off the locator chip in a device that holds half my life and memories" is just dystopian.
I'm wondering if there would be a way to keep it useful while minimizing impact for people who stay off the grid. A hardware switch would probably be a good start but they won't fly with current all-touch designs.
minimizing impact for people who stay off the grid
People who stay off the grid don't have smartphones!
As much as we enthusiasts like to try and have our cake and eat it too, the only way to really be completely private/secure/anonymous is to be completely disconnected. Threat models and compromises and all that.
load more comments
(3 replies)
Great we finaly get the features that the NSA has been saying is "classified" Big step for open spying for everyone
"How can we sell Intel Management Engine to phone users?"
Cool. So you can no longer turn your phone off.
How about letting damn alarms to run even when the phone is turned off? We lost this ancient feature moving away from dumb phones.
You know what's funny. I was investigating the hardware datasheets for the PinePhone and looking at the RTC module and just like PC RTC chips there is an option to trigger an interrupt/power on when a certain time is met. That means that there appears to be no reason this couldn't be a current feature on probably all modern smartphones. Just lack of software support.
That's good to know! Maybe the open source community can work something out. Google certainly won't bother with what's in essence the most purely offline functionality. It's not in their interest to have phones offline (case in point, the update mentioned here).
But how otherwise to convince people to always leave their ~~surveillance devices~~ phones switched on?! I had a oneplus 3t that would wake itself for alarms, shame it broke eventually.
Yeah...exactly the reason why they never did it.
load more comments
(1 replies)
The more the IT world takes this dystopic approach the more I turn into a fucking luddite.
Sounds scary
More of Google copying Apples worst features. Apple iPhones that are "off" simply become Airtags. This is functionality that works for big tech and not the end user. We need to push back on this shit.
How? Will you start a petition or what?
Patronize alternative products and services. The growth of GrapheneOS, Calyx, and other alternative phone operating systems is significant and shows there is a market. Hopefully privacy respecting hardware can follow.
Lol google be like: let's fuck the people. We need more money
Waiting for GrapheneOS approach
Apparently they'd have to go out of their way to support it (Bluetooth has to be configured and enabled) so it will not be implemented
The feature could launch with the Pixel 9 and expand to older phones — just don't hold your breath for Pixel Fold support
Trying to force the graphene crowd to the near $2000 option, eh Goog?
Hopefully software will take care of it.
Iphones already did this right? I'm not sure but I heard that they do this.
Doesn't say if it works when the phone powers itself down due to almost no battery juice remaining.
Would be nice if it used the precious little remaining juice to ping, say, once every 12 hours.