Author Topic: Anti-Tracking Smartphone Pouch (Read 20677 times)

Tinman57 · « **on:** August 06, 2013, 07:15 PM »

This isn't an ad, but an article warning about government snoopers.

Anti-tracking smartphone pouch is a sign of the times
Are you the type the tapes over the camera on your MacBook? If so, you might also want to store your iPhone in a radio-free pouch when it's not in use. Big brother is watching.

http://www.zdnet.com...the-times-7000019010

40hz · « **Reply #1 on:** August 07, 2013, 03:26 PM »

Wonder if it actually does work as well as claimed? I don't think they've had any independent confirmation of their claims - but I could be wrong.

Of course since the NSA can easily monitor who supported the kickstarter and got one - plus who buys one once they become commercially available (ain't debit and credit cards a grand thing?), it's kinda moot. Besides, any phone that regularly drops off the grid and can't be reached by a backchannel ping - and then pops back for no apparent reason - becomes a dead giveaway that the owner is employing some shielding mechanism.

That should be enough to get you on a list of phone owners targeted for 'heightened' scrutiny...

That's the insidious part what's going on. It's not a technical fix we need. We need to address and deal with the people and power issue here. And get it resolved definitively. Otherwise it becomes a game of "whack-a-mole" as somebody characterized it. It'll never end if we only try to deal with the technology and not the attitudes and motivations behind this government's blanket and effectively unsupervised surveillance agenda.

Tinman57 · « **Reply #2 on:** August 07, 2013, 03:59 PM »

Then again, it's much cheaper just to pull the battery out of your phone when not in use, and they can't make that against the law. If the battery isn't removeable, wrap that sucker in tin foil!

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #3 on:** August 07, 2013, 05:20 PM »

Besides, any phone that regularly drops off the grid and can't be reached by a backchannel ping - and then pops back for no apparent reason - becomes a dead giveaway that the owner is employing some shielding mechanism.
-40hz (August 07, 2013, 03:26 PM)

Bingo! (As usual...) Then they look at where the phone appeared and based on where it disappeared, and the time it was off ... calculate the most likely point what was hidden. Doesn't take too many tries to narrow it down either I'd wager.

Renegade · « **Reply #4 on:** August 07, 2013, 07:23 PM »

Besides, any phone that regularly drops off the grid and can't be reached by a backchannel ping - and then pops back for no apparent reason - becomes a dead giveaway that the owner is employing some shielding mechanism.
-40hz (August 07, 2013, 03:26 PM)

Bingo! (As usual...) Then they look at where the phone appeared and based on where it disappeared, and the time it was off ... calculate the most likely point what was hidden. Doesn't take too many tries to narrow it down either I'd wager.
-Stoic Joker (August 07, 2013, 05:20 PM)

As long as you're not silly enough to constantly go back to where you buried the bodies, it should be ok.

Kinda makes you wonder whether it's worth having the hassle of a phone at all anymore.

Tinman57 · « **Reply #5 on:** August 07, 2013, 07:59 PM »

Kinda makes you wonder whether it's worth having the hassle of a phone at all anymore.
-Renegade (August 07, 2013, 07:23 PM)

You got that right. I've always hated phones, it was nice whenever I left the house to go somewhere I also got away from the phone. I have a cell now, but only because of my family if they should have an emergency.

I've been thinking about going to the Walmart throw-away phones. The NSA don't know who you are even if they were tracking the phone.

Renegade · « **Reply #6 on:** August 07, 2013, 08:20 PM »

I've been thinking about going to the Walmart throw-away phones. The NSA don't know who you are even if they were tracking the phone.
-Tinman57 (August 07, 2013, 07:59 PM)

You've hit a sore spot for me... I'm pretty bitter & resentful that everywhere I've lived has forced me to produce a passport in order to get a chip just to talk to people. I've been bitter about this for years and it still pisses me off. You're lucky in the US there if you don't have to... I'm going to stop there before I degenerate into a babbling puddle of boiling profanities and steaming vulgarity...

40hz · « **Reply #7 on:** August 07, 2013, 09:12 PM »

You've hit a sore spot for me... I'm pretty bitter & resentful that everywhere I've lived has forced me to produce a passport in order to get a chip just to talk to people. I've been bitter about this for years and it still pisses me off. You're lucky in the US there if you don't have to...
-Renegade (August 07, 2013, 08:20 PM)

Yet. $:-\$

Renegade · « **Reply #8 on:** August 07, 2013, 09:15 PM »

You've hit a sore spot for me... I'm pretty bitter & resentful that everywhere I've lived has forced me to produce a passport in order to get a chip just to talk to people. I've been bitter about this for years and it still pisses me off. You're lucky in the US there if you don't have to...
-Renegade (August 07, 2013, 08:20 PM)

Yet. $:-\$
-40hz (August 07, 2013, 09:12 PM)

Sigh...

"Free speech" doesn't mean that you can't say whatever you want... you can... just as long as we know who you are, where you are, and what you're saying...

Tinman57 · « **Reply #9 on:** August 08, 2013, 08:12 PM »

"Free speech" doesn't mean that you can't say whatever you want... you can... just as long as we know who you are, where you are, and what you're saying...
-Renegade (August 07, 2013, 09:15 PM)

That pretty much sums it up....

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #10 on:** August 08, 2013, 08:18 PM »

"Free speech" doesn't mean that you can't say whatever you want... you can... just as long as we know who you are, where you are, and what you're saying...
-Renegade (August 07, 2013, 09:15 PM)

That pretty much sums it up....
-Tinman57 (August 08, 2013, 08:12 PM)

In that vein, there was a particularly (and prob accidentally) unsubtle error message I got today.

"In order to use Yahoo mail, turn Private Browsing off in Safari".

I'll deliver that one straight-face and let y'all do the antics!

Renegade · « **Reply #11 on:** August 08, 2013, 11:38 PM »

In that vein, there was a particularly (and prob accidentally) unsubtle error message I got today.

"In order to use Yahoo mail, turn Private Browsing off in Safari".

I'll deliver that one straight-face and let y'all do the antics!
-TaoPhoenix (August 08, 2013, 08:18 PM)

Speechless.

4wd · « **Reply #12 on:** August 09, 2013, 01:19 AM »

Not very forward thinking of the designers, they should have covered the 7xx MHz frequencies also.

40hz · « **Reply #13 on:** August 13, 2013, 07:52 AM »

Nice to see somebody else going along with my earlier comment that this isn't a tech issue were dealing with - it's a people problem. (Even if I would never use such a horrible made-up word like 'solutionism.')

From Jatan Sadowski over at Wired:

...Because there are two separate — yet often entangled — ideologies in our discourse about the surveillance state: The first is the individualistic conception of cyber-hygiene: how you should behave to secure your own communications, protect your own data, and avoid your own tracking. The second is the notion of tech-centric solutionism (a term popularized by Evgeny Morozov): what tech hack, device, or app can I turn to for a quick fix to my privacy troubles?

The problem is that focusing on one or both of these approaches distracts from the much-needed political reform and societal pushback necessary to dig up a surveillance state at its root...

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #14 on:** August 13, 2013, 11:16 AM »

Well if "Nothing to hide" is their justification for this crap...I think we should get a few million people together and show up at the Whitehouse completely naked.

We put all the 300+ pounders we can find in the front rows ... And carry signs that say we'll get dressed when you stop being so F'ing nosey!!

Renegade · « **Reply #15 on:** August 13, 2013, 11:59 AM »

Well if "Nothing to hide" is their justification for this crap...I think we should get a few million people together and show up at the Whitehouse completely naked.

We put all the 300+ pounders we can find in the front rows ... And carry signs that say we'll get dressed when you stop being so F'ing nosey!!
-Stoic Joker (August 13, 2013, 11:16 AM)

"Nothing to hide? What'd you say? Nothing to hide? I'll... Stop resisting. I said STOP RESISTING!" <thud> <whack> <k-pow> <oomph> "STOP RESISTING!" <bang> <bzzzt> "How's it now resisting the tase? Huh?" <bzzt> <aarrrgghhh!> "Hey, this one stopped resisting." "Is he breathing?" "Like I said, he stopped resisting." "Ok. I'll call the morgue to pick 'em up."

Great site - Photography Is Not A Crime:

http://photographyisnotacrime.com/

It's just bizarre how it's ok for the state to have this massive surveillance of people's public and private lives, and yet if regular people take a picture or video in public, somehow they're criminals?

I can perfectly well imagine the naked march there, and some cops opening fire as the first fatty in front reaches to scratch his butt some. "I thought he was going for his gun." Jokes about it being in front and not behind aside, I really don't think that's out of the question anymore, and I don't think I'd be very surprised to see a story like that.

Oh... I just had a horrific thought... I don't think I want to see that march you've proposed on YouTube...

Nice to see somebody else going along with my earlier comment that this isn't a tech issue were dealing with - it's a people problem.
-40hz (August 13, 2013, 07:52 AM)

As far as I can see, the "people problem" at its root is a "busy body won't mind his own bloody business" problem. At the core, the utterance, "People should not <do something>," is the core problem. A better utterance is, "I should <do something>." e.g. "leave other people alone".

MyungCalvert · « **Reply #16 on:** August 23, 2013, 05:09 AM »

As you know that the mobile phone signal jammer can cut off the signals of the mobile phones and soon make it impossible to make phone calls or send messages. In this way when you need the peaceful condition and want to stay in it, you can just use the best mobile phone jammer to help you achieve your goal. And now as the technology develops with high speed the advanced 4g cell jammer has come into the market and are well welcomed by the group of people who need the jammer product.

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #17 on:** August 23, 2013, 06:22 AM »

"Nothing to hide? What'd you say? Nothing to hide? I'll... Stop resisting. I said STOP RESISTING!" <thud> <whack> <k-pow> <oomph> "STOP RESISTING!" <bang> <bzzzt> "How's it now resisting the tase? Huh?" <bzzt> <aarrrgghhh!> "Hey, this one stopped resisting." "Is he breathing?" "Like I said, he stopped resisting." "Ok. I'll call the morgue to pick 'em up."

Great site - Photography Is Not A Crime:

http://photographyisnotacrime.com/

It's just bizarre how it's ok for the state to have this massive surveillance of people's public and private lives, and yet if regular people take a picture or video in public, somehow they're criminals?
-Renegade (August 13, 2013, 11:59 AM)

Yep.

I'll also give you the topic of "Bait Car". Not that it's a good thing, but let's say in the old days you have an auto theft charge, you do six months, and then move to a new area - except employment hiring, no one really knows you have a past. But look! Now you have yourself emblazoned on a TV show made to be laughed at! (And copyrighted to them!) Now you can't go anywhere without being pegged.

But check out the front notice of the show: "All people in this show are innocent until proven guilty"!

Yep, like you said, do some civilian recording of the law in action, and no, that's "endangering the officer".

However, the real innovations in tech haven't quite percolated yet. If you do the "guy recording with phone pose", stuff happens. But get a cheap baseball hat and Chinese non-Google video glasses maybe with an "angle tilter", then you can sit in a cafe reading a book but the actual recording angle is the traffic stop outside your window! You're not facing them, so you must be a good little citizen, right?

bit · « **Reply #18 on:** December 09, 2013, 02:14 PM »

This hardcase seems interesting, but pricey.
I thought I read somewhere that if you wrap your cell phone in aluminum foil, it will keep trying to check for incoming calls and run its own battery down in a short time.
Or is that not so?

tomos · « **Reply #19 on:** December 09, 2013, 04:41 PM »

^ I used have a cloth carry-bag that completely blocked the phone - it didnt cause any problem with the phone. (In case relevant: the phone wasn't used for internet.)

Might it also depend on the phone model though?

bit · « **Reply #20 on:** December 09, 2013, 10:46 PM »

That's what they mean by 'digital'.
Using your 'digits' to dial numbers.

mwb1100 · « **Reply #21 on:** December 10, 2013, 01:59 AM »

Besides, any phone that regularly drops off the grid and can't be reached by a backchannel ping - and then pops back for no apparent reason - becomes a dead giveaway that the owner is employing some shielding mechanism.
-40hz (August 07, 2013, 03:26 PM)

This technique has been used by Hezbollah to uncover American spies. Using off-the-shelf technology available to anyone.

The analysis identified cellphones that, for instance, were used rarely or always from specific locations and only for a short period of time.
-http://gizmodo.com/5861384/hezbollah-captured-american-spies-by-tracking-cellphone-data-with-commercially-available-software

Of course, they had suspicions already and had ideas of where to perform the data captures effectively so it's not like they were mining data from the entire cell network. But it's a good indication of how easy this kind of thing can be and how this behavior can be a 'tell'.

Innuendo · « **Reply #22 on:** December 10, 2013, 09:56 AM »

I thought I read somewhere that if you wrap your cell phone in aluminum foil, it will keep trying to check for incoming calls and run its own battery down in a short time.
Or is that not so?
-bit (December 09, 2013, 02:14 PM)

Cell phones are designed to reach out and find cell phone towers so they can maintain connections with the mobile network. If they can't make contact they'll keep trying to reach out over and over again until the battery dies. This is why if you are in a remote area with spotty cell phone service your battery will drain more quickly. In this aluminum foil scenario what you would want to do is turn on Airplane Mode before you wrapped your phone.

40hz · « **Reply #23 on:** December 10, 2013, 10:17 AM »

I was just wondering...do they come in colors designed "just for women" too?

Innuendo · « **Reply #24 on:** December 10, 2013, 03:56 PM »

I was just wondering...do they come in colors designed "just for women" too?
-40hz (December 10, 2013, 10:17 AM)

Of course they do...and with an extra pocket to keep your favorite lipstick!