Ask HN: How to use a smartphone in a privacy conscious manner?

6 points by deepburner 4 years ago | 7 comments

I'm on a quest to decouple my online/digital presence from my actual person as much as possible.

I've started using Qubes OS on an old Dell laptop for my daily computation needs. Email is a lost cause since most of my traffic will pass through google/MS at one point. Started using password managers and throwaways etc but I still haven't figured out a sane way of reaping the benefits of having a smartphone without compromising my security/privacy.

I was thinking of Apple despite their business practices but I have soured on them with the last debate and probably it wasn't a very good idea from the start anyways due to lack of control on the hardware. Have alternative OSs (Calyx, Sailfish, Lineage or mobile linux distros) for android hardware reached maturity? Is it even possible to have closed source hardware not spy on you? Is my best bet buying a nokia 3310 and just listening to music on an mp3 player?

Let me know what solutions you use to keep your privacy.

BillSims 4 years ago |

At one end of the spectrum you might read "Extreme Privacy: What It Takes to Disappear" by Michael Bazzell 3rd ed. or even an older edition might be enough.

fhaldridge7 4 years ago | |

I can also recommend his podcast at https://inteltechniques.com/podcast.html

The last episode was about securing a smartphone (232-Anonymous Phone Update Part I)

deepburner 4 years ago | |

Thank you, looks very much like something I would be interested in.

BillSims 4 years ago | | |

I should have done a search. Looks like someone else put this title on the list a while back. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23823159 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25860131 I have the 2nd edition that I'd swap you for I don't know what or how we might be able to arrange that. The author does seem driven.

sandwichbop 4 years ago |

Depends on what you want to do with your phone. The first elephant in the room is your phone plan, I use Tracfone for my phone since it's no contract and pay as you go, you can buy service minutes from the store without ever putting your name on your unlocked device.

Next best thing I started doing was using my phone less, as if I didn't have a phone. I mostly only use it for text messages and nothing else. I don't answer phone calls, I do everything via email on another device. I sometimes even leave home without my phone on me. Basically offloading the privacy issues to other devices like your laptop/desktop as much as you can since it's so much easier to control things like location access compared to a phone. But you may not way to do this, it depends on what features you want while which you can forgone on a phone.

deepburner 4 years ago | |

Yeah. Any mobile network access is basically a beacon for your location but I doubt there's a very good way of getting around that. My main use cases for the smartphone are pretty much occasional messaging, the banking application, GPS/maps and listening to music. Even though Spotify is more convenient than I'd like to admit I think that portion can be handled easily with a portable mp3 player. I'm pretty unsure about how I want to handle the rest though.

account-5 4 years ago |

Pixel 4 to 5 with GrapheneOS, signal, and VoIP for phone numbers. FDroid for apps and at a pinch Aurora market ( installable from FDroid) for play apps. Don't really have a solution for SMS currently.