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A bit OT: I'd like a mobile platform that provides confidentiality (from both government draget and commercial spying) and end-user control. These seem like fun

A bit OT: I'd like a mobile platform that provides confidentiality (from both government draget and commercial spying) and end-user control. These seem like fundementals of any platform, at least as user options, but I haven't found it: * iOS seems to have some confidentiality, though are users really protected from commercial spying? Of course end-user control is very limited. * Android provides some end-user control if you root your phone, but it's complicated to utilize. Confidentiality is awful; there are a never-ending number of holes and leak, AFAICT, many built into the OS. No fork (i.e., ROM) of Android seems to focus on confidentiality, though I'm curious whether Blackberry's Priv locks down the OS in addition to the hardware. * Basebands are neither confidential nor provide end-user control, in any phones outside of FOSS projects, AFAIK. * Mobile service providers also are an omnipresent risk. --- I suspect a decent solution to the baseband and mobile service problem is the following, but I haven't tried it and I know it has some weaknesses: * a hosted VPN service that provides a firewall (the firewall is needed to filter outbound connections from your phone) * a cellular router that's pre-paid, tethered to the phone to isolate the baseband from the rest of your handheld computer * VOIP service for voice and SMS/MMS

Silhouette 11y ago
I'm curious whether Blackberry's Priv locks down the OS in addition to the hardware. So am I, but when I read their site about it around the time it launched, there were so many loopholes and weasel words in the information about security features that I ran away. FWIW, the most obvious warning sign was that they were very hot on telling you about potentially insecure things being done on your device, but I couldn't find a single definitive statement that their software actually let you do anything to prevent those things from happening, nor any reference to tools or controls that seemed like they might do so, on their entire site. It also appeared to be based on an older version of Android that didn't have some of the more recent advances in per-app per-function privilege controls, suggesting that they might actually be worse in this respect than recent devices from other providers would be just with the latest off-the-shelf Android release.

Silhouette 11y ago

I'm curious whether Blackberry's Priv locks down the OS in addition to the hardware. So am I, but when I read their site about it around the time it launched, there were so many loopholes and weasel words in the information about security features that I ran away. FWIW, the most obvious warning sign was that they were very hot on telling you about potentially insecure things being done on your device, but I couldn't find a single definitive statement that their software actually let you do anything to prevent those things from happening, nor any reference to tools or controls that seemed like they might do so, on their entire site. It also appeared to be based on an older version of Android that didn't have some of the more recent advances in per-app per-function privilege controls, suggesting that they might actually be worse in this respect than recent devices from other providers would be just with the latest off-the-shelf Android release.