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FWIW Turning the phone off is very different to removing the battery. Removing the battery is the most secure. Mobile phones that are “off” are still powered a

FWIW Turning the phone off is very different to removing the battery. Removing the battery is the most secure. Mobile phones that are “off” are still powered and many/most essentially enter a form of sleep and aren’t fully off. There have been articles about phones being hacked that are able to be activated while “off”. Hence RF is still possible. And in reality even a non-compromised phone may still have chips in the radio somewhat active.

hilbert42 5y ago
Sorry, "off" means off not "standby" or "only screen off". When I say "off" I always mean just that--power off! On a smartphone that usually means holding down the power switch for about 5 sec or so until the shutdown dialogue appears to which the user responds in the affirmative. At this point the OS shuts down and only power management circuitry and clock are still running. I have yet to see a normal smartphone in this "almost-off" state capable of doing anything other than being charged, turned on or booted into recovery mode. In essence, it's pretty reasonable to assume Big Tech will not be stealing your data at this point or ISMI Catchers recording your ISMI. Of course, you're likely right, some smartphones probably have nefarious stuff still running but I'd hazard a guess they'd be a super small subset especially modified by security agencies, the NSA, etc. Removing, the battery or the power cord from equipment is double insurance over that last point. What the author of that story said was simply wrong not to mention misleading and his comments shouldn't be defended. It's also clear that he doesn't have an engineering or electronics background or wouldn't have used those words - or he would have qualified them with an additional explanation to the effect that "screen off" isn't really "off". What's even more unforgivable is his implication that this pseudo-off position is an improvement (albeit slight) over the "on" state when it's not. A mobile phone in so-called "standby" mode is fully functional, as that's its normal modus oerandi in that it is communicating with cells all the time in readiness of incoming calls. IMSI Catchers would just as easily gather information then as at any other time/way. If he meant that putting the phone into "standby" mode was an 'improvement' as ISMI Catchers wouldn't be recording any voice conversions then he should have especially said so. Frankly, perpetuating the notion that "standby" is "off" by Big Tech et al is an unmitigated disgrace for it allows them to carry out nefarious actions in the "standby" mode thus it's imperative to dispel the notion that just because the screen is off that by implication the phone is also off when it is not. Clearly, Big Tech doesn't want phones switched off and the embedding of non-removable batteries is another impediment in that direction. This 'unclear' nomenclature issue is part of a much bigger problem revolving around poor design, poor ergonomics that leads to accidents, etc. Clearly, I've not time to go into those details here.

hilbert42 5y ago

Sorry, "off" means off not "standby" or "only screen off". When I say "off" I always mean just that--power off! On a smartphone that usually means holding down the power switch for about 5 sec or so until the shutdown dialogue appears to which the user responds in the affirmative. At this point the OS shuts down and only power management circuitry and clock are still running. I have yet to see a normal smartphone in this "almost-off" state capable of doing anything other than being charged, turned on or booted into recovery mode. In essence, it's pretty reasonable to assume Big Tech will not be stealing your data at this point or ISMI Catchers recording your ISMI. Of course, you're likely right, some smartphones probably have nefarious stuff still running but I'd hazard a guess they'd be a super small subset especially modified by security agencies, the NSA, etc. Removing, the battery or the power cord from equipment is double insurance over that last point. What the author of that story said was simply wrong not to mention misleading and his comments shouldn't be defended. It's also clear that he doesn't have an engineering or electronics background or wouldn't have used those words - or he would have qualified them with an additional explanation to the effect that "screen off" isn't really "off". What's even more unforgivable is his implication that this pseudo-off position is an improvement (albeit slight) over the "on" state when it's not. A mobile phone in so-called "standby" mode is fully functional, as that's its normal modus oerandi in that it is communicating with cells all the time in readiness of incoming calls. IMSI Catchers would just as easily gather information then as at any other time/way. If he meant that putting the phone into "standby" mode was an 'improvement' as ISMI Catchers wouldn't be recording any voice conversions then he should have especially said so. Frankly, perpetuating the notion that "standby" is "off" by Big Tech et al is an unmitigated disgrace for it allows them to carry out nefarious actions in the "standby" mode thus it's imperative to dispel the notion that just because the screen is off that by implication the phone is also off when it is not. Clearly, Big Tech doesn't want phones switched off and the embedding of non-removable batteries is another impediment in that direction. This 'unclear' nomenclature issue is part of a much bigger problem revolving around poor design, poor ergonomics that leads to accidents, etc. Clearly, I've not time to go into those details here.