Re:Micro Snitch – Know when someone spies on you
by kgwxd on Friday October 12, 2018 @09:50AM
(#18201397)
I would really prefer all I/O devices, including touchscreens and antennas, have physical on/off switches. 1 for in and 1 for out where possible. Even if I have to open the device to flip them. I'd like to be able to turn a phone into receive-only device without worrying about what it's broadcasting. That's probably a lot more complicated than I'm imagining, but I'd like it if lines between what's a sender and what's a receiver were more clear, instead of everything being both.
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Re:Micro Snitch – Know when someone spies on you
by pjc50 on Friday October 12, 2018 @10:19AM
(#18201568)
A "recieve only" phone radio would only be capable of GPS and FM radio - both the data and voice technologies require bidirectional comms to set up the channel in the first place. (This is basically "airplane mode")
Re:Micro Snitch – Know when someone spies on you
by kgwxd on Friday October 12, 2018 @10:09PM
(#18205984)
"airplane mode" if you can trust the software is respecting your soft toggle button :) But yeah, that's 2 other great uses for old phones, GPS and radio are pretty useful.
Re:Micro Snitch – Know when someone spies on you
by tantalor on Friday October 12, 2018 @10:01AM
(#18201467)
>turn a phone into receive-only device without worrying about what it's broadcasting
Then all the spy software has to do is receive a signal to begin recording, saves to a buffer, and waits for you to check twitter before uploading.
Re:Micro Snitch – Know when someone spies on you
by scarface74 on Friday October 12, 2018 @10:28AM
(#18201649)
You should be able to block which apps have access to the network.
I know you can do it with Windows. On iOS, you can only block cellular network access with the exception of third party keyboards where by default network access is blocked. I wish I could block apps from having any network access. Can you block network access in a per process basis with Linux or the Mac?
Re:Micro Snitch – Know when someone spies on you
by tantalor on Friday October 12, 2018 @10:58AM
(#18201835)
Software won't help you. The premise is a phone where the spy agency has root and your only defense is "physical on/off switches" to control the I/O interfaces.
Re:Micro Snitch – Know when someone spies on you
by nothis on Friday October 12, 2018 @12:10PM
(#18202398)
I'm with you in principle but at some point it becomes ridiculous. On a smartphone, you have at least half a dozen different input and output options, probably more. Where would you even fit physical switches for them all? And, for that matter, how do you trust even the physical switch?