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Purism Planning For Three Hardware Kill Switches With The Librem 5

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  • #11
    They can have my money.

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    • #12
      I see the "everything is fine" group is up and running with their tinfoil finger pointers. I'm glad that this is being added. It should be the standard.

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      • #13
        Originally posted by L_A_G View Post
        I can understand why they'd want kill switches for the camera, microphone and various network hardware, but the ... ambient light... sensor?
        How about flashing in a certain pattern that causes an overflow?
        Better safe than sorry

        Just to clarify, by flashing I mean directing photons not altering memory.
        Last edited by Slithery; 15 March 2019, 02:32 PM.

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        • #14
          I get it, people want protection from software attacks, but the phone will not be impervious to surveillance with the switches turned off.

          Tapping the screen gives off RF that can be determined. They will need to shield it.

          And yes, much software uses the telemetry the phone provides beyond GPS/GLONASS to determine usage and behaviors.

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          • #15
            Originally posted by tildearrow View Post

            I don't think so.
            In fact, it's the very reason that I pre-ordered!

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            • #16
              The specs are a little lacking for that price tag huh? Keeping in mind that it's a crowd funded project and not massively mass manufactured by the usual hardware giants, it doesn't even have 802.11ac. The specs (which are not subject to change like the visual style is) say 802.11abgn. Throwing in an 802.11ac wave 2 chipset would have been nice and (probably?) only a few dollars more expensive to implement.

              Otherwise, the only other thing I saw lacking was the screen resolution: 720x1440? That's not very high DPI now adays for a 5". What would the cost difference for that be in manufacturing?

              Either way, to the topic at hand, having a security oriented phone is needed these days to help balance the market. People buy for convenience and quite a few don't want their personally information and usage habits known. I know quite a few that don't care about the OS, they just care about "being able to do what they want to do."

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              • #17
                Originally posted by Apokalypz View Post
                The specs are a little lacking for that price tag huh? Keeping in mind that it's a crowd funded project and not massively mass manufactured by the usual hardware giants, it doesn't even have 802.11ac. The specs (which are not subject to change like the visual style is) say 802.11abgn. Throwing in an 802.11ac wave 2 chipset would have been nice and (probably?) only a few dollars more expensive to implement.

                Otherwise, the only other thing I saw lacking was the screen resolution: 720x1440? That's not very high DPI now adays for a 5". What would the cost difference for that be in manufacturing?
                You don't need 802.11ac to stream 720p videos with 5.1 sound. The apps will probably be smaller than Android alternatives. For what it's worth, Samsung already started manufacturing 12GB memory chips for new phones. Maybe you should consider high end Androids if you need 12 or 16 gigs of RAM on a phone and a 4k display.

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                • #18
                  caligula, the RAM is probably sufficient for it's particular use case. I guess it does also support an external monitor (according to their marketing), so yea. But my point with the 802.11ac is that it wouldn't cost much (if anything) more to use an 802.11ac chip. That would allow for faster data transfer (for more than just video, but also files and synchronizing.) Also, wave 2 of 802.11 generally includes MU-MIMO which prevents the client from hogging the airtime.

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                  • #19
                    Originally posted by Apokalypz View Post
                    caligula, the RAM is probably sufficient for it's particular use case. I guess it does also support an external monitor (according to their marketing), so yea. But my point with the 802.11ac is that it wouldn't cost much (if anything) more to use an 802.11ac chip. That would allow for faster data transfer (for more than just video, but also files and synchronizing.) Also, wave 2 of 802.11 generally includes MU-MIMO which prevents the client from hogging the airtime.
                    Free 802.11ac driver status is much worse.

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                    • #20
                      Originally posted by Slithery View Post
                      How about flashing in a certain pattern that causes an overflow?
                      Better safe than sorry
                      As I pointed out, they'd probably kill the USB port and and memory card slot too if they were going to a proper "no chances taken"-mode.

                      Originally posted by skeevy420 View Post
                      If someone has physical access, USB and memory card kill switches become a moot point since they're not either wireless or are able to be used to gather information. All the rest that the Lockdown mode triggers have been shown to be potential attack vectors, like using proximity and ambient light data to figure out where a person is pressing the screen to figure out what is being typed, get the unlock pattern, etc.
                      Seeing how you're not too familiar with the proximity and ambient light sensors; The proximity sensor only turns the screen off so you don't accidentally push something when you put the device to your ear to talk to someone and the ambient light sensor is used to adjust the screen brightness so that the screen is only as bright as it needs to be, hence saving the battery.

                      One of them doesn't have any effect on input and the other one is used to turn the touch screen off so you don't accidentally start "ear-dialing" when you try to talk to someone. Hell, turning the ambient light sensor off means that the screen is most probably going to have be at full brightness all the time, making it easier to shoulder surf what's being typed into the device (as the device illuminates this better in the dark) and what's actually on screen.
                      Last edited by L_A_G; 16 March 2019, 03:24 PM.

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