Whenever people ask about ways to make their smartphones more private or which is the most privacy-respecting phone to get, there’s always a few people confidently asserting “all smartphones are spy tools, get a dumbphone with no apps if you want to be private”. Which is ridiculous advice for a few reasons
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Dumbphones usually run either proprietary operating systems or outdated forks of Android. They’re almost never encrypted. They rarely get security updates. They’re a lot more vulnerable than even a regular Android phone
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With dumbphones, you’re usually limited to regular phone calls or SMS/MMS messaging. These are ancient communication standards with zero built-in privacy. Your ISP can read any text message you send and view metadata logs of any phone calls you make. In lots of places (like Australia where I live) ISPs are actually required to keep logs of your messages and phone calls
With even a regular Android phone you at least have access to encrypted messaging apps like Signal or Session so your conversations aren’t fair game for anyone who wants to read them. Of course there are better options. iOS (not perfect but better than most bloatware-filled Android devices) and a pixel with GrapheneOS (probably the best imo) are much better options; but virtually anything out there is going to be better for privacy than a dumbphone
Edit: Thanks everyone for giving your thoughts. Some really good points I hadn’t thought much about
Nice thing is, usually the dumb phones have removable batteries. So just remove the battery when you’re not using it. Problem solved.
Your ISP can read any text message you send and view metadata logs of any phone calls you make. In lots of places (like Australia where I live) ISPs are actually required to keep logs of your messages and phone calls
Why would my Internet Service Provider have anything whatsoever to do with my dumb phone?
Yes, texts and calls aren’t hidden from your mobile phone provider, they never were. I agree it’s not great, and the government is likely spying on you as they have been for decades.
But alas, I don’t see a solution without using a non dumb phone and encrypted apps, which will require the internet and at that point you’ve not got a dumb phone any more.
My Nokia 3310 still works great. Sure, the government could spy on me, but I don’t discuss anything sensitive over the phone (traditionally one doesn’t, for this very reason, wiretaps and the like). It’s a tool for casually staying in touch and arranging to meet up _
Your cellular provider is an ISP.
No not necessarily. And people don’t call there mobile provider their ISP
They provide internet to your device, which makes them an internet service provider. And if nothing else, they also offer fixed wireless, which makes them an internet service provider.
Sure, Comcast can’t log your phone calls because they are a cable or fiber provider, but T-Mobile can absolutely log your calls, and they are still an ISP.
I always thought people used the term “dumbphone” to refer to old-fashioned devices that are just a phone and don’t run any OS.
Landlines, you mean? I sometimes forget they still exist.
Even a lot of offices have moved to VoIP.
Even a wireless handset landline or a deskphone with functions such as an address book and call history would have a basic firmware OS, but something like rotary phone wouldn’t
Re☎vrn
A world where communication devices are limited to rotaries phones, CLI only terminals that only allow data transfer as SMTP, FTP and BBS traffic over dial-up using acoustic couplers connected to the rotaries handsets, would be a better world
Unacceptable. I want to be able to telnet.
Ok but the only server you can connect to is that one that plays that ASCII version of star wars in the term
telnet towel.blinkenlights.nlfor anyone who hasn’t experienced this masterpieceNo MUDs? That’s what I used telnet for.
Evil commies want to force you to touch grass, beware!
First they came for the gamersI dunno about better, but it would certainly be a hell of a lot slower. A lot of websites would revert to text only, so perhaps it would be better lol
What web? Gopher and FTP.
How do you think they worked? All cells always had an OS.
even all old Nokias and flipphones and the like have an OS they’re just in house developed proprietary embedded software/firmware not open sourceish like android
its how almost any sufficiently complicated device that uses PCBs works even modern washing machines and such run atleast what it basically a firmware os
With dumbphones, you’re usually limited to regular phone calls or SMS/MMS messaging.
That’s kind of the point.
Sure, you can’t do much with them, but by that very fact you also won’t have nearly as much data to be spied on.
Likewise, you can do much more with a smartphone, but that comes with a much higher surface of attack, and you also have to work a lot harder to keep all the data away from spying.
SMS/MMS and the PSTN are completely compromised by multiple governments. Not saying that makes smartphones any better, just be aware.
Yes, not so difficult to spy phone calls and SMS, but it’s way less risky for privacy and security as in Smartphones, full of sensitive data on an OS and tons of apps which logs and spy on you, spreading the information not only to the ISP and govs, but also to private advertising companies and others, which is way worse. Phone lines are way less dangerous for privacy and security as the Internet, log data stored by the ISP are deleted after an max. of three month, data on the internet are forever and can’t be deleted, because they are spreeded everywhere.
At least in my case, I don’t use my Smartphone for other things as for calls, I don’t use any messenger apps nor storing sensitive data on it, desconected GPS and localisation apps. For me smartphones as such are spyware by definition, more if the include AI like they are doing currently.
I would argue that phone that a phone that runs Android is not a dumb phone. Not having a Google account logged into your phone is a huge step towards privacy.
See:
- Mudita Kompakt
- Punkt MP02
- etc.
Also don’t fall into the trap that privacy is a binary issue. There’s a massive spectrum.
Yes, I’ve only ever seen the term dumbphone used to mean a phone that’s just a phone, not a computer. No OS, software, internet, etc.
As others have mentioned, this is a matter of threat model. To be realistic, a sufficiently determined government will always be able to access your communications, but companies like Facebook and Google can only access them if you give it to them willingly. On the other hand, if other people you communicate with do this by themselves, then you’ve gone through all that effort for nothing. It’s also worth pointing out that it cannot be proven that a regular phone does not have corporate spyware installed, so this may be another way your information could leak to companies.
That said, it is pretty insulting that tech companies have decided that they’re simply entitled to everyone’s private communication data. That for me is probably the biggest motivator in trying to avoid their services as much as possible.
a sufficiently determined government will always be able to access your communications
If you use encrypted messages and both people using the messages have a phone with disk encryption then there is literally no way for a government to gain access to your messages. That is assuming the government isn’t going to torture you.
I think you’re conflating security with privacy. Not that they are unrelated, but something can be e.g. unencrypted but lack telemetry.
Not that dumbphones are inherently private, but I don’t think they’re less private either. They’re just what you use if you have no need for all the smartphone functions.
Idk, being locked in to using only communication protocols that are known to be roughly wide open seems like kind of a privacy non-starter, right? Sort of fails the attempt before you even start, no?
Edit: a wiser person than me reads the rest of the thread before a comment like the above, but I’m not them sadly. (AKA, plenty of good points made by others)
I suppose that begs the question of whether or not privacy (as used by this community) inherently means private in the colloquial sense, like the way a diary is private. Because to me, a e.g. public static website with no kind of profiling of its users is privacy-respecting, but obviously not private in the colloquial sense—it’s a public resource.
I do use SMS sometimes and I use it strictly for things that I’m happy to be basically public. Same for using other protocols like unencrypted email.
A stock smartphone is also locked in to mandatory telemetry, like a stock dumbphone. The practical difference is that there’s a much smaller community for installing custom FOSS OSes onto dumbphones compared to smartphones.
Linux Phones are a thing… 🥺
Yes, they are. There’s a system called Ubuntu Touch, and there are a few others that I’m not as well aware of.
And your keystrokes are logged on phones where you use Signal…
Dumbphones are more private. Privacy is on a scale, and you have less apps and systems that track you and profile you on a dumbphone.
Do you want true privacy? Don’t use a phone…
Yup, no phone is the way to go. Obviously not practical 100% of the time in the modern day, but if you’re ever doing something you don’t want linked to you, leave the phone at home.
Yes, sim calls and sms are not private, both on dumb and smart phones. They also connect to cell towers so your location might be found. Anyway, I think the hardware and software of a smartphone is more capable of surveillance you than a dumbphone. The only realistic way is to leave the phone home and keep a paper list of your contacts at you. And call them from a stranger if you need to. I did this and the biggest inconvenience is that I can’t take pictures or videos (I might buy a camera, I don’t know if they have location system incorporated).
From my limited research it looks as though the Punkt mp02 is the best bet for a private dumbphone. It does use a propriety OS but at least it supports Signal.
Pretty sure the Punkt is my next phone and a Raspberry Pi 500+ is my next desktop.
Take me back to the start of the millennium. I’m tired of this shit.
I guess the idea is that you wont be able to do a lon with a dumbphone, so it’s basically a paperweight that sometimes receives calls and with too much luck, an SMS. You have a tool for emergencies or specific events, but you don’t have your life on it, so you keep most of your privacy from ever reaching it. That’s my take, at least.
You can make a smartphone (more) private, but out of the box and loaded with standard apps (eg Google), its a privacy nightmare. So I get where they are coming from. Sure using SMS isn’t private, but dropping all that app addiction is.
It comes down to the hostile actor you are trying to defend against. If you are Jason Bourne and you have been burned by your agency so multiple nation-states are looking for you, then you have to go fully off-grid and live a quiet life without ever communicating with anyone in your prior life again. It doesn’t matter if you are using Signal, or SMS, or even a dial-up BBS. If you are communicating with people that are also under heavy surveillance, you cannot hide.
If you want to reduce your “digital footprint,” then not using google/facebook/other social media is the most worthwhile thing you can possibly do. Your phone doesn’t matter. Use iOS, never install any of the social apps, use Safari in incognito mode, and you’ll never be tracekd across websites again.
Use iOS
Wat
It’s the most private and secure phone OS you can get today. You have to have minimal trust in Apple that they won’t change the terms, but that is miles better then using google who will explicitly use your data for anything they want.
It’s absolutely not. It requires extraordinary trust in Apple.
The most private and secure OS is GrapheneOS, without a doubt. Google cannot use data they do not have.
This. A dumbphone is private in the sense that it’s not collecting and transmitting a whole lot of data to Facebook, Google, etc., which is what most people are concerned about in this community.
If you also want encrypted communications, use something built for that purpose. But keep in mind, the other person will also have to have a compatible device, and probably isn’t as concerned about maintaining hygiene.
“Use Safari in Incognito mode.” I remember when they said the same thing about Firefox.
What happened with Firefox?
I think OP meant use Safari with the Apple’s Privacy Relay thing that hides your IP and generalizes location data into a larger area, not just regular “private mode” that Safari has. Too bad it’s subscription only on iCloud+, and who knows if it actually works as well as Apple claims it does.
I wasn’t referring to the privacy relay, though if you want to use it that’s fine too. More of just easy ways to reduce your digital footprint.
Switching from a smartphone to a dumbphone is usually not about increasing privacy in the first place.
People tend to make the switch for mental health reasons, rather than privacy ones. When your phone goes back to being a direct communication tool rather than a passtime, you tend to realize just how much time you spend during a day doing basically nothing.
I 100% agree, but to be fair, in some jobs there really isn’t much to do. Lol.
You are conflating privacy and security. They’re not unrelated, but generally speaking while a dumphone may be less secure than a smartphone, it’s also certainly more private.
How can you have a private phone with less security?
Edit: Certainly without security you cannot have true privacy
It is simple.
It produces significantly less data. It doesn’t have all the apps you are being tracked by reporting on your every move.
It doesn’t have faceid, and probably has a lot of exploits (less security), but the data it holds isn’t worth securing and it doesn’t provide a non-stop datamine (more privacy).
Basically, instead of having a large safe filled with gold, you have a duffel-bag with your old gym clothes. You don’t need security for old gym clothes.
Someone once broke into my sister’s car and stole her bag of gym clothes but I get what you’re saying.
Personally I would love a dumbphone but I find a smartphone too useful (specifically map and transit apps). I wish I could have the same number for one of each and only bring the smartphone when necessary.
And what is less private about face ID or fingerprints. You di now how those work? But from your comment I’m guessing you have no idea.
You’re just continuing the conflation by speaking about security functionality in terms of privacy.
I figured that the point of using a dumb phone would be that there hopefully wouldn’t be meaningful accounts, information, and communication to really get at. Regular calls and SMS were already fair game, and there is basically nothing else on there. Nothing for evil megacorps to siphon up, no social media, not much of anything.
