Cell phone replacement

Old blackberries (pre OS 10) allow you to turn off the radios on them. They also do this by default when the battery gets too low to allow you to still use it as an address box so you can place calls from another phone.

address book

That sounds great
But has anybody tested and confirmed it? Because phone can claim that radio is turned off but it could lie

That's in theory. Has that been actually used in the real world?

This is interesting.

I'm looking to downgrade from my NSAphone. I might kept it around sans phone plan as a useful & pozzed-af device, but not as an every day carry.

This is an area that's far outside of my expertise, could anyone send me in the right direction towards the pros & cons of using an older Blackberry as a privacy/security oriented phone?

Your premise is wrong. It is impossible to have privacy and security if you carry and use a working cell phone. The reason for this is because cell phones are inherently designed to be associated to a known location. Not only that, the cell phone system is designed so that government agents are capable of eavesdropping into the microphones of a phone that's connected to the system. Cell phones are nothing short of government surveillance devices and you cannot get privacy or security from any phone.

Government revolution to deal with privacy from the network side and FPGAs to deal with trustworthiness from the phone side.

Whatever you get, it's probably a botnet.

How about AIRPLANE MODE enabled in cellphone? Shouldn't it disable radio?

look what I found on wikipedia. What does all that mean?

Research in Motion agreed to give access to private communications to the governments of United Arab Emirates[81] and Saudi Arabia[82] in 2010, and India in 2012.[83] The Saudi and UAE governments had threatened to ban certain services because their law enforcement agencies could not decrypt messages between people of interest.[84]

It was revealed as a part of the 2013 mass surveillance disclosures that the American and British intelligence agencies, the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) respectively, have access to the user data on BlackBerry devices. The agencies are able to read almost all smartphone information, including SMS, location, e-mails, and notes through BlackBerry Internet Service, which operates outside corporate networks, and which, in contrast to the data passing through internal BlackBerry services (BES), only compresses but does not encrypt data.[85]

Documents stated that the NSA was able to access the BlackBerry e-mail system and that they could "see and read SMS traffic."[85] There was a brief period in 2009 when the NSA was unable to access BlackBerry devices, after BlackBerry changed the way they compress their data. Access to the devices was re-established by GCHQ.[85] GCHQ has a tool named SCRAPHEAP CHALLENGE, with the capability of "Perfect spoofing of emails from Blackberry targets".[86][87]

In response to the revelations BlackBerry officials stated that "It is not for us to comment on media reports regarding alleged government surveillance of telecommunications traffic" and added that a "back door pipeline" to their platform had not been established and did not exist.[85]

It should be noted that similar access by the intelligence agencies to other mobile devices exists, using similar techniques to hack into them.[85]

The BlackBerry software includes support for the Dual EC DRBG CSPRNG algorithm which, due to being probably backdoored by the NSA, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology "strongly recommends" no longer be used. BlackBerry Ltd. has however not issued an advisory to its customers, because they do not consider the probable backdoor a vulnerability. BlackBerry Ltd. also owns US patent 2007189527, which covers the technical design of the backdoor.[88]

Neo900 neo900.org/ (or Nokia N900 in the meantime)

If you don't want a phone, an Apple iPod touch might be a good choice.
You can look for 4-5 inch tablets and "MP4 players" too from Singapore, but you kind of have to compile the OS yourself if you want any kind of security updates.

Some have successfully installed Linux on a GPD Win device, you may try that too.

FM radio and the mobile modem uses the same antenna in most phones. So yes, it disables radio too.

WiFi uses a different antenna so you can use that in airplane mode.

I thought most FM-radio-equipped phones required wired headphones to act as the antenna.

What do you think about NOKIA SYMBIANS? Are they safe to use? Do they have airplane mode?

Blackberry or symbian?

What's different about tablet and phone? They have same radio/modem in them. And tablets are huge. I want small device that will act as:
-portable small PC
-camera (photos & videos)
-occasional internet wifi/3g (optional)
-write documents, read documents
-act as modem or router (optional)
-phone to call services (optional)

So I want either:
a) a phone that can have radios really turned off (airplane mode?)
b) offline device (phone?) that will provide some of listed functions

(a) would be preferable

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airplane_mode

SEE, Holla Forums? airplane mode seems legit. you can go tomorrow to shop and buy a phone you like. it's safe, doesn't track, just use airplane mode. you disable it only if want to call (in safe place, like shopping mall)

blackBerry vs symbian?

does both have airplane mode?

Backdoors with a shocking amount of power are a thing.
redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/SamsungGalaxyBackdoor

Don't forget Stingrays and similar devices that work regardless of which phone you have. In any sort of conflict zone or demonstration there's likely going to be at least a few deployed. Some secure phones can detect these, but even when you're connected to the main network you're still vulnerable to location tracking and the like with one of those.
archive.fo/ZYX2k

Why all mobile browsers are botnets that transmit data over browser servers rather than direct connection?

how about airplane mode?

Get a microcontroller and a GSM module and put a beefy mechanical switch on the GSM module's power wire. Bam.

that's complicated

Yes. There's some raw functionality implemented for archaic GSM dumbphones. Look into OsmocomBB and FreeCalypso.

Bear in mind that they won't protect you from being tracked by triangulation. All the common cellphone networking protocols are bad for privacy, by design. It would take a pager-like protocol being developed and then adopted by carriers, or a sort of selective Faraday cage plus one or two miracles to make it work with mainstream protocols, or a phone with a unidirectional antenna sitting inside a gyroscope plus other tricks to escape being tracked by the cellphone network.

neo900
Dragonbox Pyra
I guess the Replicant website also talks about "supported" models with good modem isolation.

I could trust such a thing to really turn communications off, depending on the software that is doing it. If it's running a proprietary operating system like iOS, Blackberry or mainstream Android, then it might as well just pretend to turn radios off.

Bunnie Huang and Ed Snowden developed a holster for ughh, iPhones that detects if the device is transmitting.

Also, bear in mind that GSM encryption is a joke. All you need is 3 consecutive bits of ciphertext and solving a linear equations system to decrypt the rest of the stream

...

n900 is expensive as shit

I want cheap device, symbians or blackberries or feature phones. I want a device that you have in pocket and you can use it to do photos, videos, write documents. I want it to be optionally online to browse internets, maps, shits.

Symbian vs blackberry vs feature phones.
And does the one above support airplane mode? And do they have working web browsers?

won't airplane mode protect against traingulation?

Wouldn't airplane companies sue them if airplane mode was fake?

Can't someone test other devices if they leak during airplane mode?

yes

how are you supposed to do this with a feature phone?
Have you had a look at replicant.us?

Ok so do it and report to me ASAP

are you from 1990? Even a 10 years old cheap feature phone can:
-do photos
-record videos
-access micro SD cards
-browse internets
-record voice
-install and use java apps
-read and write text documents
only maps could be a problem

Yes, it's shit. They "support" a few phones and all of them are for rich 1st world middle class people. They do not support phones for poor people. I need phone for nigger from africa, like me. I am thinking of getting symbian/blackberry/featurephone. Android phones cost more than a motorcycle and they are overkill.

the only way to ensure that your mobile is not sending any data would be to enroll it in tinfoil every time you want it to be not sending anything. However, it will also be unable to receive any calls or texts as well.

Also there are cheap bug detectors you can buy. They will be reacting to high frequency transmissions and an led will light up if it detects transmissions. It will not stop them though.

If I tinfoil phone I won't see the screen to do offline tasks. I could as well just eject battery

How to buy or produce that?

OH WAIT. SPEAKERS AND CRT SCREENS clearly show when phone sends something, if you put phone near them. This is my detector.

Build your own like this poster may be suggesting.
Find a group who does something similar to what you intend to and research the hardware in modern phones, and go from scratch.
Throw it away and build a new one after every use.

Seriously good luck having security haha. Better off using public computers with a hoodie on and disposable phones when doing anything important.
Otherwise maybe take a few tips from Qubes OS, VM everything, and maybe build up your own botnet from hijacking devices around you and start randomly routing through half of them (so you're not so apparently at the center of a botnet) then use the same people for a week and then restart.
Just talking out my ass here, I don't know much.

Symbians are not safe, not updated, they are not protected against local attacks at all. There is not even browsers for it anymore which support newer encryption standards. You should not them for storing sensitive data.
Blackberry is backdoored.

If the things on your list are really optional, check the dslr market. There are plenty of new cameras out there which run Android, and you will get your nice photos too.

Airplane mode means your device does not actively search and ping for cellular towers. But in a case of emergency for example, the towers can still ping your device and it will respond. Airplane mode was designed for airplanes: switching towers at every 20 seconds is not practical, and looking for towers when there aren't any drains the battery.

Stop using GSM! Turn 2G off!

No. I want buy working solution, with minimal effort from me

What exactly is not safe at them?

are you goy who fell for the muh updatez meme?

What attacks?

But will websites work with older standards?
Also, are you sure there is no browser for them? They support java apps, there are some java mobile browsers.

I wouldn't store very sensitive data on any phone.

So what? I would run it mostly in airplane/offline mode. What kind of backdoors are inside it? What will they do?

This is an option to consider. But there are many drawbacks, this devices are expensive (few times the price of old cellphone), they do not have other functions but only pics/vics so I'd need to have so many devices in my pockets. And I'd need separate SD cards for each device. Also this cameras are huge, I want small size and small quality. I could even accept VGA@15fps vids, 1600x1200 pics, those cameras are overkill.
On the other hand, separate camera has advantage of being able to be put in some place (room), while I'm not there. The camera would record. But for that purpose I could get cheap chinese cameras.

What emergency?
So does airplane mode connect to towers on its own or not?

2G can be sniffed only when you talk or send messages, if you don't it doesn't. Calls are better to be made using VoIP anyway.

howtogeek.com/194421/what-does-airplane-mode-do-and-is-it-really-necessary/
fieldguide.gizmodo.com/three-uses-for-airplane-mode-that-dont-involve-flying-1584166499
androidadvices.com/airplane-mode/

why stupid Holla Forums is shilling that airplane mode is scam?
you just want a pretext to not use phone at all

Grab a phone, turn airplane mode on, put it near speakers and tell me if you hear it communicating with towers

GSM Note 2 with Replicant and LibreSignal/Riot.

forums.att.com/t5/Wireless-2013-Archive/Airplane-Mode/td-p/1626422
mirror.co.uk/tech/what-your-phones-airplane-mode-7716419
pocketnow.com/2014/04/28/airplane-mode

see?
airplane mode is real and solution for ALL problems, including the jewish problem
but stupid linux Holla Forums idiots will shill that MUH AIRPLANE MODE IS CIA SCAM DON'T EVEN TOUCH CELLPHONE BRO IT WILL BURN YOUR HANDS AND SEND FINGERPRINTS TO ILLUMINATI AND CLINTON FOUNDATION

Would removing the phone program from Android and not having a sim card present do anything?

Because it doesn't help when physical access gained.
Also SHOUTING IN ALL CAPS really helps your message does is not Holla Forums fag.

Not having sim would at most give you option to tell police that you bought the phone recently. Or sold it.

Even if, so what? Physical access is shit. Someone would need to stole it, or police would need to take it. Compared to that, no airplane mode means they can track your every step without even touching your phone.
Also, you are wrong. Even if they get physical access of your phone, they won't see where were you walking. They will only access recent files, that you didn't yet moved to PC and overwrite a few times.

Jamming the note 2, solid device for its age. Kavinsky fan as well

Citation needed

I guess removing the phone program from Android doesn't really do anything at all other than removing a feature that will not be used?
I`l conscede that those are very vaild points. Though wouldn`t there be a connection log burried deep in the OS, that will most likely just say what was connected to at the very least (mainly in this instance).

Android has FDE. Don't forget it