Free Software Cellular Baseband

8 replies [Last post]
JadedCtrl
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Joined: 08/11/2014

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/free-software-cellular-baseband

I intend to donate. Anyone see any problems with it? ^_^

tomlukeywood
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Joined: 12/05/2014

looks very good but the information about the project dosent load unless you use non-free automaticly run javascript

so i made a pdf with the info from the page so pepole dont have to use js!

AttachmentSize
info.pdf 700.53 KB
danieru
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Joined: 01/06/2013

I remember Richard Stallman saying "the towers can track, at any time, the position of a cellphone even without the cooperation of the device" on various talks. I don't have any real source on this, and don't have the time to investigate at the moment, but maybe someone else already knows how true or false this is (I mean if they can track even this cellphone, not if RMS said that).

The point is, if it's true, it would be a big privacy issue that not even this cellphone could fix.

tomlukeywood
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Joined: 12/05/2014

even if it is track-able to location
if it were libre software then you could check it wasn’t doing things like constantly recording everything your saying
at all times

and you would have control over the device and make sure there are no backdoors

the main improvement would be that only your location is given away and not your human communications

btw i found a thing about it:
http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/world/how-the-nsa-is-tracking-people-right-now/634/

quantumgravity
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Joined: 04/22/2013

"the main improvement would be that only your location is given away and not your human communications"
Are you sure about this?
I think you're sending the communication to your mobile-service provider and i guess they can hear what you're talking; i mean it's not encrypted, is it?

But still it would be good to have a solution for a few problems, though not for all.

tomlukeywood
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Joined: 12/05/2014

sorry i wasn’t clear

i meant it would not be recording everything your saying at all times like for example if its in your pocket
and your talking to someone else

Magic Banana

I am a member!

I am a translator!

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Joined: 07/24/2010

It is encrypted. With a key on the SIM card. But Edward Snowden revealed, through Glenn Greenwald, that the NSA stole the encryption keys of the world's largest manufacturer of SIM cards: https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/02/19/great-sim-heist/

ssdclickofdeath
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Joined: 05/18/2013

Here is an article on mobile phone tracking on Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_tracking
TL;DR: A cell phone's location can be determined via signal triangulation between multiple cell phone towers and a phone.

Jodiendo
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Joined: 01/09/2013

I always tell people, If you want to stay of the grid use Sat Phones instead... You could encrypt them 1 to 1. The problem is the other person that is accepting your keys is a valid legit user.