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Comment by Cider9986 | Hacker News Reader

Literally just airplane mode. It's ended up being a rather excellent privacy toggle that operating systems have to implement well.

GrapheneOS has "2G Network Protection" which prevents your phone from connecting to 2G networks and it also can notify you if your cellular identifiers were accessed.

https://www.cape.co seemed suspicious to me but apparently they actually do manage to make decent security improvements on the cellular stack. They also donate 100k/year to GrapheneOS [1] which is cool.

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

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> Literally just airplane mode.

Almost everyone needs a solution that allows them to send and receive communication, including using the Internet, at arbitrary places and times.

> (Cape)

Cape is cofounded by Palantir alums; national security agencies are their main market. That doesn't condemn them - and it may speak to technical chops and requirements - though people should be informed so they can make their own decisions.

> They also donate 100k/year to GrapheneOS

Their valuation, as of this past March, is $900M [0]. GrapheneOS is mostly silent about donors and any arrangments with them, afaict.

[0] https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2026/03/19/ex-pa...

I appreciate this even handed take! Thanks

Valuation has nothing to do with cash.

>GrapheneOS has "2G Network Protection" which prevents your phone from connecting to 2G networks

This isn't just a GrapheneOS feature so you don't need a new ROM for it. Upstream Android provides this feature. Being enrolled in Google Advanced Protection program even forces it on. It is also available in iOS via Lockdown Mode. Just a great feature and I'm glad its broadly available.

>GrapheneOS has "2G Network Protection" which prevents your phone from connecting to 2G networks and it also can notify you if your cellular identifiers were accessed.

You should realistically be changing to it to "5G or LTE only", even better "5G only". The latter should provide complete protection from IMSI/IMEI sniffing by rogue base stations.

>The latter should provide complete protection from IMSI/IMEI sniffing by rogue base stations.

Only on SA and even there it is optional: https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/CSWP/NIST.CSWP.36A.pdf

That is an android feature not specific to grapheneos

Yow, $70 a month is rather harsh. Honestly I'd rather just stick to Signal and avoid traditional calling/SMS and use HTTPS for everything over mobile data instead.

Lockdown Mode on iOS also disables 2G

Where can you find a 2G Network that you need help in not connecting?

Near a stingray, presumably.

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