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Comment by josteink | Hacker News Reader

As for mobile platforms, iOS is obviously not a trust-worthy solution. Android is OK, but has issues by being run by Google and core services provided through them.

I'd love for a third viable option to pop up, but for the same reasons as iOS, Windows Phone is out. FirefoxOS seems not quite ready at this point, and until proven otherwise I will consider Tizen vaporware.

That pretty much leaves us with Android. While owned by Google is at least open-source. If you go super-paranoid you can always make/get builds not integrating with Google's services in any way.

Does anyone have any experience with making opens-source solutions for things like email, calendering and contact-management integrate nicely with Android?

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Best would be to use a CyanogenMod ROM. I hear in the next version they plan to introduce some extra privacy options:

http://www.androidcentral.com/easy-privacy-may-be-coming-soo...

Then TextSecure for SMS/chat, RedPhone for calling, and some other alternatives you may find for other apps.

At least for now it might even help if you use services from small, unknown companies, as opposed to services from the big ones, which are a given to be the focus of NSA. But it may be a matter of time before they collect the data (even if encrypted) from those, too, if they aren't already. It would also help a bit to user services hosted in other countries.

The flip-side of relying on smaller companies, of course, is they may not have the cash available to challenge specious searches that a company like Google does -- assuming it wants to challenge requests, of course.

Then again, from what we know about the FISC it's hard to say whether legal challenges make much difference.

It would also help a bit to user services hosted in other countries.

How so? At least in theory the constitution applies to US citizens and US companies. With a foreign service you have no such claim. Historically the NSA has always been concerned with communication into and out of the US, so if you live the US and use foreign hosting you're essentially stepping right into their spotlight.

Also you can guess that most other governments snoop as much if not more so than the NSA does. It's just the nature of the beast.

This is a good guide for setting up self-hosted email: http://flurdy.com/docs/postfix/

Owncloud is ok for self-hosted file hosting. It's a little buggy still, but is improving very quickly. It also has Android and desktop apps.

Although Owncloud has contacts/calendar built in, Radicale is more polished and has more features. It's also easy to set up. Make sure you get the latest version through pip rather than your distros package manager.

On Android you can then use CardDav Sync / CalDav Sync to sync calendars and contacts.

Don't confuse commercial prospects with usefulness. Although Tizen, FirefoxOS, and Jolla all have OEM and carrier commitments for a roll-out (Ubuntu? Anyone know?) they have a tough task ahead to gain acceptance. But that doesn't reduce their usefulness as systems that might be more open in practice than Android.

It is likely that some of the new-generation open mobile OSs could enable you to build and install your phone's OS more conveniently than Android. That might enable you to do encrypted voice more readily. And that might push Google to provide more confidence-building for Android.

Cell phones inherently give away your location all the time. And there's some evidence to suggest that their speakers can be turned on remotely.

The only way to have privacy and a cell phone is to leave it at home.

> And there's some evidence to suggest that their speakers can be turned on remotely

[citation needed] (and wanted, since I'm curious)

I know this mostly through activist oral histories, but here's one story: http://www.zdnet.com/news/fbi-taps-cell-phone-mic-as-eavesdr...

The other response to your question cites the case where the capability leaked. The other reason to think this capability is in phones is that the source code for firmware for mobile baseband processors is a closely guarded secret. Also, the audio paths for voice calls is controlled by the firmware in this processor. So if your phone is a bug, this is where that would be implemented.

If you search for words "mobile baseband fuzzing" you will find that many people have sought to satisfy their curiosity about this part of a phone.

If you're truly paranoid about it, you could keep you phone in a Faraday cage or something like a Mylar bag to block all external signals. But that would really only be for those moments when you want to be off grid. That would otherwise defeat the purpose of having a phone.

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