Topics Mobile Phones

All mobile phones have proprietary components, which combined with their always-connected nature and portability makes them inherently insecure. As such, your phone should never be trusted with highly sensitive information involved in browsing, communication, or anything else.

Location Privacy

The design of cell networks necessitates that a given phone’s approximate location be available to the telecom operator in order to provide service. Telecoms generally collect this location data, correlate it with the customer records they have on file, and sell it to marketers and law enforcement1 as well as unintentionally leaking it to other parties.2

Mitigation Techniques

Here are some ways you can mitigate privacy risks in your day-to-day use of a phone:

All in all, consider what information will be exposed if your phone is confiscated or otherwise compromised.

Many of these tips are elaborated upon in Freedom of the Press Foundation’s training guide:

  1. EFF: Senator Wyden Demands Answers from Prison Phone Service Caught Sharing Cellphone Location Data (2018) ↩

  2. Motherboard: Hacker Breaches Securus, the Company That Helps Cops Track Phones Across the US (2018) ↩

Found a mistake? Have something to add?
Public Key
Back to top