Flagship Mobile Phone with Hardware Kill Switches for Privacy
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Mobile Phones
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The Murena-powered Hiroh phone is a flagship mobile phone with hardware kill switches for cameras and microphones, sparking discussion about its security, compatibility, and practicality.
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Sep 26, 2025 at 11:44 AM EDT
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Read the primary article or dive into the live Hacker News thread when you're ready.
It's NOT ok that a government app (often practically mandatory) requires the user to accept some invasive ToS of a foreign corporation maintaining an illegal monopoly.
Requiring attestation doesn't mean Google spyware should be unremovable without breaking it, Google's business model should not be mandated by the law.
That's how we'll be robbed of our computing freedom. Technically we'll be able to install whatever software we want but they'll be able to detect our "tampering" and discriminate against us based on it. "Tampered" with your computer? Can't access bank accounts, can't access communications applications, can't even play video games or watch films. One day even networking protocols will require corporate or government attestation. Won't even be able to connect to the internet without a corporate owned computer. Can't even read an article on some website.
We're going to be marginalized. We're going to be second class citizens of society. The only way to gain access to services is to give up control of our computers to the corporations and governments.
it would be a little thicker, you would need 2 of some components.
switch between phones like switching workspace?
Or this 90's hardware oddity that combined Mac and PC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6b4lYOI0GQ (skip to 8:00 to see it in action).
I wonder if dual-booting is possible, with the boot-loader loading the bootloader that's been "blessed" by Google's certification priests to boot the "certified virginal" phone.
Maybe it should. I'm not convinced that we're automatically done for if the NSA, CIA or whatever starts coming after us. That sort of demoralization is probably part of their psychological warfare.
The US government is constantly lamenting the fact cryptography has become widespread and regularly attempts to straight up outlaw it. Cryptography is subversive: it has the power to defeat police, judges, spies, governments, militaries. The simple act of encrypting web traffic shifted the landscape to the point governments are stockpiling vulnerabilites to get around the cryptography. The next step is to systematically eliminate these vulnerabilities so that the cryptography cannot be worked around.
so I won't trust judgement based on that
GrapheneOS devs have announced "We're currently working with a major OEM towards future generations of their devices meeting our requirements and providing official GrapheneOS support. GrapheneOS on both Pixels and these future non-Pixels will be fine." (https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/115102564799343519)
You're welcome to assert otherwise, of course, but your assertions are contradictory with direct statements from the GrapheneOS team.
How great might be the threat of using its speakers as microphones ?
Thanks in advance!
Based on what? If it's not yet available, how would you be able to tell how well it does calls or BT-pairs with cars?