Now, this might be hard to do, but I know very basic phones can be had without Bluetooth - not the best for driving, though.

I suppose the ideal "lawyer" / confidential phone would be one with a physical switch to turn off Bluetooth, no wifi, and one which physically cuts power to the Mike and GPS when snapped shut.

Any idea how hard it would be to float this on Kickstarter?

If youre that worried about being accused of using your phone while driving they have dashcams that record both the road and the passengers of the car simultaneously. Of course a lawyer would probably hate you having potential evidence to be used against you.

Not about driving. I'm mostly concerned with privacy, and ensuring a phone could not be activated, though I suppose it's simplest just to leave it behind/bag it during meetings.

I think he's trying to market the phone to tinfoil hat wearers, not safety nuts.

Pull the battery when in said meetings.

You could also check out something like Blackphone.

https://www.silentcircle.com/

I worked in a SCIF while in the military. Even before smartphones came out, we had to leave phones outside the building, and if we left them in the building in the phone lockers the batteries had to be removed. Basically, if the battery is in your phone it's possible to compromise it (although I would imagine the parties capable of doing this are limited).

Out of curiosity, what type of law are you in that you're worried about your phone being hacked and a microphone activated during a meeting with a client?

Mostly this is curiosity, but some of my clients are very dependent on keeping trade secrets.

According to a retired detective friend of mine, phone mikes could be remotely turned on 15 years ago. He presumed it could be done in the private sector now.

TMK, requiring folks to leave their phones in lockers is somewhat common in various businesses - though that may be as much about productivity as anything else.

China actively engages in corporate espionage, which is a more significant issue than I think many politicians want to publicly admit.

This is why I was thinking about using a physical switch in the hinge. If the phone was closed, power could not go to the microphone.

Likewise, eliminating Bluetooth would limit a way to grab info off a phone, I think.

And my client who works in information security likes the idea but thinks it need a hardware based encryption for calls and texts as well...

Check out the Blackphone (by Silentcircle) that I linked to earlier in this thread.

You could also use WhatsApp that uses end to end encryption for texts and Voice calls.

The thing is, if you're using a regular flip phone, voice and text conversations would not be encrypted without special hardware. The person at the other end of the conversation would also need to have the same hardware as well.

WhatsApp is a FB product. Not sure about it, but as its owned by a data mining company, I suspect it will eventually be monetized.

My client on information security is, mostly, a big believer in face to face, but uses iMessage for casual stuff.

I don't think I've ever talked to him on the telephone, in several years, but that could just be personal habit.

The main issue with many of the messaging products is they are owned by companies which make money off data mining - in FB's case, it's almost their entire business model.

A rooted iPhone, if done by a reputable company, might be the best option.

Though, I think I'll be switching to a normal flip phone.

Signal and Telegram are great alternatives to whatsapp. Signal has end to end encryption for text and voice. State dept. has their people use it, so I've heard.

A flip phone doesn't have any way, TMK, to be data mined. That is what's damning to a lawyer, as it breaks privilege.

Getting clients not to use text, or unencrypted email to discuss their confidential info is an education issue, but one which should not be subject to discovery, if a data mining service has not been used - I think.

But, the issues with it are why my information client suggested putting in encryption hardware if I find someone who wants to make flip phones - I was trying to get him to do it, but he said it was more than he had the capacity for.

I will ask around about Signal and see if the Blackphone is available without any Google products on it.

In theory, I could see how an Android/open source phone could be secure, if kept updated against security - but when it's a product of a company which derives much of its revenue from data mining, it seems like there would be a constant fight to keep them out of your data.

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You could also check out something like Blackphone.

https://www.silentcircle.com/

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That's what I was going to suggest.

I have wondered whether or not the Protonmail mobile app can be installed on a Blackphone.

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Signal and Telegram are great alternatives to whatsapp. Signal has end to end encryption for text and voice. State dept. has their people use it, so I've heard.

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I use Telegram daily on both smart phone and desk top.

Unfortunately, I don't think the desk top has the end to end encryption yet.

By the way, it wouldn't be cheap but you could do work on your offices to block radio signals from getting in or out.

You can get a film that goes over windows that you would ground. I wonder if you could use that, or something similar, on the walls and ceiling to block radios. I'm not sure what you would do with the floor, but if you had the entire building than that shouldn't be an issue.

Alternatively, a grounded Faraday cage to deposit the cell phones in while having a meeting would be a lot cheaper.

TMK all encryption requires both parties to agree to a tech to be useful.

The suggestion was to add a chip on a physical switch - but that would be a little complicated As it would also mean adding a display of some kind to be able to read out the code.

Tying the power to the microphone to the hinge switch used to power the display/speaker, if they still work that way, should be pretty simple

Why couldn't you just use a different prepaid burner for each case that gets destroyed after the case?