If you’ve read the news at any point over the last couple of years then you might have heard of Edward Snowden. He’s a former contractor who worked for the CIA, he leaked thousands of documents that revealed the extent of the National Security Agency’s electronic spying programs. He’s regularly seen endorsing services that provide users with a secure communications platform but if really want to dial your security up a notch or two, here’s how to make your phone spy-proof with Edward Snowden.
This is actually a preview of an upcoming episode of Vice in which Edward Snowden sat down to teach us all how we can “go black” with our smartphone, meaning to ensure that we are not spied on through our cellphones by hackers or government agencies.
There’s no escaping software-based exploits, and even malware which is prevalent on Android, so it’s theoretically possible for someone to spy on you by listening through your phone’s microphone or watching you through its camera.
Snowden’s fix for this is pretty drastic and will require some hardware skills. He’s seen physically removing the smartphone’s microphone and cameras so that it really is possible to “go black.”
While you can’t do anything photo or video related without a camera, it’s still possible to use the phone for making and receiving calls even if the internal microphone has been taking out. Just plug in a headset that has a microphone and you’re good to go.
Nevermind the fact that none of this will protect you against someone hacking into the device and lifting any and all important files and information that you may have on it, unless you disable internet, Bluetooth, etc to counter that threat.
This may not be needed for most of us since the NSA and U.S. government isn’t exactly after us like it is after Snowden, but if you’re paranoid about that, this is just a few of the steps you need to take to be spy-proof.