šŸ‡¬šŸ‡§ Interesting links / news articles somehow related to Fairphone

I stumbled upon this project which I found very cool.

What it does it can turn your old smartphone into an off the grid (offline) password manager. It seems like a solid alternative to password manager in the the cloud, YubiKey / 2FA.

Since the FP3 got released, perhaps a project like this allows people to use their old smartphone (such as a FP2) as a dedicated (offline) device.

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Hi JeroenH,

thanks for posting Authorizer here :slight_smile:
Coincidentally, I searched yesterday for Fairphone and checked, if I could remove the mobile part (antenna, mobile modem, ā€¦) from Fairphone to have a complete offline device. As far as I could see, this is not possible.

If someone is interested to use Authorizer, e.g. for FP2, I can help to get Auto-Type over USB working.

There are also a lot of innovative and awesome features planned for Authorizerā€¦ just in case someone wants to contribute :wink:

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Hey, youā€™re 2*welcome :slight_smile:

I donā€™t think it is possible to completely remove all the antennas. If you want hardware kill switches, I suppose Librem 5, or just put your device in permanent airplane mode.

It seems to be possible to get rid of at least some antennas

There are some people who have trouble with LTE connectivity. You could probably put something in between the connectors on the other side of the display to at least jam that signal.

Once I got my FP3 I might start experimenting with this. Although I donā€™t want to damage my FP2, and my plan is to sell it after a couple of weeks.

Not sure if hardening of USB port is required. The other attack Iā€™m aware of, is TEMPEST.

A report by ā€œChina Labor Watchā€ showing the reason for Fairphoneā€™s focus on fair working conditions:
iPhone 11 Illegally Produced in China: Apple Allows Supplier Factory Foxconn to Violate Labor Laws
And the list of violations is quite long; e.g.

  • up to 55% dispatch workers in 2018 and up to 50% in 2019 (though chinese law allows no more than 10%),
  • up to 100 overtime hours a month and
  • the chairman of the labor union is always appointed by the factory, not elected by the workers, and the chairman is always the department leader or manager.

And here ist the List of reports by China Labor Watch

EDIT:
:de: Here is a report on this in the German daily ā€œFrankfurter Allgemeine Zeitungā€
Since I already posted in the German thread three times, I am blocked there temporarily.
Und hier ein Bericht aus der deutschen FAZ.

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This story simply doesnā€™t end. Foxconn is in the press for several years now as there were also workers committing suicide due to bad work and living conditions. It doesnā€™t look like Apple meanwhile would care more and the regulation authorities seem to be looking into the wrong direction for years.

Maybe Fairphone should start an offensive to headhunt those skilled workers.
They would for sure do better under its lead than they do now. With this step it could also weaken Apples production output and ramp up the FP3 production.
Just imagine - this could bring the major shift -> WORLD DOMINATION :wink:

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For completenessā€™ sake:

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This is excellent investigative work by China Labour Watch. I had not known about this organisation. I had thought that it was impossible to know what went on in Foxconn factories because workers are not allowed to talk.

Here is a link to what I found is going on in Cupertino, California, next to Appleā€™s headquarters. It involves contract workers for Apple who work on the software for ā€˜Apple Mapsā€™. : https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-02-11/apple-black-site-gives-contractors-few-perks-little-security This was news to me but it may well be common knowledge to many.

And just in case it is interesting to anyone, here is an article that discusses the problems with subcontracting. I find it quite rare to have opinion articles on computer hardware websites, and I especially appreciate this particular writer: https://www.ultrabookreview.com/27992-subcontracting-worst-kept-secret/

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Bloomberg cannot be trusted anymore.

A while ago I got my partner to switch to a FOSS one (available in F-Droid) but she finds it confusingā€¦ :confused:

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Truly I must say - is there anyone out there still not believing in the fact that the majority of apps share quite more data than they admit to do?

Now letā€™s see if anyone wakes up when itā€™s official that many pay & banking apps are not as secure as advertised.

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Erm, well - actually considering that this story is going on for several years already and since there were plenty of suicides in the past related to Foxconn, Iā€™m sorry to say I cannot see the excellence of the China Labour Watch.

I still remember the scandals from 2015 or so. Thatā€™s when I first heard about it anyway. I have tried on numerous occasions to follow up on progress specifically on factories working for Apple, but apart from one undercover video, I got nothing. There may have been a lot more going on than I knew about of course. This is the first time I have heard about China Labour Watch, but they may well have been the ones that revealed every story until now for all I know.

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4 posts were split to a new topic: Menstruation Apps

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This TEDx video takes its time to illustrate a circular economy model that would be a step further than Fairphone achievements:
Thomas Rau, Turn too, circular economy : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrb2v_f0ZYY
It gets to new stuff from 13".

If we would buy light instead of light-bulbs, the light-bulb producers (and leasers) would be directly interested in saving electricity, and making recyclable light-bulbs.

[I took the URL from a previous @JeroenH post, kept it until I forget where it came from, and finally watch it and decided it back that here was a good place to talk aboutā€¦ So many thanks to @JeroenH]

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Yeah, I already linked it. It is an interesting concept however it also has some twists:

  1. You never know exactly what a second hand device has experienced throughout its life. What did the owner do to it? It has a led a unique life, compared to the dozens of new devices. I can see how this conflicts with Apple, Right To Repair movement, etc. I donā€™t have a simple solution at hand.

  2. This is how ISPs work. They give you a modem (read: router) and you borrow this. Do you think theyā€™re patching it regularly? Do you think youā€™re getting a newer one when it is deemed out of date? No! That is why I bought my own router and WLAN AP. Just the other day I had a teambuilding day with work and we borrowed bicycles. I took one from the Dutch Railways station cause it is cheaper than Rent A Bike. After a few km I notice my back tire is half flat. We bicycled 21 km through the dunes etc. I come back to check out, tell the servicemen ā€œI think you should take a look at the tiresā€ he does and says ā€œjust put it backā€ :man_shrugging:. I feel sorry for the next person who grabs that bike and is going to drive more than a few km with it.

In short, I believe it could very well work for some devices if there is a form of accountability and written agreement on the quality.

Looking forward to what Fairphone is going to do with this idea as theyā€™re going to rent FP3 as well IIRC.

@siltaar glad you liked it :slight_smile:

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The Guardian includes the Fairphone 3 as ā€œthe ethical alternativeā€ in a list of ā€œFive of the best mobile phones ā€“ whatever your budgetā€ ā€¦

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Yet another modular ā€œphoneā€ :

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For those who need a dumbphone, I can recommend a CAT25. It is rugged, and you can remove the battery (later CAT dumbphones donā€™t have the latter feature and run some ā€œsmartā€ OS like KaiOS or w/e it is).

I just donā€™t get the point of adding GSM to such. I would not put a SIM in it anyway. Iā€™ll be buying a Pocketsprite for the family. Thatā€™s the kind of device I would on my keychain if my kid is bored in the train :slight_smile:

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