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What #offthegrid is all about

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Clean lines, cleaner products at the Silent Pocket HQ

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A comprehensive line of leather goods to take you off the grid in style.

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Silent Pocket V2 - The intersection of function and style. Easily block Cellular, Wifi, GPS, Bluetooth, RFID, and NFC in all frequencies. Available at silent-pocket.com

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Leather goods that take you off the grid by Silent Pocket

Beyond a basic RFID wallet, we block out ALL wireless signals preserving privacy, security & identity. Stop GPS tracking and more

14 days left to pre-order our V2 line of products on Kickstarter! Enjoy the 40% discount while it lasts!

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New bundles and wallet add ons. #travelgame @kickstarter #silentkick link in profile ⚡️

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Anonymous Data

Cell phone tracking has gone from is it happening, to who is doing it? After all that has come out in the news it has become very clear that the data on our phones is being captured by third parties. Apps, websites, search engines, even governments, are observing our lives through the digital footprints we leave behind.

When it comes to commercial third parties that are collecting information on us to determine our purchasing patterns, they look at a variety of information. Knowing the type of device you are using, what websites you are browsing and for how long, what you purchase, and where you are when you’re doing all this. The more information they can collect about you the more accurately they can profile you with similar users and sell you to advertisers. If you frequently browse for movies on your phone in the evening, they can target you with an advertisement for the Netflix right there on your phone. This type of targeted advertising is becoming more and more popular and as the demand increases, companies are finding more and more ways to track users.

If you are on a computer surfing the web you are being tracked through cookies. These are small packets of data that collect your activity on a website. When you visit a site and it remembers your credit card, address, or username, it’s because the first time you used the website a cookie was sent to your computer that stored all that information when you entered it.

On you mobile device, tracking happens a bit differently although there also are cookies. Much of the data sold to advertisers come from apps. When you download and install them you accept certain terms which often give the app access to your GPS location, contacts, phone usage details, a whole wealth of information. After collecting the data, it is anonymized before being sold to advertisers. This is to “protect” the privacy of the users, but isn't it too late by then? They may remove my name and other identifying details from GPS locations, but those locations themselves are identifying. Earlier this year a study found that with as little as 3 GPS data points you could identify an individual. And if you tag yourself at restaurants or events on social media, this “anonymous” data can quickly be matched back to a person.

The way I see it, the second my information is collected I have lost some privacy. Making it anonymous before using or selling it doesn't make me rest easy. The more information collected on any anonymous user, the less anonymous they become. I find myself hesitating more and more when interested in downloading an app or turning on location services for something. Is it really worth the loss in privacy? For now it still comes down to the individual app. If it wants my GPS location I tend not to download it, but for those I do download, I feel a bit better knowing that it can’t track me 24/7 since I use a SilentPocket radio frequency blocking case for my phone. Hopefully companies will become more transparent in why they are collecting data and what they do with it. Until then, I’m more concerned about the privacy I may lose, than the benefits the service can provide.

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Smart Watches, Just Another Screen?

If you follow technology you’ll have noticed that more and more companies are starting to produce wearable tech. Some of the products are health related, tracking your movement throughout the day to tell you how many calories you’ve burned, or what your sleep pattern is like. Then they get paired with an app on your mobile device where you can input the specific types of food you eat to get an even better idea of your overall health. There is also Google Glass, which is a pair of glasses that has a tiny screen in the lens as well as a built in camera to allow users to capture whatever they’re looking at. While Google Glass is still a way off from being sold to the public, there is another type of wearable technology that is gaining popularity and is already here.

Smart watches are already available and more are being produced. These watches pair up with your smart phone to let you make phone calls, read and send texts, even take pictures. Essentially they act as a smaller more convenient way to access your phones functions without having to take your phone out of your pocket.

I can see the ease of use that these smart watches offer but I really must ask if it’s necessary. It’s not particularly difficult to pull out your phone and read the messages there. People are already on their phones 24/7, do we really need another screen to distract ourselves with? In some situations making your texts so easy to check could even be dangerous. Take for example, driving. If you get a text on your phone while you are driving you may be tempted to check it but having to take your phone from your pocket and unlock it may be enough to dissuade you from looking right at that moment. But now if that same text message is instantly on your wrist the temptation to read it has no barriers. With distracted driving a large enough issue already, I don’t see this type of technology making the road any safer.

Besides making it easier for drivers to be distracted, smart watches may also pose a privacy threat. Our cell phones store so much of our private data on them that it’s important to limit access to them from the outside. In the past we’ve talked about the ways that criminals can gain access to your smart phone through a variety of methods such as wireless networks. If you pair your phone with a smart watch there is now another way to get to the data on your phone.

Wearable technology does have the potential to improve our lives. The applications of wearable technology in healthcare related services is enormous. But before we even get there we need to make sure that we have a solid framework of privacy and security regulations in place. To me smart watches are a minor convenience that comes at the price of  privacy.

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Healthcare and SilentPocket

In an earlier blog we talked about lawyers and why privacy is a big part of what they do. This week we’re going to look at another industry that takes privacy very seriously. When you talk to your lawyer you expect the conversation and any paperwork to stay private and secure. You have the same expectations when you go talk to a medical professional.  When you email your doctor, receive a test result or update your medical history, you don’t want any of that information getting out.

For doctors, nurses, or any healthcare professional there are pages and pages of regulations that specifically address how digital information should be stored, encrypted, sent to holding and insurance companies, and even shared with patients. The entire system is designed to keep your private medical information secure. This is all well and good when it comes to computer systems and databases, but what about mobile devices? The way we access this information is changing. There are now apps that allow you to log into your healthcare provider on your phone to send messages to your doctor, check medical exams, book appointments, renew prescriptions, etc. This information may be stored securely but it can be accessed from a device that isn’t very secure.

If you connect to an open wireless network to check your healthcare portal, or send an email to your physician, the information could be scanned and copied as you send it. More than likely, your phone is automatically connecting to any available wireless network it can to be able to check your email, and send you status updates for your apps. Since you aren’t looking at your phone 24/7 or constantly turning on/off wireless, the easiest solution is to use a SilentPocket®  case when you aren’t on your device. By doing so you make your device unhackable, and don’t need to worry about private information leaking off your phone.

The same is true for physicians. They likely have their work email stored on their phone to be able to respond to patients when urgent matters come up. Patients surely appreciate the increased availability and communication offered by doctors using their mobile devices, but they don’t want to sacrifice security to get it. The SilentPocket® case ensures that your phones sensitive information is safe and secure. With mobile technology allowing both patients and medical professionals to access sensitive information from anywhere, we need to make sure we are taking the necessary steps to keep that data secure. 

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SilentPocket for Lawyers

Every now and then we get asked by friends or customers how SilentPocket can benefit them in their lives. The short answer is that a SilentPocket product lets you take back control over when your data can be accessed. You determine when and where your GPS signal can be tracked or when your RFID chip is exposed and scannable. The goal of today’s blog is to take a lawyer and look at the ways that they might use SilentPocket. If you want to know how SilentPocket fits into your life, feel free to reach out to us on twitter, facebook, email, or in the comments below.

Everything a lawyer does is private and confidential. If it wasn’t, you probably wouldn’t be comfortable discussing your finances, future plans, or current problems with them. So protecting that privacy is a big priority for the lawyer. When it comes to protecting physical copies of documents and legal forms, it’s pretty straight forward. Locked file cabinets and shredding discarded documents will cover you pretty well. However, legal documents don’t just come on paper anymore. Copies of documents can be made into Word Documents, PDFs, or any other file type. By being digital you can easily share these documents between yourself and your client. This means that revisions can be emailed back and forth instead of constantly scheduling meetings in person or over the phone. However, a digital copy is much easier to steal, and unlike a piece of paper, you don’t know when it’s been stolen. An email to or from your phone can be snagged by hackers in a variety of ways. The most popular is through free unprotected wireless networks in public places like coffee shops or airports. Any email sent to or from your phone while connected to these networks can be copied. You won’t even know it’s happened because the recipient still gets the email. Many phones automatically search for open wireless networks to connect to, and with this connection a hacker can gain access to your phones emails and contacts. The last thing you want as a lawyer is someone contacting your clients and using information they found in your emails to trick and scam your clients into sending money, or revealing personal details they can sell to 3rd parties. By using a SilentPocket® cell phone case your device becomes unhackable. Nobody can connect to your device while it’s in the case and you can relax knowing that your files are on hand and secure.

Beyond offering security for your data, SilentPocket® has another added benefit. When sitting down and meeting with your clients you want to convey the utmost professionalism. Having your phone ring or notify you of a new email is rude and shows your client you aren’t 100% focused on them. So when you’ve got a meeting, you simply put your phone inside a SilentPocket® case and you’re done. While inside no phone calls, texts, or emails will reach your phone. This ensures that all your attention is on the client in front of you. 

So in these day to day activities for a lawyer SilentPocket offers a few important uses. It helps to protect any confidential data on mobile devices from being accessed by unknown 3rd parties. Additionally it removes the distraction from your phone in face to face situations, ensuring that you are focused on your clients.  

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Recovering Privacy

Losing and replacing your phone these days can be a huge inconvenience because of what we store on our mobile devices. It’s not always just us losing the phone, sometimes it’s been stolen, either to be sold or mined for data. With information like your credit card and banking apps, if a criminal can get onto your phone, they can cause you a lot of financial grief. If they can’t get into your phone, they can still resell your device. Many smartphones are worth hundreds of dollars, even used. However, with a few smart choices, you can now make replacing your phone a much easier task. 

Probably the first thing you think of losing and needing to replace when you have a new phone is your contacts list. In the past SIM cards used to be swapped from one phone to the next and your contacts could be stored on them. Now though, it seems like every new phone comes with a newer SIM card. So instead of storing contacts on a physical chip that probably won’t be used in your next device, now you can store all that information online. You can tie your contacts to a google account, apple id, or even with your carrier. No more manually entering old contacts while looking at your old phone, or creating those Facebook groups that ask your friends to post their numbers in a not so private environment. So if you haven’t already, update your contacts list to be stored online, and the next time you’re swapping phones you’re just a sync away from being back where you left off. This concept of storing your information in the cloud is also being used for apps, pictures, browser bookmarks, almost everything on your phone.

So thanks to the cloud, recovering data is super easy. Before you know it, you’ll be back to where you were. But what about the data that is on that old phone? Even if it wasn’t stolen and you simply lost it, you probably don’t want someone finding it and looking through pictures or whatever other private information you have. Of course the easiest solution is to lock your phone with some sort of password. This will stop most people from getting into your phone, unless they really are after your information. Along these lines you don’t want to save all your passwords on your phone. Remembering passwords can be a pain, but for banking or healthcare apps, which are very personal and private, don’t let your phone store the password. Depending on the maker of your phone, or the carrier, you can now remotely access and wipe your information, call the phone, or simply track its location remotely. You may even be able to lock your phone down so much that it effectively becomes a technological brick. This way it’s not even worth reselling.

With the proper planning you can significantly reduce the hassle and worry that comes with losing and replacing your phone. It’s not all about recovering your data after the fact though. You want to also protect yourself while you have your phone. Much of the data on your phone can be pulled off wirelessly either through apps, RFID, NFC, or connecting to malicious free wireless networks. In previous blogs we’ve covered how you can use RF blocking cases like SilentPocket to protect yourself right now. Paired with the technology we talked about today, you can be sure your phones data is secure and in your control.

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Moving Digital

The move to digital media has been a slow and steady march over the years. What began with digital pictures and the ability to download songs has exploded to include movies, games, newspapers, books, and much more. How this digital content has changed a lot over the years with many different delivery methods evolving. While some love the convenience offered by digital, many still want the option of a physical good.

Before we look at a few different ways that digital content is delivered, let’s look at one switch to digital that many people feel very differently about. When you think of a book you get a very clear image in your head. The feel, shape, even smell of books has existed for hundreds of years and is something loved by many.  When it comes to the functionality of books, the digital has a many advantages. They can be carried around on a phone, tablet, or any reader. This means you can fit hundreds of books in the same space that 1 single physical book would take up in your bag. Besides just portability, digital books allow you to search through the text, write notes, increase or decrease font size, and they tend to have a slightly lower price. Yet even with all these benefits I, like many others, still prefer the physical version for no real reason. I just like books. Maybe it’s just because I grew up with the physical version.

The change from physical to digital is most noticeable when it comes to forms or written media like books, magazines, or newspapers. When it comes to music or video, people don’t tend to hold on to their nostalgia of the physical as strongly. Maybe this has to do with the content itself already being digital but put on a physical disc or tape. 

A big part of digital is how you get access to the music or book, and how much you’re paying for it. For a long time the internet has had this sense that things online should be free. With tools like torrents and file sharing sites, it certainly is possible to get almost anything for free. However, this is a huge problem for content providers, and they’ve created many different formats to monetize their content. There are really three main payment methods available to customers that can all be seen from digital music marketplaces. First up you the classic pay per item model that you can see on markets like iTunes. Here you pay for a license that allows you to own that item. Next you have a subscription plan, such as Spotify, where you pay a monthly fee to have access to an entire library of content. However, unlike purchasing the license to individual items, you don’t own any of the content you consume. Then there are free platforms, such as Pandora, that allow you to listen to for free, but you get ads played every so often. 

By going digital there are often less parties between the customer and the content creator. Sometimes this results in lower prices, as there are much lower distribution costs, but it’s not always the case. Video games, for example, are priced the same as their physical copies. So while price is often a benefit, I see the convenience of buying a digital product once, and then being able to access it from anywhere as the main draw. The move to digital is unavoidable, and once everyone has high speed internet, I think we'll see even more content delivered digitally. 

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Public Privacy

In a previous blog I talked about some possible benefits that could come from a reduction of privacy on the internet. By removing the anonymous usernames and requiring everyone use their name I believe that interactions would drastically change in a positive manner. This made me wonder if people would change their actions in a similar way offline, if their privacy in public wasn’t so private.   With cameras on every smartphone, our actions can already be captured at any moment. Technology like GoogleGlass will make surveillance even easier since the camera is already out and ready to capture a moment. Then add in cameras that are setup by private or government organizations and we are being watched more often than not.

  My first reaction to all this surveillance is to resist it, to fight for my privacy. Hearing arguments that say if I have nothing to hide I shouldn’t have anything to worry about, only make me dislike it more. If I’m not doing anything wrong why am I being watched? When the NSA scandal hit not too long ago, everyone was shocked and upset about being monitored. This isn’t really that new of a concept though. Some areas in our country already have video cameras in public places to monitor high crime areas, read and process license plates, all setup and monitored by the government. In addition to the government cameras, many private organizations have surveillance networks of their own. Stores, and businesses have had cameras for years but nobody complains about them watching us. They do this to dissuade people from behaving in certain ways. If you know you’re being watched and can be identified, you are less likely to try to steal something from a store for example. So in this way, less privacy has a positive impact overall. Now let’s expand this surveillance through cell phone cameras to streets, parks, anywhere that people are. Would we see a reduction in crime rates because the chances of criminals being caught in the act are higher? Or would we simply see a change in the types of crimes committed? To an extent I think we’re already seeing crime adapting. To steal someone’s credit card you don’t exactly need to snatch a purse anymore. With RFID chips you can scan the information off the card just by passing by someone. Even with cameras watching it would be pretty hard to detect this type of crime. 

Now I'm not saying we setup cameras everywhere, because I still do want privacy in public places, but I do think that we're already seeing this sense of privacy change. We've always been observed by our peers in public, what is changing is that now it's becoming easier to go from observing to recording. Cameras are becoming smaller and more discrete, allowing for someone to capture an embarrassing moment without you even knowing. When a private organization records you, it's usually to monitor activity to ensure there aren't break-ins or thefts. When a peer in public takes a picture or recording, it'll probably end up on the internet where the whole world can see it. Now this could be both good and bad. Maybe you trip over and someone now has a picture of it online. Not the end of the world, but still not something you want captured and shared. However, maybe you're wearing GoogleGlass while driving and capture someone swerving in an out of traffic. Now you have a video identifying their license plate and behavior, which you can send to the authorities. If everyone has the capability to capture moments like that, people will begin to act differently. Maybe drivers will be more conscious of their road-rage if they know it's being watched.  

This change in public privacy is happening. I'm very interested to see how we adjust as a society to the increased social accountability that will come with everything we do. It will also be interesting to see what people to do preserve their privacy in places that are private, but are now increasingly public.

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Privacy and Anonymity Online

Privacy and Anonymity often go hand in hand when talking about internet privacy. Most of the time these discussions occur when bills like SOPA appear and try to remove the anonymity of users online. In the past I’ve been completely against removing this essential safeguard to our privacy. However, I’ve recently started to think that removing the ability to be anonymous might not be so terrible, especially for our online culture.

If you’ve ever taken the time to glance through comments of a YouTube video, Reddit post, Tweet, or anywhere that allows people to post their opinions, you’ll know that it’s very back and forth about the type of responses people will write. You’ll see the occasional thoughtful comment that truly tries to further a discussion, either by contributing new information or giving constructive feedback on what they felt could be improved. There are also the comments that thank the author of the material for entertaining or informing them, which are always great to see. However, just like reviews, the people most likely to respond are those who are either dissatisfied or very pleased. More often than not its people who aren’t happy with something that will be motivated enough to voice their displeasure. Even though they may be a minority, they are a very vocal minority, and can often appear to be the majority because many of those who enjoyed a video or article don’t feel the need to write something as simple as Thank You. 

So what does any of that have to do with anonymity? Well, by being able to post behind a username that doesn’t link back to you in the “real world” people will often forgo with social etiquette and say things they wouldn’t if the person was in front of them. Now imagine that instead of a username people were required to post with their full name. I think you would see a huge change in the types of comments left. You would still get comments from people who are unhappy with the content but they wouldn’t be to the extremes they are now. For example, Call of Duty is an incredibly popular video game that recently changed the timing on a few of its weapons for balancing reasons by tenths of a second. This change resulted in death threats made to members of the development team responsible for these tweaks. It’s this kind of disgusting behavior is only aided by anonymity. I don’t think that requiring people to post with their name would eliminate this, but I do think that it would drastically reduce such instances.  

I would also argue that the very anonymity that we fight to protect doesn’t really exist anymore. Whenever you create a new account to post on a forum or whatever, you are prompted for two key pieces of information that can be more identifying than you think. These are a username and an email. Both of these are often publically visible, although sometimes you can hide the email address. After years and years of accounts you probably have used the same username and email over and over again. Now if someone wants to figure out who the person is behind a username, a quick google search for either the email or username can yield other accounts you’ve made, which might have more information associated with them, or can lead to your social media profiles. With the amount of information we willingly put on these social accounts, once someone has found it, you suddenly aren’t very anonymous anymore. 

For me, I still go back and forth about the pros and cons of having usernames. On one hand, I want to keep the privacy that is offered by them. On the other hand, I don’t like how that anonymity is being abused by people because there is no ramification for their actions. I’d like to see some kind of accountability for online actions, but finding a compromise that also protects people’s privacy is not easy.