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gruez 8 days ago

Yeah, otherwise the bad guys can just wait till you're not looking at your phone, reflash your it with a backdoored version, and wait for you to unlock it (evil maid attack).

BobaFloutist 8 days ago | parent [-]

>the bad guys can just wait till you're not looking at your phone, reflash your it with a backdoored version

I hate it when the bad guys do this to my phone

Arch-TK 8 days ago | parent [-]

The bad guys e.g. the police detaining you during a protest and temporarily seizing your property, or the border police "scanning" your phone.

codedokode 8 days ago | parent [-]

If your phone was in hands of police you better sell it anyway because they could install a physical GPS tracker, etc. So locked bootloader doesn't change much.

Also if you live in a truly democratic country you don't even need to set the PIN code - your rights are protected by the law.

Arch-TK 8 days ago | parent | next [-]

It would be relatively difficult to add a physical GPS tracker to a modern phone. Also, it's unnecessary, the government just needs to take a note of the IMSI and/or IMEI and then use the cell tower records to track you (rather accurately I should add).

The problem is not the tracking inherent in the design of mobile telephony networks, which you can circumvent by using burner phones. The problem is for example abuse of tools such as cellebrite to gain warrantless access to your phone at various opportunities.

This is also why proper baseband isolation is important. Baseband firmware is unaudited and likely to have government backdoors.

If the government wants to surveil me, they'll have to put in some actual effort instead of just taking opportunities.

baybal2 7 days ago | parent [-]

[dead]

ThePowerOfFuet 8 days ago | parent | prev [-]

>a physical GPS tracker

Every mobile phone already is one.