How secure will the new “conservative” Freedom Phone actually be?
We’ve been getting questions about the imminent new launch of a product called the “Freedom Phone”. So we took a peek to see if it’s a safe purchase or something else.
Summary: Assuming this is a genuine product and not some sort of parody or joke – from a cybersecurity perspective, we cannot recommend using a phone where so little is currently known about how it operates. Our biggest concerns lie within the bespoke App Store – PatriApp – that bills itself as “uncensorable” and which will “never ban an app period”, and how would such an App Store prevent bad actor apps from infiltrating users with malware or other undesirable software. Additionally we would want to know what version of Android the OS uses on this phone as there are indications it will be running an outdated version. If you purchase this phone at this stage, you do so at your own risk.
We have reached out to Freedom Phone and are awaiting a response.
What is the Freedom Phone?
The Freedom Phone is being pitched to those that distrust “Big Tech”, specifically Americans who believe “Big Tech” is censoring conservatives. The sales pitch of the video inevitably references the ban imposed on former President Donald Trump by social media platforms.
The founder of the phone is Erik Finman, a self-proclaimed Bitcoin millionaire. Erik claims the Freedom Phone will come with an “uncensorable” app store that comes with unprecedented privacy and doesn’t spy on its users.
The Freedom Phone will, according to its website, come pre-loaded with a number of popular conservative apps including Parler, OANN, Rumble and NewsMax.
The Freedom Phone is currently sold at the FreedomPhone.com website though it will not be released until August, the site claims.
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The Specs
Perhaps the most startling thing here is that there have been no technical specs released whatsoever despite the phone shipping next month, other than a handful of generic features that the phone will possess.
We know the phone will have a 6-inch screen, a “great” camera, “large” storage and have a MicroSD and SD slot.
Nothing is known currently about processor (CPU), memory, the camera, the display type and resolution, weight, chipset, graphics, dimensions, Wi-Fi standards, available colours or speakers.
The hardware
It’s likely that many of the above questions will be answered once we know what the actual handset will be.
While large, established companies like Apple, Sony and Samsung will have considerable involvement when building their own products and choosing what components go inside, less established (or start-up) companies are not likely to have that luxury.
In which case such companies will usually need to license a pre-existing handset (with some possible minor modifications) and this appears to be the case with the Freedom Phone. Again it has not been released exactly which handset the Freedom Phone is, but judging by what we do know and the images released on the Freedom Phone website, a leading contender is the UMIDIGI A9 Pro. UMIDIGI is a smartphone manufacturer from China.
The above side-by-side shows many similarities between the models including the placement of buttons and screen size.
(Of course it should be noted that if it is this model, the UMIDIGI A9 retails for about a third of the price of the Freedom Phone, which means much of the cost of the Freedom Phone is apparently geared towards paying for the software.)
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Software
The operating system on the Freedom Phone has been dubbed FreedomOS. It is a modified version of the Android operating system.
We have seen GitHub development notes that suggest this modified FreedomOS will be based on Android 7.1.1. This is not confirmed but if it turns out to be the case this would be a significant security issues since this operating system has not been supported by the developer (Google) for a number of years.
An Uncensored App Store
It is unclear whether the Google Play store would be able to run on this phone given its claims about privacy, meaning users may be forced to use the bespoke App Store that comes with the phone which according to the sales video is called PatriApp.
PatriApp will, again according to the sales video, never ban an app. Our primary issue with that is that if taken literally, the app store will not provide any filtering to prevent malicious apps such as spyware, trojan apps, ransomware or keyloggers from installing themselves onto a phone, meaning users will be at considerable risk of becoming infected with malware.
If the PatriApp app store does indeed attempt to detect and filter out bad actor apps, it is not clear how effective it will be when compared to established app stores that have dedicated teams to ensuring their stores remain safe.
(We could find no further information on PatriApp on the Internet, and it doesn’t appear to be connected to the Patriapp.org website.)
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How will the phone prevent apps from collecting information about users?
It is of course true that many apps, especially social media apps, collect information about users. What is not clear is how the Freedom Phone and its software will prevent much of this information being collected.
While a modified OS designed to enhance privacy could aim to prevent apps from collecting excessive information, many apps may not work if the OS restricts them to any meaningful degree.
On standard Android and iPhone devices, users can turn off some data-sucking features such as location tracking and access to a user’s phone contacts. Given that, it just isn’t clear how the Freedom Phone can go that much further while still keeping those apps operational.
If you want to buy the phone, we’d still wait a little longer.
The primary issue here is a lack of information. Established brands will publish detailed information about software and hardware long before a device ships, and that hasn’t been the case here.
While some test models have been shipped out to conservative social media influencers, we’re not aware of any technology bloggers having the phone so it can be reviewed or dissected.
Given that the Freedom Phone bills itself as a brand-new phone (despite using a pre-existing handset and Android software) it is important that users know they will be safe when operating the device. At this stage no pertinent information is known, and that could be a big red flag in terms of how secure and private the phone ultimately is.
While those behind the phone have used anti-censorship as a reoccurring theme in the sales material, there are many important security-themed factors to consider, and there is little indication that those factors have been taken into account at this stage.
Given the above, coupled with the fact that so little information exists on the technical specification, there also lies the possibility that this is some type of prank or parody. In that respect, only time will tell.
We have reached out with a number of questions to Freedom Phone and will update if we receive a response.
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