Find My Freedom Phone

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Text for the NLnet NGI MobiFree application form (https://nlnet.nl/propose/).

Proposal submission code: 2024-10-358

Contact information

• Mr Julian Foad
• ...
• Trax.im / Rooted Software Ltd.
• UK

General project information

• "Find My Freedom Phone"
• https://lab.trax.im/findmyfreedomphone/findmyfreedomphone

Abstract: whole project & outcomes

A solution for ordinary people to find their lost Freedom Phone or track and disable it if stolen. Ready to use, easy, reliable.

Big Tech's "Find my phone" is user-friendly but authoritarian. Current Freedom Tech options demand too much up-front effort. This project bridges the gap.

It builds on existing freedom tech such as FindMyDevice, KDE-Connect, UnifiedPush. It overcomes two hurdles: (1) removing the need to choose, install, configure and grant permissions to the device software, by integrating it into a freedom phone operating system; (2) connecting to a service provider by default, without further set-up, if pre-configured by the device or OS distribution provider. Device owners retain freedom to choose a different provider or rely on their own resources.

The project will publish its APIs and protocols, to enable open development of interoperable alternatives to its components such as device functions (GPS access, camera access, and so on), connection transports (including push notification) and remote-access GUI.

Outcomes: proof-of-concept implementation; documented APIs and protocols; blog posts; outreach to potentially interested Freedom Phone organisations.

Prior involvement

A little experimentation, building and self-hosting projects in this scene including FMD & FMD-server, /e/OS, LineageOS, F-Droid & F-Droid-server, UnifiedPush & ntfy-server; small contributions to documentation, bug reports and discussions.

Requested support

• €xxx

Labour: 256 hours(research and development, 16 h/week for 16 weeks) x €xxx/hour: €xxx.

Capital: possibly 1 or 2 additional freedom phones, second-hand, for testing: say €240.

This project has no other funding sources.

Compare

Main comparison: FindMyDevice (FMD) by Nulide. FMD with optional FMD-server implements a lot of the expected functionality. As FMD on the device side is a regular app, to grant permissions for its system-level functions the owner must perform contortions beyond an ordinary person's patience. The FMD-server, which can be self-hosted, has two purposes: storing device location reports, and providing a GUI for the remote functions. FMD's connection transport modes include SMS, and FMD-server which uses TCP/IP and push notifications over UnifiedPush. To set up SMS, the owner specifies a pass-code and/or trusted sender phone numbers. To set up FMD-server, the owner must keep track of credentials both for the server and for each device (as the server doesn't). With this all configured, then the owner can access the device functions through SMS or their chosen FMD-server.

The comparison with KDEConnect is similar. KDEConnect provides a different range of remote-access functions, oriented to desktop-environment integration like clipboard sharing, rather than device management, but includes "ring the device". It requires similar contortions to grant permissions for its Android app. Rather than a dedicated server component, KDEConnect works peer-to-peer between mobile and desktop devices, running its transport over TCP/UDP.

The comparison with the Big Tech duopoly is illuminating. They more or less require a single sign-in to their authoritative service when setting up their devices, and in order to continue using them. No additional action is then required of their user in advance to activate the device finding functions.

Technical Challenges

Working with AOSP device management functions, and testing such work.

Setting up whole-OS build environment (LineageOS and/or /e/OS).

Ecosystem

Main ecosystem researched is android-compatibles (LineageOS, Murena-/e/OS, CalyxOS, GrapheneOS, and more). We will reach out and solicit help and involvement from them, and try to show and integration that they could adopt, and ask for their review and feedback. There are precedents: CalyxOS developed SeedVault backup which is being adopted by others, and UnifiedPush adoption is steadily growing.

Other freedom-phone ecosystems include GNU-Linux-compatibles (PostmarketOS, Purism-Librem...) and SailfishOS (Jolla). Not sure if they have any "Find my phone" functionality yet. We will let them known about it and see if there is interest from their side, as the technology should be cross-platform.

Attachments

(none)