Research

Research for Find My Freedom Phone

Freedom Tech

Freedom Tech assumes the person owning a smartphone may wish to have ultimate authority over it.

Freedom Tech solutions to such problems tend to let the user choose one or more sources of limited authority, from among options such as a service provider, a personal server, another device owned by the same person, or a friend's device.

Freedom Tech has not yet made much technology to Find/Control My Device. There are some ad-hoc user-installable apps. There are no standards or widely implemented systems.

Ad-hoc apps:

These are the two most relevant options among freedom software.

Freedom Tech mobile-OS organisations that may take an interest:

This list includes most prominent organisations dedicated to this area.

Big Tech

Big Tech assumes we log in to their services as a core part of operating our smartphone. They set up their services as a higher authority, with power to remotely control our devices.

Remote functions typically including ring, track, lock/disable, and erase.

Big Tech solutions can give us insights into use cases, methods for ensuring reliability, and security practices such as limiting abuse.

However, Big Tech's solutions suit Big Tech's business model: they depend on their ubiquity and their control, and in return for the convenience these functions let the business track and monitor and control the people. For example, Bluetooth beacon tracking depends on a vast number of people's devices all reporting to the same service provider, while the remote control functions depend on people assigning full authority over their devices to that particular business. Not only the personal "owner" of a device but also the business that controls it can therefore perform any of the remote actions. The people are not free to delegate this power to a different authority.