Librem Phone Security Minded Feature Customer Requests

Hardware Librem 5
1

I have been following the librem phone software and hardware development news and the teams philosophy and i would like to highlight a few items i haven’t seen mentioned anywhere yet and that would be really important from a user perspective.


As a privacy minded phone user the following out of the box features would be essential and as important as the hardware switches that you are offering to turn of the microphone, or the camera.


  1. VPN for all data and voice data connections initially based on open VPN support, add others later, VPN for WIFI, and mobile DATA (4G, LTE) in other words.
  2. Setting DNS name lookup servers centrally again for WIFI and mobile DATA and allowing easy override or change.
  3. With 1. and 2. allow saving and setting connection user profiles that will configure all IPs based on desired outcome so one configuration could be do homework with minimal security, or call your mom again with minimal security while send your passport photo to a website select profile with maximum security and encryption (profile switching should also be easy).
  4. Allow voice over IP connections again out of the box by partnering with a VOIP provider, i feel that this is more secure for voice conversations then using standard voice protocols.
  5. In the phone allow unlock via NFC Yubikey hardware Token or finger print scanner, upon restart do not allow unlock unless the long password is entered. Throughout the phone allow complex and long passwords to be used.
  6. Offer out of the box password support by partnering with app makers such as psafe https://www.pwsafe.org
2

At least regarding #4, Purism has partnered with Matrix to offer decentralized, encrypted communications, including VOIP.

Other users have definitely also suggested Yubikey functionality and connection profiles (points 5 and 3), but I don’t think I’ve seen anything official from Purism.

I doubt everything can make it into the Librem 5 Rev 1. Purism needs to focus on actually making the world’s first (successful) Linux (not Android) phone. There will be some compromises in the first model, but once the groundwork is laid and some supplier relationships are formed, the focus can shift to improving and adding features. Anything software-only can be provided via updates, while new hardware will obviously have to wait for an updated model.

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