Possibility of Privacy-Respecting Apps with the Librem 5

Hardware Librem 5
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I’ve witnessed friends using the duopoly apps for “find my friends” or whatever names they have for tracking the phones of friends and family. Some people really like these apps, and I can see the value in them. For example, if a roommate is going on a first date, they could tell you to watch their location to help them feel safe.

The problem is, it’s not only your friends and family who are tracking your location. That data is being sold to basically whoever is interested in stalking your whereabouts for profit.

Imagine though, two people who own Librem 5s. A Librem 5 (theoretically) could privately track its location (without relying on the internet) and send encrypted messages (over XMPP) to another Librem 5, that could view where the friend is going. Completely private “find my friend”. This is not possible with duopoly devices. I think there are other examples of apps that could exist eventually for Librem 5 that will never be possible using the competition. I’m excited for the future of freedom for the Librem 5.

EDIT: Maybe this won’t work, because the internet connection could be used to track location. Anyway, the thought made me happy for a moment :stuck_out_tongue:

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How do you mean “without relying on the internet” here? Would not sending those XMPP messages be done using the internet?

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The location tracking is done without relying on the internet, but the XMPP would require the internet.

Maybe that would defeat the whole “privacy-respecting” aspect of it, since the cellular connection could be used to triangulate location.

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The problem is… our location and cell signal is still tracked by “someone”, even on the L5, but maybe not as much

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While true and essentially unavoidable when using the mobile network, that doesn’t go to the heart of the OP’s point.

As I see it, there are two ways of addressing the OP’s need:

  1. Someone provides a privacy-respecting “find my friends” service.
  2. Specific person-to-person arrangements. This appears to be closer to what the OP proposes, and seems to be relatively doable.

I think a significant challenge with any implementation is that mobile devices are in general behind IPv4 CGNAT. So communication between two mobile devices often requires a third party to mediate the communication. So you end up trusting that third party at least to some extent. (You are not necessarily trusting the third party regarding the content of the communication because that might be e2ee.)

I would also observe that …

we need to be careful with overselling this. Criminals - and the populace as a whole - are slowly working out that mobile phones are really just tracking devices that happen to be able to make phone calls.

So the smart criminal who is maybe abducting your roommate, would leave the victim’s phone at the place where the date took place (and of course not bring his or her own phone at all).

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