One thing I’d like to see in the next Librem phone is location freezing (telling apps that you’re still “here”, when you’re actually “there”), aliasing (jumping “there” instantly), and replay (infinitely looping over a previous journey).
Location freezing is a crude tool that would go a long way to promoting privacy and security. Ordinary citizens are being increasingly compelled or coerced into installing untrustworthy apps on their phones, not only from governments and corporations, but from their own uncontrollable social media urges. Location freezing would allow them to do so while sustaining the appearance of location stability. For example, you’re only allowed to stay within the green zone, but you want to visit the red one. You just need to freeze yourself at the pizza place in the green zone so you can have an extended “lunch break” while you go visit your friend’s place across town. Just make sure to return to the same exact spot before disabling freezing and returning to your designated abode.
Location aliasing is more powerful than freezing because it allows you to “be” anywhere, so you can see how the information landscape changes with your alleged geolocation. This is potentially useful for shaking up search results that suffer from local biases, for one thing. I’m sure you can think of plenty of other applications as well. The only downside is the sudden obvious movement, but this proposal is more about progressively better location privacy than any magic solution.
Location replay takes this to the next level by convincing most apps (and probably humans) that you’re going about your same old daily routine. It just loops over a previously recorded session (which needs to start and end in the same location to avoid telltale jumps). To exit the loop, migrate back to its currently claimed location, disable replay, then resume true location reporting.
All of these methods would benefit from jitter which mimics one’s personal fidgity behavior, such that the jitter distribution could be learned over a training session that captures one’s minor movements over a period of time, including vertical motion if applicable. This is just thinking down the road, though. For now, even just freezing would offer a huge leap in privacy.
We could take this to the end of the rainbow with enhancements like fake route execution, fake vehicle behavior, and so forth, but I thought I should raise the idea. I’m sure this has been contemplated and indeed done in various forms before, but perhaps it should just be built in to the phone from the getgo.
Perhaps this should be considered a “Fund Your App” proposal, even though it would have to be closer to the kernel.
Comments?