I’ve been thinking about this for a bit but I couldn’t come up with anything.
The idea is that you have a VOIP number and some self-hosted VOIP infrastructure connected to a landline phone. WhatsApp, Signal and voice traffic from other apps would be redirected to this landline phone instead of your mobile phone.
Is there a way to do this? How do I get started?
Reasoning: I can now keep my phone isolated, wrapped in a thick towel and inside a solid box to prevent it from eavesdropping on me inside my own house.
Please do not respond with messages like “you’re too paranoid”, it doesn’t help.
Thanks
You could use a computer with a headset as a linked device, that’s the closest I can think of.
Hmm, do you think there’s a way to have the ringing happen on the speakers but the conversation on the headphones? TBH if this is possible then I don’t need to use such complicated measures
If you’re on the pc you can just switch audio output to your speakers, then run to your pc and switch audio output to headphones to proceed with the call
You can bridge it through e.g. Twilio but it will add latency that makes the voice calls less pleasant. You’re better off with a phone that has a microphone kill switch, or physically remove the microphones (hack the hardware) and only use an external mic. Or power down the phone altogether.
As somebody else mentioned, using a computer and just taking calls there would work and give you solid control over microphone activation etc. If you really want the landline experience, look into adding a USB handset to that setup. It’ll just act like a mic and headphone from your computer but in the classic phone form factor
Yeah, Snowden himself says he desolders microphone and camera on his devices. I’m sure a pc with no mic and cam would do just fine. Or go the desolder route. You can use Signal on a burner phone for the initial setup and then take the battery out so now you just have Signal on your presumably private linux pc with nothing on there.
Haven’t had landlines in a long time but when I did I remember looking at cordless phones with Bluetooth to connect to your cell phone so you can answer both phones (cell phone and landline) on the handset. Beyond that look into pbx.
Why not use the clients for Pc?
Wrapped in towel inside solid box? Would wifi or 4g work then reliably?
I’m not putting it in a Faraday cage, just preventing it from listening and seeing anything. I’ll place it closer to my WAP if it needs it
Might be easiest to just drill out the mic and camera, and use a usb headset for calls. I also suggest specific threat modelling and learning about opsec as that may help you feel more in control. After that, please look after your mental well-being. We all should.
