Is $629 for a secure Blackphone too much for your budget? Perhaps the $129 Moto E handset is a good second choice, provided you do a little hardware hacking and install an app freely available in the Google Play Store.
I noticed this setup on Hacker News, which points to a project explaining how to cut down on your phone’s sensors, microphone and camera from remotely being used against you. As the project notes, this doesn’t add Blackphone-like encryption, but instead “is a quick hack for using SnoopSnitch for alerting that you may be under some kind of active surveillance and to enable sharing that data with the wider community.”
Motorola‘s Moto E was chosen for the instructions because it’s relatively inexpensive and simple to take apart. And you’ll need to do just that — take it apart to remove the device’s sensors and camera modules. After that, some effort on the software side is needed to gain root access, replace the phone’s bootloader process and install SnoopSnitch.
That software constantly monitors communications on your phone to alert you to mobile network security issues, fake cellular base stations and more. You can also upload and share such data with others.
SnoopSnitch works on any rooted phone running stock Google Android 4.1 or higher, provided the handset uses a Qualcomm baseband radio chip. So you don’t need to operate on a handset or use a Moto E; it’s simply a low-cost, easy-to-hack option.


