Why should you soundproof your phone?
Privacy is ultimately about control. Governments and corporations want us to give up our privacy, so that they can predict our behavior through sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI). Plus, do you really want a stranger listening in on your dinner conversation? You may say “I’ve got nothing to hide”, but saying this is tantamount to “I’ve got nothing to say.”
Even if you believe that you’re just a drop in the ocean, (AI) works by picking up on pattern recognition1, and is able to then steer consumer behavior by predicting how people will react. More people blabbering and telling AI all of their secrets, along with seamingly innocent banter, only adds to the rich data set of AI, allowing us to be more easily manipulated. You may say you’re just one person, but the whole ocean is contained in every drop.
"Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say."
-Edward Snowden
Governments and corporations spy on us all the time2, and can even listen in on our calls by tapping into our microphone when the phone is off, or on airplane mode. Some phones may even have malicious spyware installed that makes it look like our phones are on airplane mode but in actuality are remotely switched on.
Combine this with the fact that the Iphone 12 can communicate through the C-band spectrum, which is part of the electromagnetic spectrum used by the US military, and your life becomes water cooler conversation for the nerds at NSA (no such agency).
Did you know that the Iphone 12 has 3 microphones?
What’s a Faraday cage?
Ever wonder how an airplane can be struck by lightning, and not be destroyed?
This is due to the electrocial law of conductance. Electrical currents are distributed along the aircraft’s aluminum hull, and remain on the surface, without having a damaging effect on the plane’s interior.
The faraday cage gets its name from Michael Faraday, who in 1836 observed in his experiments that an electrical conductor (such as a metal cage), when charged, exhibited that charge only on its surface.
Certain shielded bed canopies work on the faraday cage principle, however we must remember that there are a plethora of frequencies that cannot always be blocked, along with magnetic fields that have not only been shown to penetrate lead, but can also be exacerbated especially if there are any imperfections in the shielding fabric. This is a prime reason why EMF shielding may not always work:
Is a tin box a Faraday cage?
This depends. In the video I said that we weren’t building a faraday cage, but technically speaking, my standard tin box cancels any cellular frequency coming into the box, so it is a type of Faraday cage. However there are many different types of faraday cages that are able to cancel various types of frequencies, and some that are built by the military are even able to withstand the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) of a nuclear bomb blast. My anti-spy box only cancels the frequency of the cellular network.
Since 2017, I would keep our phone in a tin that I got from the dollar store, as this would disrupt the EMF signal from a cell tower to our phone. I had the peace of mind knowing that our phone wouldn’t turn on in the middle of the night and install some kind of update I didn’t want. More importantly this was a foolproof way to prevent our phone from emitting any EMF at night, disturbing my sleep.
An added bonus to having our phone in its tin bedroom was that I could only be woken up by a call in the middle of the night on my landline, like in the movies, except not by a high profile action hero, but by an annoying, but beloved, family-member or friend who had my private number.
Recently
indirectly inspired me to take it up a notch and make this box soundproof. It’s an amateur attempt I’ll admit. However after 3 hours of adjusting playdough, cutting out cardboard insulation, and testing the quality of the Iphone12 recording, I emerged victorious. My voice was completely muffled in the recordings when I was shouting at the tin box, and completely quiet when having normal dinner conversation about 4 feet away.I also noticed that when the phone was placed in its privacy charger cradle of playdough, it was most muffled when sitting on a block of wood vs laminate.
How to make your own Faraday cage
From Jerry Emanuelson, an electrical engineer who has consulted the US military in nuclear electromagnetic pulse (EMP) warfare:
“A Faraday cage is a total enclosure made out of a good electrical conductor such as copper or aluminum. (Steel also works well, but it is often more difficult to make a total enclosure with steel.)
Large Faraday cages can get extremely complicated. For small portable electronics, though, completely covering the electronic equipment in heavy-duty aluminum foil makes a good faraday cage around the equipment. The foil covering needs to be complete, without any gaps.
Wrap the device in plastic or put it in an insulated box before wrapping the covered device in foil. (Otherwise, the foil may simply conduct the EMP energy into the device more effectively.) A single layer of foil may not be adequate. In order to enclose the equipment in a nested Faraday cage, place the foil-covered device in a plastic bag, such as a freezer bag, and wrap that bag completely in aluminum foil.
If you really want to protect the equipment against a large EMP, add another layer of plastic and foil. The layer of plastic needs to be the thickest plastic bags that you can easily find. (They don't need to be terribly thick, but do try to find some heavy-duty bags.)”
As you’ll see in the video below, this gentleman is assembling a nested Faraday cage, which has multiple layers of metal, allowing for more frequencies to be attenuated, or lessened in strength. This man has taken many of the resources he’s studied on faraday bags and has combined them in this video. His faraday cage aligns with the construction technique suggested by Emanuelson above.
If you make your own, you’ll need to invest about $100 minimum in supplies, which is nothing when you consider that some Faraday cage enclosures can easily run in the thousands online.
Construction starts at the 5:30 mark:
Another Faraday cage resource from Andrew Skousen of The World Affairs Brief:
Tech Protect has developed advanced Mylar bags with a ziplock-type seal for convenient protection for even large devices. Ben Gillmore, the owner, sells bags with tough, thick plastic that won’t puncture easily from sharp components, or lose its foil barrier after long use and repeated flexing. These bags have two layers of foil sandwiched within the plastic to provide military-grade protection.
Our cell phone lost connection entirely in one bag. Double nesting the bags will ensure against even Super-EMP, he says. Use these bags for convenient protection for things you have to get out often: hard drives, cameras, laptops, ham radios, etc.
Faraday Bags
These come in different sizes, and can fit phones, tablets, and laptops, and commonly used to protect against remote access of our devices by hackers. However if you don’t shut your phone off, the signal will only bounce around the bag, creating a very strong EMF inside. Cell phones also emit EMFs even when they’re on standby or off, so it’s good practice to use the bag whenever you aren’t actively using your phone.
If you do decide to purchase a Faraday bag, be sure to to before and after measurements with an EMF meter to confirm the bag is indeed shielding you effectively. These bags can be inexpensive at about $5. Remember- Faraday bags do not protect you from keeping your phone on your body when it’s not in airplane mode or off.3
Surviving nuclear war?
Yes, as a holistic health coach I consider ALL the variables. I’ve received some questions regarding how to protect our devices against an electromagnetic pulse (EMP), which would likely be a precursor to nuclear war. Although having a fallout plan is important, and should include protecting (yes) even electronics, there are many other precautions such as ensuring clean water supply, hygeine, and food. However in the coming weeks I will cover some worst-case scenarios, and dispell some myths as they relate to nuclear EMP weaponry, along with my hopes of the future.
On that note… go and enjoy your dinner in radio silence.
Love you all,
We're creating a course on EMF Basics!
We’ll be covering these types of specifics, along with practical steps we can take to reduce EMFs in our daily lives, in the Wireless Health & Safety course we're creating.
https://doi.org/10.1016/0031-3203(85)90009-3
https://theintercept.com/2014/04/30/gchq-prism-nsa-fisa-unsupervised-access-snowden/https://theintercept.com/2014/04/30/gchq-prism-nsa-fisa-unsupervised-access-snowden/
The phone case that won't spy on you