The Trials and Tribulations of Building Your Own Phone
08-17, 11:00–11:50 (US/Eastern), Tobin

Over the last two decades digital surveillance has become baked into our daily lives. Your current and past location, who you’re in contact with, habits/interests, sensor data, and a trove of other personal information is constantly being sent to third parties by the smartphone that is nearly always carried on us. What would it look like if we reconsidered the mobile phone entirely, putting extra emphasis on privacy and intentional disconnection via open source hardware and software? This talk will follow Wesley’s journey to do just that, starting at the conception of the idea, getting acquainted with mobile networks/operators, obtaining proprietary datasheets, designing hardware, failed/successful prototypes, the current state of the project (along with demos), and how any interested parties can get involved.

Wesley Appler (aka lamemakes) is a professional software engineer and a recreational hardware engineer who is incredibly passionate about open source, human rights, and digital privacy.
fediverse: @lamemakes@freak.social
instagram: @lamemakes

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