Is an Old Nokia Feature Phone Safer Than an iPhone? This is the question a lot of people ask themselves on social media after it became known that the Pegasus spyware can be easily inserted into smartphones and, once inside, all sensitive data including passwords, call details, chats and location data can be accessed and other important user information. The question is supposed to be a joke, but some people are seriously considering switching back to an old feature phone for more privacy.
That’s not a good idea. However, there’s one more aspect that actually gives the old Nokia feature phones an edge over the latest iPhone 12 or a shiny OnePlus 9 Pro.
As far as the security of an old feature phone is concerned, there is none. A feature phone is an easily hackable device. His software as it is now is primitive. And so is its hardware. The main functionality of a feature phone is communication over a cellular network: that means phone calls and SMS messages.
Cellular calls and SMS, but their design, are extremely insecure technologies. Not only large governments, but small law enforcement agencies around the world can get into calling and texting with little effort.
Tapping into telephones is a routine matter around the world.
So, if you come across a message on social media that says the old Nokia is a better choice over the iPhone in the Pegasus world, then out of nostalgia, share the message again. But don’t even think for a second that the old Nokia is a safer phone.
Smartphones, especially the iPhone, have many protective functions that make it difficult for hackers and snoopers. There’s a reason over 45 countries including India have reportedly spent millions of dollars monitoring some iPhone users.
Feature phones have an advantage
But there’s another aspect: feature phones are better from a privacy perspective.
A smartphone, as powerful and powerful as it is, was designed to collect data. Technology companies use this data for a variety of purposes, including creating user profiles and selling ads.
In contrast, a feature phone is simply a communication device. You speak or you send messages. There is nothing left, except the occasional snake game.
So while it is easier to monitor a feature phone, this monitoring can only spy on details of calls and messages.
This is not the case with a smartphone. Smartphones reflect our whole life. So once a smartphone has been compromised with a spyware like Pegasus, it’s about a lot more than just call and message details. Using a smartphone, a user can leak: call details, message details, WhatsApp chats, social media details, photos, meeting times, current location data, web browser details, information that is part of dozens of applications we use, E. E-mail, as well as anything cameras in a phone can potentially see and microphones can potentially hear.
In other words, once Pegasus is in the smartphone, it’s like it’s in the user’s head.
A feature phone is superior here. It doesn’t reveal your thoughts. It only reproduces what you speak or hear on a call, write or read in messages.
So if you are extremely paranoid about your privacy and data security, a feature phone, if used wisely, might be a better idea than a compromised smartphone. But when it comes to device security, a smartphone is more difficult to hack than a feature phone.
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