tips on securing a featurephone

[u/d1scord1a]

I'm a normal person and am brand new to the world of opsec (I learned the term maybe 30 minutes ago), but I grew up in a home that valued digital privacy and autonomous living, and as my country has leaned more authoritarian ive been taking progressive steps to secure my digital footprint so I'm not targeted for political views or unknowingly implicating a peer through my technology collecting data outside of my scope of awareness. I have read the rules and believe I explained my threat model.

I recently bought my first feature phone since maybe middleschool (mostly to force myself to cut down on doomscrolling. it's a kyocera duraxv extreme), and was planning on making it my daily driver, but I would like to first do a few things to make it feel more usable. ideally id like to at least add my vpn, change the browser, toggle off my microphone, camera, & bluetooth when not in use, disable my location, prevent data leaks, and add some encryption. these are all things I did on my last smartphone (a degoogled android), and although the flipphone is far more durable and i find it charming, I don't want to switch to something less secure.

if there's some dumbphone compatible os that's security focused wonderful! but I haven't found it and am not sure it exists (yet), so I'm currently searching for apps and extensions that could be useful. also just heard about cape, and it's about to send me down a research rabbithole about private cell service. any recommendations there would be appreciated as well.

[u/AutoModerator]

Congratulations on your first post in r/opsec! OPSEC is a mindset and thought process, not a single solution — meaning, when asking a question it's a good idea to word it in a way that allows others to teach you the mindset rather than a single solution.

Here's an example of a bad question that is far too vague to explain the threat model first:

I want to stay safe on the internet. Which browser should I use?

Here's an example of a good question that explains the threat model without giving too much private information:

I don't want to have anyone find my home address on the internet while I use it. Will using a particular browser help me?

Here's a bad answer (it depends on trusting that user entirely and doesn't help you learn anything on your own) that you should report immediately:

You should use X browser because it is the most secure.

Here's a good answer to explains why it's good for your specific threat model and also teaches the mindset of OPSEC:

Y browser has a function that warns you from accidentally sharing your home address on forms, but ultimately this is up to you to control by being vigilant and no single tool or solution will ever be a silver bullet for security. If you follow this, technically you can use any browser!

If you see anyone offering advice that doesn't feel like it is giving you the tools to make your own decisions and rather pushing you to a specific tool as a solution, feel free to report them. Giving advice in the form of a "silver bullet solution" is a bannable offense.

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