Your Phone Contacts AREN'T Private

The humble Contact List in our phone is a goldmine of data. Each contact is filled with the personal information like names, numbers, email addresses, home addresses, birthdays, work details and social media information. It’s the kind of information that data brokers salivate over because it allows unprecedented insight into consumer behavior, political leanings, and even potential vulnerabilities that could be exploited. The worst thing is, it's not even your information that's being taken -- When we don't protect our contacts list, it's the information that OTHERS have entrusted to us that we're sharing.

In this video I talk about Contact Lists, why you might not want to store them in your phone or share them with other apps on your device, and finally I’ll talk about more private ways to store them.

00:00 Your Phone Compromises Your Contacts
00:28 Overview
00:39 Why Contacts Lists Are Important
01:51 Who Sees Our Contact List
05:37 Private Ways To Store Contacts
06:23 Reviewing App Permissions
06:57 Third Party Contact Apps
07:53 Encrypted Contact Storage
08:43 Graphene: The Ultimate Solution
09:57 It’s Time to Take Back Control!

By disabling automatic cloud syncing, regularly reviewing and managing our apps’ contact permissions, and using privacy-focused apps and services, we can reduce the indiscriminate harvesting of our social graph. Our contacts deserve to be treated with the utmost care and respect.

NOTE: In our video, we mention Simple Contacts Pro, but we have since learned that it has been acquired by ZipoApps, a company known for adding ads and tracking to apps. One of the developers forked the project, and the fork, “Fossify,” is an alternative that you can consider instead.

Brought to you by NBTV team members: Lee Rennie, Cube Boy, Kieran Mesquita, Reuben Yap, Sam Ettaro, Will Sandoval and Naomi Brockwell

Watch all of the tutorials in our Phone Privacy Playlist HERE:

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Our eBook "Beginner's Introduction To Privacy:

Beware of scammers, I will never give you a phone number or reach out to you with investment advice. I do not give investment advice.

Watch this video on Odysee:
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Here are a bunch of products I like and use. Using these links helps support the channel and future videos!

Recommended Books:

Beginner's Introduction To Privacy - Naomi Brockwell

Permanent Record - Edward Snowden

What has the government done to our money - Rothbard

Extreme Privacy - Michael Bazzel (The best privacy book I've ever read)

No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State - Glenn Greenwald

Some of my favorite products to help protect your privacy!

Faraday bag (signal stopping, to protect your fob, credit card, computer, and phone)

Data Blocker (if you're charging your phone in an unknown port, use this so that no data is transferred)

Camera tape (electrical tape is the best tape for covering phone and computer cameras)

USB-C to ethernet adapter:

Privacy Screens (use your phone and computer in public? Keep your information safe!)

Computer: (Search for the size right for your computer)

Phone: (Search for the size for your phone, decide whether you want glass or plastic!)

[Stevie-J]

Naomi has "cool aunt" vibes. The one that gives good advice and good gifts at christmas

[natemarx]

It is always an honor to see Naomi in my notifications. I was following this gem when she barely had 2, 000 subscribers.

[petehurd]

Years ago a friend also asked me not to put their contact info in my phone, it make me think twice about adding birthdates and other personal info into my contacts. The final straw came when my robot vacuum cleaner, which has many functions (such as vacuming around a spot) only usable through the app, and the app needed access to my contacts to work. As if...

[yomi]

Great video Naomi! I like that it's not just a description of why phone contacts aren't private, but that you also include solutions for more private apps or services.

[girohead]

Ugh, thanks for clarify and reminding. Last night a contact asked for my full name, but I had given my Google Voice number, so I changed my number to my real number, to not associate my real name with Google, but now there is my real cell. This is such BULL! I'm going back to just lying, just like when dentists ask for Soc. Security number - they don't need it, I pay cash.

[cameronmoore]

I've said this before and I'll say it again. I love this channel.

[SergioMollari]

Your work is definitely appreciated. Thank you. 😀👍My android has no accounts except Signal and Proton. My Google/Play account was taken off as soon as I finished the setup, and pretty much everything else was either denied privileges, turned off, or both. Seeing as I use either Brave or Firefox, this includes Chrome as well. My contacts list is just first name and number, and everything else that would normally be there I keep between my ears. This was a tedious process, but for me it was worth it. Seeing as I never use most of the apps on it, they're not missed. Backups are local to my Linux box. Like I said, this works for me. For now, it's enough. I'll do more after my android's warranty period ends.

[tejloro]

Serious question: If I tell an app it does NOT have my permission to do something, what's to stop it from doing it anyway and just not telling me???

[stevenpugh]

I’m a trustee on my condo board. We’re currently evaluating intercom and access control systems for the building. One of the suggestions is an app based system. I read the privacy policy. The app grabs the contact list in order to make it “easier’ to interact with possible visitors.

Plus the privacy policy is full of holes, and those policies often change. If the company is bought, then any promises made are gone.

I told the other trustees I’m a firm no.

[aaronz]

Thank you so much for all that you do for us.

[itsLuffie]

I use proton main and tutanota mail for contact and the contacts in tutanota can also integrate to the phone app so that's a great feature to have rather than like in proton mail needing to open the mail app again and again

[planenut]

Wonder if this will mean we'll start remembering phone numbers again from memory like the good old days😆

[tsbrownie]

It's a bit like DNA. You can avoid getting your DNA on a database, BUT your relatives carry 1/2, 1/4... of your DNA and they can supply that information whether you like it or not. The difference is, if your data on someone else's phone is shared, it's shared 100%, not 1/2, 1/4....

[Willpowerstudios]

thank you so much for sharing this !! it's one of my big concerns

[jimcabezola]

Thanks to privacy channels like this one, I simply don't even use contact lists at all. I don't use event calendars, schedulers and other dross like that, really.
I need to get some of this merch! I want to wear it EVERY TIME I go to a place that asks me for my phone or email! A little passive aggression won't hurt them. Heaven knows THEY dole it out constantly...

[LeonEdwinsHeart]

Thank you very much for so much knowledge! I am slowly getting a better handle on my privacy.

[ricead]

Great to see people waking up to these things, especially amongst the younger generation whoijust use these things without thinking.

[ax]

Great info, thank you, Naomi. Would you make a new updated video of the tools you're using today? new entries, old ones, etc. etc.

[ozzemie]

I'm mainly worried about other not so privacy conscious people who have me in their contact lists, not much I can do about that, even though I use Graphene and don't sync any contact lists automatically anymore.

[PyCoder]

Too much of a hassle... I just use my trusty Nokia 6110 and it's a good bottle opener too! 😅