CES 2015 Highlights: Silent Pockets

One of the little booths at this year’s CES that left me mightily impressed was that of Silent Pockets, a company started in San Francisco in 2008 with a simple mission… To provide handsome and discreet cases meant to preserve privacy and security for every kind of digital device.  Casings, whether wallets, boxes, purses or custom-designed wrapping are lined with Cryptalloy, an RIFD-shielding material which blocks all RFID frequencies from connecting to your digital toys. RFID, which means Radio Frequency Identification, is the means by which hackers get into your beloved devices. Concerns about GPS location on your phone, EMF radiation, personal private security, or just plain getting off the grid make Silent Pockets practical. Not available from stores, Silent Pockets do their business direct to the public.

Cameras: Yahoo News, which is fast becoming the panic-inducing evil twin of television’s Fox News, likes to rant about celebrity hacking going on from split beaver shots of Miss Teen USA (she was just posing so her lust monkey boyfriend wouldn’t feel alone while she was away competing in pageants), to a multiplicity of countless celebrities who are keeping quiet, including Alan Cumming and Kristin Stewart. The fact is that its not just cellphone hacking off the generically labeled ‘Cloud’ or smartphones, or else the list of victims wouldn’t be so long. In fact, my old photographer pal from Playboy, Kevin Craig, assures me that the software built around your camera(s) is what’s actually what makes you most vulnerable.

As with the Special Ed mentality of “Just say no!” foisted upon us in the Reagan era vis-a-vis drugs and ‘promiscuity, the ideal is not to take ‘smutties’ with your lover because, you know, it’s not smart to take compromising snaps. But the fact is, people like to pose nude or get POV’d in compromising positions for their lovers and it ain’t going to cease. It’s not exactly Sex Tech, to be sure, but as long as it’s a game people play, safety first is the rule. How can hacking be avoided? Silent Pockets’ camera protector is available for $59.95.

Using anti-virus and security software for your phones, cameras, credit cards and computers is a good idea, but software is fallible. The best solution to stay 100% protected is using something called CamJam to physically cover your cameras when you’re not using them. They’re simple to take off and easily re-adhere to the surface when you do want to use your camera. And they won’t harm the lenses.

CES 2015 Highlights: Silent Pockets

Smartphones: As your phone is not password protected, protect your data from police, hackers and thieves by using the easily accessibly 4-number PIN on your smartphone. Even better, go into your phone’s settings and change it to an alphanumeric passcode for even stronger protection. Phone protectors start at $29.95.

WiFi: It’s simple if you turn your WiFi on, your phone is sending out a signal, desperately searching for the easiest, closest network to tic onto. Unfortunately, ‘easiest and closest’ aren’t necessarily secure, meaning the network with the strongest signal, not the one that is the most secure.  Naturally, it is made to connect to those networks cached for your phone, which means—I regret to inform you—every network you’ve ever connected to. An easy in for hackers? No shit, Sherlock! Not to mention, by the way, that as your smartphone goes maximum overdrive establishing connections for you, you’re getting zapped with more harmful radiation than is normal. Keep that WiFi off if you don’t need it to be on. And, last but not least, never make purchases or log in to any financial accounts when you’re connected to public WiFi. This was a new one to me, too. Never, for example, buy anything while you’re flying or in your school dorms. Cases to protect the multitudinous information available on your iPads and tablets start at $109.95.

So, if you’re busy busy busy and prone to absent-mindedness this really is a retail product to save you. If you want to cover all bases there’s Silent Pockets’ Ultimate Privacy Collection for $175.95. Savvy, simple and well-designed they supply everything you need to protect your cameras, smartphones and computers from pretty much every means of indirect pilferage.

Comments are closed.