@htoke Our Managing Director @michalstasiuk will jump on here when he gets a chance (we already discussed it). I unfortunately don’t have much more info to share, since I have quite limited technical knowledge on this topic.
Hi, I completely understand that if you chose this product, concerns about privacy and power use are important to you. These values are central to what this device stands for, and we want you to have full clarity about how the system works. We’re going to analyze the traffic and the impact Sentry has on the device, and we’ll share the results here. If the results are unsatisfactory, we will propose and implement a solution. That said, I’d like to ask for your patience, as our main focus right now is the upcoming software release and improving the core apps. For that reason, we’ll be able to provide more information after version 1.3.0 of the OS is released.
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Very appreciated. I chose Mudita because of the company philosophy and am pleased at the level of transparency here. Things are not always perfect – we all want to use our phones differently – but it is great if stronger privacy options can be there for those of us who want them. Appreciate the work and effort that has gone into what has been a great experience so far.
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I believe being aware of things going on in the background is crucial.
As far as I understand, Sentry itself isn’t necessary a privacy concern, or is it? Does it have access to apps usage metadata like contact names, or Signal text messages? I assume no for the time being.
That being said, I believe it’s more about the company being aligned with its philosophy many of us bought with the device. Being aware, being assured of security, being able to opt-out of all kinds of telemetry are more than welcome.
In the meantime, I failed to get my WLAN capture the packets properly, I’ll try again tomorrow. Hearing one voice about Sentry going off each time an app is brought up vs device having constant RF is either contradictory, or constant RF comes from the GSM features and not app telemetry with Sentry - perhaps this could be measured by checking RF when all data transmissions (mobile data) are turned off (but not Offline+ so that GSM and SMS/MMS is still available).
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It’s definitely their apps. Once I disable the Mudita apps and installed equivalent foss apps from fdroid the rf stopped
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Mudita is already losing points major points with me and i haven’t even ordered a phone yet (waiting to have questions answered regarding baseband/modem isolation/IOMMU)
giving Mudita the benefit of the doubt that nothing nefarious is happening, and given that they are breaking new ground in some ways, i can see the need for telemetry, however, a) users must be made aware during phone set-up and b) they must have the option to opt-out. period.
this forced telemetry nonsense has exploded in the faces of other companies in the past (Mozilla being one) because it is simply unethical - i can understand making it opt-out vs. opt-in while development is heavy, but there still must be a way to easily disable it
no excuse for not having a switch
regarding user choice, the results are irrelevant - users must have a choice of whether they want to participate in development - end of story
regarding Sentry, this is a 3rd party platform/software i’m guessing? who owns the company and what are their policies? is their product open-sourced? how is that data delivered to Mudita - is it proxied?
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@hiItsMe Our Managing Director, @michalstasiuk has already shared all the relevant details available about Mudita Kompakt’s hardware and privacy approach, but I’m happy to summarize and clarify.
Here’s his post for reference:
Mudita Kompakt features Offline+ mode , which is a hardware-level switch cutting power to the GSM modem and microphones. It also disables the camera, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth at the software level. This is designed for users who want a quick, physical way to ensure that radios and microphones are off.
If you’re looking for deeper architectural protections such as baseband/memory isolation, that’s not the focus of this device. Mudita Kompakt uses a MediaTek MT6761 chipset, which means the modem/baseband firmware is closely integrated with the SoC. IOMMU support is not a universal feature in all mobile phones, it’s generally found in high-end or specialized security devices.
I can check with our dev & hardware teams for a definitive answer on whether the modem is isolated from the main user-space or RAM. However, at present, we don’t market Kompakt as offering that specific level of hardware isolation.
As for Sentry, it’s an open-source error tracking tool. In our case, any data (BUT NO IP DATA is collected) collected flows directly to us, is not shared with anyone, and does not leave our systems. It’s used solely to help us improve performance and fix potential bugs.
Our goal with Kompakt is to provide essential functionality, physical privacy controls, and a more mindful relationship with technology, rather than targeting the high-security niche.
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I think the outrage against Mudita here is a little much. They promised a Google-free phone that included the Offline+ mode as it’s privacy feature. They delivered that.
I feel like people bought into expecting it to be 100% open-source and completely off the grid. Those features were never promised. While I desire those things, too, there is no device on the market that offers those things other than maybe the Liberty Phone, and I’m not willing to drop $1999.00 (USD) on a phone.
You’re more than welcome to voice your opinion, but from my time reading this forum, I have found that people’s expectations for the Komapkt have just been outrageous. I don’t think any company offers anywhere close to the level of transparency Mudita has tried to offer. From my brief research, any internet-enabled device in your house is colleting this sort of data without allowing you to opt-out. From my understanding, any “opt-out” offered to you is only opting you out of having that data linked to your personal information. From Mudita’s communication to us (and you’re going to have to take them at their word), they are not doing that anyway, so there is no need for them to offer an opt-out.
If you really want to, you can set up a DNS or VPN filter on your phone (I use Cloudflare One Agent, but with DNS only instead of VPN to help save battery) and you can block sentry.io from sending/receiving any data.
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Fully agreed. Thanks for speaking this out. I’ve already said it several times on this forum, but I’m more and more baffled about some people on this forum which are completely missing the point of the Kompakt and how it is advertised. I’m questioning myself if those people even read the product description on the official website simply because what they expect and criticise here on the board simply never was and is the point of the Mudita Kompakt. It is all about digital detox and mindfulness, but those peoplel seem to assume the Kompakt is a Open Source Security Smartphone substitute. I hope the team at Mudita doesn’t take those criticism too heavy and thus lose focus on what the Kompakt and the company manifesto is all about.
I’ve said it a couple times and reiterate it here happily: I love my Kompakt. Three weeks in and my life has completely changed.
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@paxristi & @felensis Thank you so much for your kind words. We try to do the best we can & be as transparent as possible, but we do understand that, sometimes, even that may not be enough for everyone.
I have this favorite Steve Jobs quote that I keep referencing: If you want to make everyone happy, don’t be a leader. Sell ice cream .
However, even then people will want sugar-free, vegan, lactose-free. LOL
We know we can’t make everyone happy & we can’t be a phone for everyone. We understand that. We are ok with that.
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My privacy concerns have mostly been quenched, but I still dont understand why Mudita apps would have constant RF while FOSS F Droid apps would not. Sentry doesn’t even explain that, Sentry should only be one quick RF spike every so often, not constantly
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Summoning @gezimos , can we use adb to access /etc/hosts and iptables? I’d prefer an app-free solution for custom static DNS entries, firewall is not a big deal since I don’t sideload much, just curious.
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Not possible without root
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BTW I wanted to use my private DNS on the phone (and there I could maybe even block these trackers) but unfortunately this option is not present in the settings app, I think mainly because the base Android version is too old, but maybe it would need to also be explicitly enabled by Mudita
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@htoke I’ve asked our team to clarify this. I’m not a techie 
so it’s hard for me to say.
I think the problem with this is that Mudita has disabled private DNS service from the stock android. So if you try to set private DNS it turns itself off. The only workaround that I have found is to configure a custom DNS with a VPN, but that requires a) turning on the VPN every time I open the phone and b) linking the IP address to the DNS manually through my web browser. That is a lot of (daily) work just to have a feature that android stock offers for nothing!
On the tracking side, I think a lot of people have problems with first-person telemetry on any of their devices. It’s why we have to work so hard to get “open source” because otherwise companies will just collect data and use it, often without permission. Many of us have been working hard to reduce telemetry on our devices – and in my case over many year – so the fact that other devices have it isn’t really an argument against. I even had a linux phone but the problem was I could not use it for too long with the LCD screen. I switched to an e-ink phone from China but it had a huge amount of telemetry. The Kompakt, while a lot more quiet, seems like a strange device because it still has the sentry telemetry while everything else in the system is geared toward a less “chatty” (in network terms) device. It just doesn’t seem consistent with the design philosophy.
All in all, I’m not sure why it’s a huge ask to either have private DNS services active or to be able to disable this tracking if we don’t want it. It’s just more work to have to have to replace the Mudita apps with non-tracking / open source ones, when Mudita could make their system have that option in the first place.
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@michalstasiuk : those informations are personal, even if sent unidentified.
Someone with those information could easily figure out lot of information, including the identity. I had read your privacy policy and I’m really suprized because it seems I missed that part. I thought that no information were sent to Mudita. What you describe is lot of information.
Given your niche market, it would be really nice to be able to disable all reporting. You should not be aware that a Mudita phone is used. In fact, it might even be the default with a system setting “send debug info to the developper”
I should ask a lawyer but given the privacy policy and the fact that we didn’t agree to send those data, the Mudita phone might be technically illegal in the EU.
(other Android phone are legal because you agreed to sell your soul by creating a Google account, which is required on most phone)
BONUS: by disabling telemetry by default, you will greatly improve battery life and Mudita reputation.
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So I have to post a self correction. Today I figured out how to get a private DNS to work on the Mudita, so I guess Private DNS is working if you have ADB. The commands are:
adb shell settings put global private_dns_mode hostname
adb shell settings put global private_dns_specifier dns.adguard.com
You can just change dns.adguard.com to whatever your DNS server is, and that can be used to block any telemetry on the phone.
Having looked at the logs over the past month, the Mudita is a very impressive device from the standpoint of privacy. It doesn’t make a lot of connections and when it does these are almost always from user actions. (The Sentry code excepted.) I agree that there is some worry about whether Mudita (as the manufacturer) could link up IP addresses to MAC or other identifying information. Hence why a lot of people concerned about this have moved to a “zero trust” model where trust is baked in (as much as possible) and options are available to disable things in case the user is concerned. The Private DNS is now a workaround.
One other possibility is to simply have dialog available on set-up. The Supernote eink devices (which are highly regarded in the eink world for community engagement and support) supply a dialogue like this, for example:
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I’ll pass your message on to @michalstasiuk so that he may address your concerns in a more detailed way, however, we do outline our privacy policy quite clearly during onboarding, but I guess no one reads it & it’s also available AFTER onboarding in the Legal & Regulatory section.
The privacy policy of Mudita Center is also outlined on our website: Privacy Policy
My thoughts this sounds like a bug and should be addressed.
I don’t have an issue with collecting analytic data for troubleshooting or performance improvements but it should be opt in and have the ability to disable.
What I have read above suggests it switches on but doesn’t turn off. Which creates the problem with rf transmission. Stock android apps don’t do this. It should be addressed even if in a later update as a bug.
People are moving to this phone for many reasons but one of them is to not be monitored or tracked as a commodity and for privacy. I hope this is addressed as a priority and was just an oversight.
For me the fact it won’t turn off will drain the battery. This should be fixed as a bug.
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