All Episodes
Previous Next
Sept. 5, 2023 - Health Ranger - Mike Adams
01:02:09
Ramiro from Above Phone reveals how to STOP GOOGLE and APPLE from SPYING on you
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
Welcome to Decentralized TV. I'm Mike Adams, the founder of Brighteon, and today we're joined by Romero from AbovePhone.com, who has a solution for de-Googled phones.
This is something that we've been looking for for quite some time.
We're really thrilled to have him on, and this show is now an affiliate of AbovePhone, which we'll explain in a second.
Of course, we're joined by our co-host, Todd Pitner.
Welcome to the show, Todd.
Great to have you on today.
Well, as always, Mike, it's Friday, my favorite day.
I love it.
I absolutely love being able to do this show.
And as you know, my dog loves it, too.
He wants to jump up on the desk right now.
Go ahead and show camera, too, so people can see.
Like, there he is with the rings, ready to see him with the toys.
He's just waiting for me to say the right words.
But he's ready to go.
So hopefully he'll stay off the desk for the duration of the show.
But let me invite our guest, Ramiro from AbovePhone.com.
Welcome, Ramiro.
It's great to have you on.
And we really love the solutions that you bring.
Hey, Mike.
It's a pleasure to be here with you all.
What's up, y'all?
And yeah, looking forward to getting into it today.
Well, absolutely.
And let me give a little background about how we actually first met and I found out about your company.
You had a booth at an event in Central Texas put on by John Bush at the Live Free Academy.
And I actually grabbed some of your literature.
And of course, I've been running a de-Googled phone for several years, different operating systems.
I've done like three or four different de-Googled phones.
But I never could find somebody who could offer them and support them and had like a suite of software until I found your company, Above Phone.
So I reached out to you, invited you onto this show.
We do have an affiliate arrangement at no additional cost to the customer.
This show gets compensated a small amount if you purchase a phone from Above Phone.
But that's all there is to it.
It's real simple.
So, Romero, thank you for being public, for having a booth, for traveling, and Making your solution available.
It's great to have you on.
Well, yeah.
Thanks a lot.
I think that one of the opportunities that all of us have is we can look at the ways that establishment companies are doing things, right?
And ask ourselves, can we do better?
And that's just, you know, that's just what we ended up finding, a better way to do phones and communications.
And, yeah, I've been watching your show for a while.
You've been on this kick for quite a long time, so I appreciate you filling in your audience ahead of time.
It'll make this a lot easier.
You are actually filling in the missing gap on the show.
And Todd, you know, we've interviewed amazing people with crypto technology, amazing people in finance and decentralized finance and And, you know, taxation and all that stuff.
But until today, we've never had a solution provider in the de-Googled phone space, and that's critical for privacy, don't you think?
Oh my goodness.
Todd?
I can't wait.
I'm looking forward to just treat me like a newbie to all of this.
You know, I'm that guy that many of our audience are probably too, who has just been used to my iPhone forever.
And I need to stop.
Yeah, it's a spy machine.
I'm going to be a sponge today, and we'll probably ask you some, I don't know, remedial questions.
But maybe there's some of the same questions that you get from people who, I understand, you've gotten quite a good amount of people who have inquired and purchased some of your Above Phone.
So congratulations on that.
Let me bring up the website.
I'm sorry to interrupt, Romero, but let me bring up the website.
Can you show it, guys?
It's abovephone.com.
And if you put slash DTV... On that URL, then that's our affiliate link that helps support us.
But you can, as it says here, replace big tech with your private ecosystem.
Works anywhere with any SIM card.
And so now it's all back to you, Romero.
So tell us what you're offering, the hardware that you're offering, which I believe the Google Pixel phones, and how it works to protect your privacy.
Sure.
Yeah, let me preface this by saying that I think people get this perspective of switching to this phone that has to be difficult or hard or they're gonna have to make a lot of sacrifices.
No, that's not the case.
And, you know, that's kind of our job to be that pillar of education to give you the easiest route possible.
It's also important to mention that Google and Apple don't want you leaving their ecosystem, so they do try and put up a little bit of roadblocks.
We have to work together, but once you find you're on the other side, you'll find that you'll have complete ownership of your data.
You'll find that you have peace of mind because you're actually aware of all the trackers.
If there are any in your apps, you're actually making an informed consent to the data you want to share.
It's a way more holistic way of living.
Based on, you know, when you're talking about organic food versus GMO food, this is organic software, organic technology.
So it's really exciting to be exploring that.
And so, yeah, so let me talk about what we do at Above Phone.
So we're using de-Googled operating systems.
You know, Mike has talked about that and shows previous.
And what we've done is we've filled in the missing link.
When you get one of these de-Googled operating systems, you know, there's not an app store on there.
You're not really sure where to start, so there's a lot of best practical defaults and decisions you need to make on the apps, as well as the missing links for how you're going to communicate, how you're going to access the internet, and how you're going to do that in the most private manner.
So that's what we do.
We help you, and when you purchase a phone with us, you know that there's human interaction folded in there.
You get an hour-long support call So maybe if you're new to technology or maybe if this is your first phone, don't feel intimidated.
We're here to help and we have the infrastructure and we have the people, real technologists that are making their way outside of the mainstream to help you with this.
And so we kind of need each other to make this work.
So we sell the phone, which is a one-time purchase.
But I always wanted to mention, if you're feeling up to it and you can read technical documentation and follow along, you can always do this at home.
You can go to raffinos.org and you can look at the instructions there and you can choose to do this at home.
I just want to be fair and say, you know, you always have that capacity.
Some of us don't have the time and that's where this can really help out.
And you can learn a lot from what we're doing as well.
Let me jump in, Romero.
I want to be clear to the audience that graphene, and I ran that operating system for a couple of years, and I'm running it now on one of the phones I got from you.
People need to understand that graphene runs on Google Pixel phone hardware that has been de-Googled.
And the way I describe it is like in the Terminator series, if you capture a Terminator and then you erase its memory and you reprogram it to protect John Connor in Terminator 2.
That's what we're doing with the Google phones.
Google is evil.
But the hardware is very usable if you wipe its mind and then you install a whole new thing, which is called Graphene OS, and then there's no Google footprint on that operating system.
So it's kind of like the hardware goes through an exorcism and then finds Jesus?
Yeah, that's a good description, maybe.
Yeah, we take the evil out of the Google phone.
Yeah, and so yeah, that's exactly what happens.
You're flashing the operating system.
And then what the more important part is, is now the code that's running on your phone is transparent.
You can go look at how the code works.
You can even make modifications if you want, right?
That's free and open source software.
So now every single last function in your phone, you can go look at the respective code.
You can see what it does.
You can ask questions.
That's a level of transparency that big tech cannot give you.
It also gives you a way to contribute to the larger effort, right?
There's a whole community of people shaping how this software works for everyone.
So that's a really exciting part of it.
And just to touch on the whole Google Pixel thing, a lot of people have the perspective like, All right, well, we have to use this hardware that's made by Google.
How close are we actually getting here?
Can't they break into the phone somehow because it's Google?
Well, I think you have to take a Pareto principle to this entire thing, which is that we want to do all of the things that are reasonable that will greatly improve our privacy.
And so this phone does that, and our team has validated this, right?
The Graphene OS team, they list out every network connection that your phone will make when it connects to the internet for things like updates, checking time.
And we've gone through and seen that, all right, those are actually the only requests being sent off the phone.
More than that, we've compared that to a traditional phone.
And when you turn a traditional phone on, there are thousands of requests.
Like, it's continuously going.
And, you know, we've seen these results.
There's independent studies, like the Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, that actually, you know, tell you what is being sent over and how much data is being sent over.
So compared to a normal phone, there are no connections to Google, there are no connections to Apple, and that is getting you so far, so far ahead in terms of your privacy game.
Yeah, it's critical, and I think our audience knows this, but let's just cover it.
Both iPhones and Android phones, which all run from the stores, from AT&T or whoever, they run Google.
It's a Google-Android.
And Apple's iPhones, both of those are just spy devices.
They spy on you constantly.
They spy on your location.
They spy on your activities.
Even if you turn off your iPhone, the battery still provides power and it's tracking your location.
And we need to mention to people that these geofencing warrants can get you swept up or arrested, even imprisoned.
Simply because you were in a physical location at the time that something went down, even if you violated no law yourself.
I mean, this is what happened in January 6th.
So a lot of people in jail in D.C. right now were simply there, and they did nothing else wrong, but their phone testified against them, and that's because the government went to Google and said, tell us who's there in this location.
So am I right about that, Romero, that just your location alone can be used against you?
Yeah, 100%.
Any phone that has location services in the Android ecosystem, Google location services, if that exists, that is Logging your location over time.
And so you mentioned the January 6 protests that they used geofence warrants to fine and prosecute those people.
There's also instances where you're not even out of place, but maybe you left your Google account logged into another phone, as was the case with Jorge Molina, a man in Arizona who got wrongfully arrested for murder and lost a lot.
When it turned out, his stepfather borrowed his phone and was involved with a murder.
So you can be wrongfully imprisoned and that happens pretty, you know, that happens.
And so there's really in the landscape of your phone, there's three layers that you need to be looking at to protect your privacy.
One is the operating system and that combines like all of these services that are running on the phone that might be running for advertising, might be running for locations, might be security services even.
So these de-Googled phones do not have those centralized services, right?
That's the operating system.
Then there are the apps, which apps also have hidden trackers in them.
In fact, we'll look at a few later on on a real de-Googled phone.
And typically, there is an average of five trackers in the Android ecosystem.
It's a similar amount, right?
These are like third party companies that don't actually need to be in the apps or are part of the apps.
And because they're part of the apps, they also have all the same permissions that you have granted that app.
So let's say someone's using Facebook advertising services, but the app does something completely different.
Let's say it's like a compass or something.
And you give it access to your accelerometer, maybe it uses the microphone for some reason.
So those third-party trackers also have access to that, right?
So using a degugled phone gives you more tools, tools that you can use to audit the amount of trackers in your apps and make more healthy decisions.
Now, the last thing which I'll briefly mention is telecom, telecommunications, and the entire, you know, if you look at the formation of telecom, It was started in the beginning to assist law enforcement, right?
There was that 1994 law, CALEA, Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, that required telecom providers to be able to hand over call detail records and text messages to law enforcement at any time for any investigation.
So, right, that is all stuff that has due process.
Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, you know, the biggest three players, and companies that run off of their infrastructure, They are all required to do this, so there's a warrant policy, right, if they want those records.
But that is for due process.
There's also secret programs, for instance, to drug enforcement agencies Hemisphere program that are silently collecting 40 billion call detail records a year.
So one of the most important missions Above Phone has, and my work for Take Back Our Tech has, is making people aware we cannot rely on telecommunications infrastructure to communicate.
Like, phone calls and texts are not private, and we should be using encrypted internet-based communications, which I know you've been talking about a lot, Mike.
Yeah, that's right.
And the key is that's data rather than actual native voice or SMS, which is what the telecom companies watch.
and they can triangulate your position if you're driving around with a phone that's registered as a voice-capable phone.
So what the de-googled phones do from above phone, and correct me if I'm wrong, Romero, but you get a phone number and an app and messaging apps that are all pre-installed, ready to go.
There is a small monthly fee for the phone number.
It's hardly anything.
But then your phone operates in data mode with the cell towers.
So the cell towers don't even see your phone as a, quote, phone, not like a normal phone.
They see it as a data provider, which normally is associated with maybe a security camera or like a wildlife camera or maybe a GPS tracker or something like that.
So that's what they see it as.
But you're still able to make and receive phone calls, to send and receive messages using more secure apps.
So people don't have to give up being reachable.
It's just that they're doing it in a more secure and private way, correct?
And they also have more flexibility.
And I'd love to show you, if we could get the phone on screen, what this new communication actually looks like.
Can I ask one quick question before you go into that?
Sure.
With what you just said, Mike, if I have a de-Googled phone and I have a phone number, but my wife just has her regular phone, she's not going to give it up, you know?
And can she call me?
If she doesn't have that same app that I do...
Yeah, she can call you.
So she can call from any mobile phone?
Yeah, yeah, from any phone.
It goes through an exchange that...
That then translates it into data and then reaches you on your app on your phone.
Okay, that's a game changer for me.
That'd be great.
Great.
Yeah, so you're not losing compatibility, right?
And as mentioned, there's two ways for you to communicate.
You can take your existing SIM card with your existing number activated on it, put it into this phone, and you can use native calling and text messages.
It works exactly like a phone does.
The people on the other side, it's coming from the same phone number.
Then you're also given an internet phone number.
Now, this is special because instead of connecting to the nearest cell tower and that cell tower knowing, oh, okay, Mike's calling from this general location and he's connecting to these different cell towers.
Instead, what happens is the call is sent over before it even leaves the phone.
All those packets, all that data is encrypted by your VPN. Then it goes through a chat protocol called XMPP, which you can use for end-to-end encrypted messaging, voice calls, video calls, you can do all that stuff, and it's completely decentralized.
So think Signal that you can run for yourself at home.
And so this will bridge out from one place where it connects to the phone network.
So now instead of, you know, knowing what radio towers you're using or where exactly you are making the call, now it just comes from one place in Canada with our partners at GMP, which we use to run the internet phone service.
So if you could bring the phone back on screen, I'll show you what that looks like.
So it's this app called Geogram, right?
And so this is an XMPP client, right?
XMPP is a chat protocol, so it's just an app used to use your chat protocol.
Now, these are contacts on my phone.
I've just prettied them up a little bit.
So when I talk to Bob Smith, you see this thing.
This is a fake number, by the way.
You see this thing that looks like an email address, but that's an XMPP address that eventually will bridge out to the phone network.
You'll also see that I have a button to call him here.
So that works exactly like you think it would.
It calls him and Bob will see my number on the other end.
So when you use our service, which is above suite, which gives you this chat protocol along with a bunch of other decentralized software, such as email, Video conferencing, the VPN I was talking about, you are completing your privacy, right?
It's not just about the phone and the apps, but the services you use too.
Right.
Is it possible?
Would you mind just showing a little bit of leg and telling us what would one of these de-Google phones cost and what would like the above suite or the additional services, what would that run us?
And I think we'd all have some better contacts.
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
So the phones start at $550 and they go over $1,000 depending on which model you want.
I can talk about the differences.
So you just pay for one cost of the phone.
It's not an ongoing cost or anything.
There's no financing involved.
So you just pay for the phone and you have it.
And then if you want to get above suite, which is optional but highly recommended, so we're running email, chat, video conferencing.
I'm sure you guys heard a little bit about Zoom and what they're doing, training the video conferencing on AI. So this is a private and decentralized version of Zoom called Gypsy.
You get that, you get your own private search engine, and you get a calendar.
So you get all those services for $100 a year.
This is just the start of something really big.
Our goal is to give people who are working, to get independent of the system, all these internet utilities we have just taken for granted.
And a lot of people have taken control over it.
So we want to decentralize them.
We want to give people useful tools.
So maybe in the future they're not using Google Maps to get to their destination, but instead they have a private map shared among members of their community so they know exactly where to go to get eggs and stuff like that.
But the map, so...
I'm not as smart as my dad.
My dad used to be able to read these detailed maps, you know?
I just have my phone.
So what do I do then if I want to be able to go over, drive over to Orlando, a specific address?
These days there are no maps to be able to do that.
And will there be a map that I can use in there that goes anywhere and everywhere?
Or a map service?
Absolutely.
Yeah, absolutely.
And not just one map, we have multiple.
And I have it pulled up on the phone right now, if you want to take a look, and I can give you an example.
So, right, this is an application called OpenStreetMaps Android.
And OpenStreetMaps is a crowdsourced collection of maps and points of interest on the map.
So, it thinks I'm in Seattle right now because of the VPN. Right.
I can look up things like, you know...
Drugged out zombies on the side of the street?
Can we do the doom loop tour?
Urinali?
Feces fairway in San Francisco?
Can we go there?
I don't know if that one's on the map, but I will say this.
There have been parts of the United States that I've traveled to that I've been pleasantly surprised.
This OpenStreetMaps is not like Google.
They're not going around hoovering up all the data and all the businesses and where they're located.
This is all based on people contributing to the map.
So in European countries, the map is actually really fleshed out.
Here in America, there are some cities that do a really good job of people just like us.
So there's also this network effect, which I think people need to realize.
It's not just us using software and everything's going to be handed on to the platter.
The more we contribute, and in this case, we're adding on points to the map, The better it'll work for everyone, right?
That's cool.
We can add to it.
So what this does, this mapping app I'm using, Ausmund, this allows for offline navigation.
So you will typically download maps to your phone ahead of time, like for an entire state.
You can do the entire country, and then you can take a road trip offline.
That's cool.
You can just have your radio off, right?
Yep.
And so this is tools preparing for the future.
Can I also mention that you accept crypto as payment for...
Absolutely.
Right, right.
And including Monero, privacy coins.
Including Monero.
You know, it's not just about...
We've got to think like holistically, right?
So we're...
We're open to making it as private as possible for you.
We've accepted Bitcoin and Monero since day one.
We didn't start the shop until that.
If you look, we care about every last part of the experience.
If you look at our website and you look at the requests that are being made, there are no third parties.
We have our own data center.
All of the software that we run to manage our inventory, manage our marketing relationships, all of that is run by ourselves.
And so we really believe in limiting the trust to third parties and trying to completely self-contain everything.
And so cryptocurrency fits right in with that.
Romero, I'm just curious, where did you get the passion to be able to do this?
And why, when did you begin?
I'm just interested in a little bit of your history.
I used to be a software engineer.
Working for big tech, that was literally the aspiration for everyone in my shoes.
I've worked at multi-billion dollar companies.
I've worked at really tiny startups.
I always felt something was missing.
Like, oh wow, we're spending all this money building this product.
What is it actually going to change?
I've been awake for a very long time.
And of course, it was the height of the pandemic that really shook me out of it and made me realize that I need to do something really significant.
And I've been working with Derek Brose and John Bush at the time for the Freedom Cell Network, right?
Which back then, it was this little site.
And so I met them through a Freedom Soul meeting, and I decided, hey, I can help you guys with your website.
And they said, all right, let's work on it.
And so I ended up doing a refresh of their website.
The next year, we saw it go from 2,000 people to 30,000 people.
We put on an annual conference called The Greater Reset, which was literally international.
Love it.
Oh my God, there's so much power in technology.
You know, it starts out digital, but it turns into physical things that we're doing together.
And that's what we need.
We need a network that is, you know, bringing about these positive changes, not trying to control us.
Now, Romero, I mean, we love your philosophy, and we had John Bush here in studio a couple weeks ago, and we really support what he's doing, exit and build, right?
And Freedom Cells, which I know, Todd, you were looking up Freedom Cells in Florida also, checking that out.
But what I want to mention here is that people are sometimes afraid to take a leap out of something they know, like their Google Android phone or their iPhone, or they may not even be aware that it's a spy machine.
Like a lot of people are just oblivious, and they just blindly trust big tech, which is a horribly unwise thing to do.
But people have this impression that switching over to these phones is going to be crazy difficult or inconvenient.
And I just got to say, this is one.
I'm actually running a different OS on a Samsung here right now.
But I've also got one of your Google Pixel 7s and some other phones.
And it works flawlessly.
And then you can actually feel confident that you go to a restaurant...
You know that that's not ever going to be used against you.
Or maybe the restaurant is next to, I don't know, like an alcohol store that gets robbed.
And you're in the restaurant.
You're 50 feet away from the robbery.
Well, you can eat your hamburger at the restaurant.
You're a $50 hamburger because of inflation.
And you can then, you can know, you can live in peace knowing that you're not going to be wrapped up in some kind of geofencing warrant because something happened there, right?
So, Romero, talk to us about the ease of transitioning into this.
Yeah, absolutely.
So it is easy.
It really is easy.
There's only one physical thing you need to do, and that is put your SIM card in the phone.
And then we've got guides for everything.
But I think the most important part is just...
You've got apps.
They work all the same way.
You've got a dialer.
You've got a web browser.
And it's all conventions that you've been used to because Android has been learning from iPhone, right?
A lot of the things that make iPhone easy to use, like the gestures and everything, have been brought over.
So you're getting the best of both worlds.
You're getting these really well-defined user experiences, but in a de-Googled phone.
You're getting all the updates and latest features that Google and Apple bring to the table, but not the bad ones, right?
These developers are selectively making updates.
And also, I wanted to show you some features that you cannot do on a normal phone.
Please, go ahead.
So this is one such feature.
So I'm going to audit the permissions of this Telegram app, right?
So with this Telegram app, these permissions, you've got normal ones like camera and microphone, which you can block here, or you can even block at the phone level.
I could turn it off for the entire phone if I want.
I could turn off the radio.
I could turn off the location from up here.
But within this, I can turn off an app's network access or its internet access.
I can make them offline only.
Wow.
More than that.
We have a lot of customers in Latin America.
Down in Latin America, WhatsApp is a way of life.
So everyone uses WhatsApp.
And what does WhatsApp require?
Well, it needs access to your entire phone's images and also your contacts.
So what Graphene OS does is it allows you to actually break down which contacts you decide to share.
So I could say, okay, I'm using WhatsApp.
I want to use Alice and Eve, and I'll just give WhatsApp access to that because those are the only contacts I even use on WhatsApp.
And the rest of the people you don't actually know about.
That is so cool.
I know.
It's really revolutionary.
And you have to think about when apps suck up your contacts, they are easily creating an information graph.
There's apps that you wouldn't expect to do that, like Signal, but they do do that.
So now you have tools to just isolate, just shorten their access.
Yeah.
Now, Romero, I've been plugging your phone on my podcast for a few days.
And as a result, some of the people that we reach have already reached out to you and have acquired phones.
And I just want to know, like, what kinds of questions are you hearing from people?
Or what level of knowledge do they have?
Just give us a little taste of that so far.
Absolutely.
So the questions they have are, let's start with the simplest one.
Does it work with my cell service?
Yes.
Overwhelmingly, yes.
If you have a SIM card from 10 years ago, maybe not.
But for 99.9% of people, your cell service will work.
You simply take your old SIM card and plug it in the phone.
That means any country on earth that uses a SIM card, this will work with above phone.
So, Romero, question.
So does that then render my current iPhone that I have, my spy phone, a paperweight when I remove the SIM card and put it in the de-Google?
Well, you can use data from it, but why would you?
It's spying on you.
You should brick that sucker.
Like a nice favorite way.
So here's the beautiful thing, Todd.
You have strategies and not everything is, you know, everyone picks their own strategy.
So some people are ready.
They're ready to move off.
There's not anything they need their Apple for.
And they're more than willing to switch everything on to their above phone.
There's other people that want to use both phones at the same time, so they're kind of doing a parallel migration.
And that's completely okay, too.
The above phone, the internet phone number I'm talking about, that will work completely with Wi-Fi.
Some people decide to get a brand new cell service or even use our above SIM, our anonymous SIM that doesn't need customer data.
They decide to use that with their above phone and keep their iPhone the same way.
I've got to ask you about the above SIM. Let's not miss that one.
Yeah, absolutely.
So people ask, you know, am I going to still be able to do everything I was on my old phone?
I think that's like the biggest question.
Yes, in 99% of cases.
Now, here are the things that don't work, just to be clear.
Graphic intensive 3D applications.
So if you're using like AutoCAD on your phone or you're playing like Candy Crush or a 3D game, Not gonna happen.
The reason because is the hardened memory allocator in this phone, which basically means it's erasing memory constantly.
So, you know, other programs can't read it.
So for that reason, games don't work.
Not to say all games, but the graphic intensive ones.
The other things that you have to make adjustments to are apps that require Google services, which there's actually a lot.
Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, all of these require Google location services.
So it's not going to find out where you're at exactly automatically or anything like that.
And so you have alternatives.
Either you can use the app in the web browser, which is a nice way to adapt.
Or you can install Google Services if you even choose to.
But this version of Google Services is much better and much safer because it runs at a level as any other app on the phone, which means it doesn't have access to hardware identifiers like the serial number or IMEI or different things like that.
That's a Graphene OS feature, so it actually locks it down.
And you can install Google services on an isolated profile.
So I'll say this one last thing because I think it's really neat.
And then we'll go back to the same question.
So if you could show my phone, I actually have three separate profiles.
This is my personal phone.
And so you see the owner phone on the left, but I actually have two other phones inside my phone.
So this demo phone, it's set up with everything specific to it.
It's got its own VPN here.
This is the above VPN. You can see it's turned on.
It's got its own settings.
It's got its own apps.
So it's a way to have multiple identities on one phone.
So a lot of people decide to install Google services on this secondary phone, do their protections, make sure their main apps and main data is separated from that secondary profile and only need it for if they need to use Uber or Lyft or, you know, like an airline app or a banking app.
Wow.
So that's kind of, I mean, that's partitioning of the whole phone function right there.
So I can be Clark Kent, and then I can choose to be Superman, is what you're saying.
I love that example.
It's exactly right.
And nobody knows that Clark Kent is Superman because of the glasses, obviously.
Glasses close everybody off.
Doesn't the Druid Babylonian bastards know when you're in Clark Kent mode because you have Google services and they can see you?
No, we're saying like you would install just Google services on Superman mode.
Won't that track your phone?
I mean...
So the way it works, right, it's a network connection.
So when Google services connects, the main thing it gets is an Android ID. Which the Android IG regularly changes.
So because it's not running at a privileged level, it's not getting any device identifiers.
So if you're using a VPN, it's not actually seeing where you're connecting from.
So that's the big deal.
That's part number one.
Part number two is, remember, Google services is entirely optional.
You only need it if they're apps you absolutely must use the app for.
And again, they're workarounds.
So you can keep that off the phone.
I recommend that people keep it off the phone.
I think the workarounds work great.
I agree.
I don't run Google services at all on any of my de-Googled phones, and I never have.
But then again, I don't use Uber and Lyft because I own a vehicle.
And, I mean, I'm an adult.
I drive a car.
Well, a truck.
I'm a Texan, okay?
I'll just go all the way.
All the line.
I drive a truck, and I don't go to Airbnbs either, so I don't need any of that stuff.
And when you don't have the truck, you have the horse, right?
So all your bases are...
What browser does it run?
It uses a browser called Vanadium, which is a hardened version of Google's Chromium browser, right?
So it's another instance of taking Google's browser and stripping all of the requests to Google out of it.
I do want to mention, too, that we are working on a laptop soon, and it'll be released in the next week or two.
One of the things that's really special about this phone and why I recommend you get involved, every single one of the services we run can be run on your laptop.
I call this universal internet utility.
It doesn't matter what device you use, whether it's the above phone, your laptop.
Even your iPhone.
Everything we're running is designed to be run on any device, right?
And that's the freedom to travel.
That's the freedom to migrate.
So this will be available, yeah, in the next two weeks.
And you'll see the email sign up on our website if you guys want to get more information.
I'm really...
Oh my gosh.
I'm totally fascinated, yeah.
Should I be second-guessing my computer purchase that I made yesterday?
No, no, no.
You need that system as a desktop system.
But I think we both need to get one of these above-phone laptops.
Is it going to be called an above-laptop?
It's called Above Book.
Above Book?
We'll have Above Books for both of you.
You're going to love it.
Okay, yeah.
If I were head of marketing, I would have just called it Lap Dance.
The Lap Dancer.
Sorry.
Maybe like a pole as a logo or something?
Yeah, there you go.
Where you absolutely need geolocation privacy.
If you're going out and getting lap dances, you better be paying with Monero or cash.
I don't know.
So the cool part, right, is like these universal internet utilities.
So imagine this.
You're sending text messages from your laptop.
You can do that.
The phone number on my business card, those text messages go to my laptop.
I can reply in the same way.
We're working on deploying a software that will let you do phone calls in the browser.
Again, this is, you know, this is anonymous because you're not putting in any personal information to get this phone number.
It works internationally.
People can call you and leave voicemails and that turns out to be a little voice message that you can play.
It has all of the functionality, if not more than a regular phone.
So that's the really exciting part.
Man, Romero, I'm just so thrilled that we met and that you're offering these solutions and that you know so much about this and you're putting these together.
I feel like every person in America should be using...
I mean, this should be the default, is de-Googled.
And people just don't know that they're using all these spy phone devices.
But I got to ask you, Romero, who was the kid at the event that was running around inviting everybody to see your presentation at the booth?
Because that was like salesman of the year.
That kid is amazing.
I forgot his name.
We were working on a barter situation where he was like, hey, please have a phone for me.
I'll promote you everywhere.
And so I was like, all right, let's do it.
And I was holding...
If you're out there, if you see this, I still have your phone.
He didn't end up coming the last day, so I still have a phone for him.
That kid is awesome, and I'd like to see him at Comic-Con like he was promising.
Oh, you mean so?
Okay, so you don't know where...
Like, he hasn't been in touch?
He was there with his parents.
And yeah, I was telling him, come by with your parents.
Let's talk about it.
Let's see what we can do.
And unfortunately, it didn't happen.
But maybe it'll make its way around again.
Well, he has a future in sales and marketing.
I can guarantee you that.
Because he came up to us multiple times.
And everybody in that building, he was like, you've got to see the above phone presentation.
It's really amazing.
And it's starting in three minutes.
How old was he?
Like 11?
To 12, 13?
Something like that?
Yeah.
He was really good, man.
You know what would be cool?
You know what would be cool, Mike?
Romero, let's find him and then do another one of these where, you know, we ask his opinion, right?
Yes, let him use it and get the kid's perspective of the above phone.
But anyway, I mean, that's...
I thought maybe he was a family member or something because he was really effective.
But literally, that's how I found out about you.
And then I went to your table and then got your material.
And the rest is history.
And here we are talking about this.
So you just never know.
You completed the loop with that one.
Yeah, because I mean, you know, he came up to me the first thing I was there and he was like, I'll promote you.
And you really didn't know what to expect.
Well, turns out he booked me an interview with Mike Adams.
Exactly.
I mean, you should definitely find him and give him a phone because he's earned it for sure.
But anyway, Todd, I was interrupting you.
I'm sorry.
What did you want to say?
No, I was just thinking that it's, you know, Romero, it's people like you that with my new website, Mike, I'll just share it.
It's decentralizeddirectory.com.
My want is to populate it with companies' solutions just like yours that are dedicated to decentralization.
So I want to talk to you about that at some point to be able to feature you in there.
It's a perfect fit.
Yeah.
Yeah, I would love that.
The laptop is just, you had me at hello on that because I'm like literally in the market right now for a laptop.
Well, it's only a week or two away, right?
Yes.
And so here's the big takeaway I had.
It's like, why are all these ecosystems so effective?
Why is all the software you use in Apple, why is it so nice?
It's all because it's integrated together.
They've made an ecosystem.
And with my team, we've been thinking about how can we integrate all of these different decentralized pieces to make it fluid?
And we've been figuring it out.
We've been finding the best software.
And yeah, so I'm really excited.
It's going to have industry standard features like full disk encryption.
And then you're going to be able to do pretty much everything you would expect.
When you open the browser, it's already made as private as possible.
You've got all the same communication services.
What about like word processing?
What I think of is just Outlook.
OpenOffice, right?
Wouldn't you just put OpenOffice on there?
Oh, there's such a thing.
See, I'm not an Android guy.
LibreOffice.
Libre?
No, I meant on the laptop.
Yes, I think it's called LibreOffice.
What OS is the laptop running?
Is it running Android?
It's going to be running Linux.
Oh, okay.
That makes more sense.
I'm so excited.
So perfect for your crypto wallets, too, there, Todd.
Yeah.
Oh, I'm so excited.
I want to just mention one thing, too, because I think this is super important.
Mike, I know you guys have been talking about CVDCs and how those are going to be rolled out.
I want people to realize these pipelines, this technology that we go to the store and we're given choice A or choice B, it's exactly through these mainstream means that they're going to That they're going to try to change human behavior, right?
So collectively, Google and Apple have access to 7 billion phones where they have the ability to roll out software updates.
They have the ability to install apps on your phone, and they did that during the height of contact tracing.
They actually forcibly installed a contact tracing app to over a million phones in Massachusetts.
Wow.
So that turned Bluetooth on.
That started pinging.
They were able to do that remotely.
So they have this capacity, and when it gets time to, you know, they've already worked on this infrastructure where they can go ahead and talk to state health departments, and they collaborate, and they share files, and Google and Apple will offer to make the state a contact tracing solution for free.
They've already kind of set up how to interact with state and federal agencies.
When it's time to roll out the CBDCs, my prediction within like the next two to three years, Google and Apple will roll out their own solution and it'll be available everywhere at once.
So, you know, that's how they...
That's huge breaking news, what you just said.
I think you just nailed it.
I didn't think of that before.
You're right.
It's not like people are going to have to go download some new app from the Federal Reserve or anything.
They're just going to pick up their spy phone, their Android one day, and open it up, and it's like, welcome to your universal basic income.
You're already enrolled.
It's going to be a mobile rape.
Yeah, no, it's going to say, look closely into the camera so we can scan your eyeballs for self-identity and whatever, and then You're already in.
You're in by default.
You're right, Romero.
That's the way they're going to do it.
Wow.
Absolutely.
I learned this.
I'm doing a longer investigative piece on my educational initiative, which is called Take Back Our Tech.
TakebackRtech.org.
And so it goes into the contact tracing lie, how it's based on flawed science in the first place.
Using Bluetooth packets doesn't actually work to get the right distance from each other.
Even if, you know, the distance was a way to stop the spread of any of this.
But it also goes into, all right, what happened between Google and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health for them to authorize a mass deployment onto over a million phones?
So they're currently being sued by the New Civil Liberties Association.
The good one, right.
Yeah.
So, yeah, we'll see how it plays out.
And then, you know, there's all these other companies behind the scenes that are...
When you buy a phone from the store, like a Samsung phone...
They also have these elevated privileges that would allow them to do special things like that, right?
So that's just something to watch out for, and I hope we can all detoxify our devices so we live in a climate.
Operation Detox.
That's the perfect metaphor.
Yeah, detoxify your phone and de-Google your phone.
And take the evil out of the Google hardware.
Now, I've got to ask you about the anonymous SIM cards.
So through your company, abovephone.com slash DTV... And again, we are an affiliate of Above Phone, and I'm thrilled to be an affiliate of yours, by the way, Ramiro.
You have the best solution.
I bought de-Googled phones.
I bought them on eBay.
I bought them from Hong Kong.
I bought them from different places.
And they come with kind of like a mishmash of apps that sometimes work and sometimes don't.
It's not as sweet like what you offer.
You have the best solution that I've ever seen.
But the data-only SIM cards that you offer where people can buy the data with Monero, that is perfect because it disconnects your identity or your credit card or your social from the data that the cell towers are passing that is perfect because it disconnects your identity or your credit card or So tell us about that, Ramiro.
I think it's critical.
We launched this data-only sim earlier this year.
And what we were going for was, okay, we are promoting internet-based communications.
What do we even need phone calls and texts for?
And so through a partner, we were able to provide these above SIMs, which, like you mentioned, you can pay for in Bitcoin, you can pay for in Monero, and there's no contracts.
So it's pay-as-you-go.
When you buy one of the SIM cards for $100, it comes with 5 gigabytes of data.
You use that over time, and then you refresh.
I think it's like $7 a gigabyte from there, right, in a yearly activation fee.
But again, it's pay-as-you-go.
There's no contracts.
You can pay in Bitcoin.
You can pay in Monero.
Most importantly, we don't need any piece of information from you.
The last thing I'll mention about this is I don't want to misinform people if people are going to go off-grid, but just Inherently, the way cellular data works, it is going to connect the radio towers.
The radio towers are going to have an idea that, all right, here's this new SIM card.
It's connecting to the network using this phone.
There are IDs transferred just as a part of doing that.
So I don't want to mislead people in thinking that, all right, if I use this SIM card, I'm going to be completely gone off the grid.
Not necessarily, but you're making it that much harder for them to tie an identity to the person who's using that Zoom card.
So I think they're a great solution.
Yeah, and I would add, Ramiro, that I think it's a good practice to have entirely new hardware, such as a new Google Pixel phone from your company.
And then put that data-only anonymous SIM card in that hardware so that that hardware and that IMEI number and that SIM card number, all of that, has never ever touched a Google login.
It's never been associated with any app or any Google packets at any time.
So that's why I would even say to people, like you were talking about, Todd, can you take your SIM card out of your current phone and plug it into this phone?
Yes, you can.
But then there is some tying information of the SIM card.
I think I'm just going to have two phones.
A lot of people do that.
And, and, you know, I roll around with this, that, that is data only.
I don't have a regular phone number.
I can't receive phone calls or texts on this phone.
It's only data.
And that's, that's by design.
That's the way I like to do it.
It's the way you roll.
Yeah.
And people say, well, I can't call you on the regular phone.
And I, and I'm like, well, use these other apps.
It's, It's that simple.
If you want to reach me, there's just a better way to do it.
And, you know, it's kind of like, Todd, you know how when we talked about Like when I make donations now, I'm only donating in crypto.
Yes.
And this is the way we help evangelize these concepts.
It's like, okay, hey, do you want to get some free money because we're doing some donations and you're doing some great work?
And they're like, yeah.
And I'm like, okay, install this wallet and then send me your receive address and then you're going to get it.
And if you don't want the money, then don't install a wallet.
Yeah.
But Mike, the problem with that is it's going to give you too much time back because you aren't going to have to go to the bank and answer a million questions and troubleshoot.
Hey, Ramiro, I have a question.
So I have a world famous dog.
His name is Zamipop.
If you look him up on Instagram, he's a children's hospital therapy dog, voted floofiest dog of Instagram.
I take a lot of video of Zammy, especially when he's with the kids.
And this is probably a stupid question, but I'm just not an Android guy.
It has the ability to have the camera, have the video, and how much storage is on there to be able to save videos and pictures and such.
Great, great question.
So yes, the dog sounds awesome.
And so all of her phones have good cameras, all the phones listed on the site, I would say.
So I've got it up on my screen.
But if you scroll down, if you press the shop button, it'll take you down to all the phones.
If you're, you know, if you take a lot of photos, it's getting the Pixel 7 Pro because that's going to have the latest generation camera, 48 megapixel camera with optical zoom.
That's a lot of pixels, man.
A lot of megapixels even.
And so, yeah, I would recommend that.
And what about the storage, the memory?
Yeah.
With the 7 Pro, you can get multiple types.
So all the phones have at least 128 gigabytes of storage.
The 7 Pro, you can get in 256 and 512.
I will say that we've just been running out of 512.
It's very hard to find 512.
But 256 and 128 are available.
We have a bank of phones in stock.
They're going to go pretty fast.
So, you know, if you guys order a phone and we're going to have to resupply, I would just recommend getting it earlier rather than later.
I know that there's a big audience watching this.
And yeah, so that's just what I would suggest.
But we'll be doing our best to refresh inventory as fast as we can.
Let me add a terabyte right here.
This is a terabyte Samsung.
Yeah.
So I don't know if Google Pixel phones even go to a terabyte.
Maybe they do.
I was going to ask for two terabytes.
Two terabytes.
That's a lot of fluffy dog videos right there.
I'll do you one better.
How about this?
The phone will do its thing, but I'm going to give you a really easy way to save your videos and photos on the above book, either through a private decentralized syncing software or just this handy-dandy USB drive, which let's see if that will let it focus.
Okay, so you can see that this side's like kind of tiny.
So this plugs into the phone.
It's USB-C. Oh, cool.
And then the other side plugs into the computer.
So this is the same amount of space on the phone.
So you can literally take everything on the phone, pop it in the computer, and...
Oh, brilliant.
Brilliant.
Mike, would you be kind enough to give me Romero's contact information after this?
Yeah, absolutely.
No, of course.
I love everything I heard today.
You've got to get one of these phones, for sure.
And we need the laptops as well.
But I just want to say, Romero, I mean, first of all, it's brilliant what you're doing.
I'm so thrilled to have made this contact.
And we've got to find that kid and somehow thank him with...
Whatever is going to make his day.
But the bottom line is everybody watching this needs to use this technology that you're talking about.
And in all fairness, like you said, Ramiro, people can go to the Graphene OS website and they can download it.
And if you want to go through the steps and flash your own phone, which I've looked at, it's a little cumbersome, honestly.
You've got to be kind of technically oriented to do it.
But you can do it yourself at no cost, right?
Or if you want above phone to do it, That's the address, abovephone.com slash DTV, with the suite of software that that's what really makes it special, like you're talking about.
So you've put together something really amazing here.
Amazing.
And everybody, it is not an expense.
This is an investment in your freedom.
That's the other way you have to look at this.
And, you know, Mike, you've been the tip of the spear with all of this, and I feel kind of like a chump carrying around my spy phone, but not after today's interview.
I actually have a tip of the spear right here.
Yes, you do!
Yeah, so...
We'll get you set up, Todd.
And I just want to mention, too, that when you're purchasing a phone through us, we're trying to support all of these software developers that are working on the apps and working on the software.
We donate to GrapheneOS.
We donate to the apps on the phone.
So in a way, you're helping support the ecosystem when you get it from us.
I do want to just do one last thing as a public service announcement.
This is just something that is important to me.
But Ethernet adapters.
Whether you have an above phone or you don't, take a look at Ethernet adapters because it turns out you can wire your phone using an Ethernet adapter and then you can make internet phone calls without any radiation.
I've done talks on radiation for the World Council of Health.
And yeah, the health effects coming from our mobile phones are really, really bad, right?
So when I'm using my phone home at the office, there's zero radiation.
Everything is wired.
And when I do phone calls, those are usually wired as well.
So I would just recommend everyone to avoid brain tumors, which we can see are going up.
Glilial brain tumors are going up simply because of the usage of these phones.
Keep it away from you or use an Ethernet adapter.
You don't necessarily need an above phone to do this.
So that's just a USB-C plug-in and then an RJ45 jack on the other end?
That's right.
Yeah.
Wow.
And it typically works a lot better on Android than it does on iPhone.
Yeah, iPhone doesn't work.
Okay.
Hey, by the way, speaking of iPhone, this is kind of funny, but yesterday, after four years of us being banned, Apple has now approved our app for naturalnews.com.
After we sent them a legal letter threatening to sue them.
Oh, that's right.
You have to spend about $50,000 to get them to stop being assholes.
Wow.
Congratulations, Mike.
Yep.
So, that's what it takes.
I'm sorry that they're happening, you know, but, you know, it just goes to show that we cannot count on them to distribute the truth, right?
We just have to put all of it into our own hands.
You know, maybe we can help you build a progressive web app for natural news.
Oh, I also wanted to show off one thing.
Well, that last thing, I promise.
Yeah, no, please, go ahead.
So I've got a private way to watch YouTube here.
So I'm showing you on the phone screen.
And look, I've got the Health Ranger report here.
I know YouTube probably faces censorship on the daily.
But I wanted to show you one thing.
This is an app called New Pipe.
It is better than YouTube itself.
See?
Yeah, I don't have a channel on YouTube.
That's somebody else sort of helping us get it on YouTube that I don't even know.
I have one, though.
What?
I have one, so I'm really intrigued.
Okay, go ahead, Romero.
Yeah.
You can download the video to your phone, right?
Just here.
Download.
You can download the audio to your phone.
This app gives you more control, and you're literally downloading it from YouTube.
There's no ads at all when you're using this app.
I love it.
You can play it in the background.
Screw YouTube!
I love it!
Download music.
So it's like, you know, we're taking the power back with all the music.
Now is that going to be just bass in the app?
Is that going to be just part of...
Part of the suite that's on the phone?
It's actually not even a part of R Suite.
It's just an app called NewPipe.
And yeah, so they only connect to Google video servers to actually stream the video.
And then everything else, they scrape the metadata so you don't have to use the YouTube app, which is constantly learning off of your interactions and giving you recommendations.
So it's all the best parts of YouTube without tracking you.
And more features that you would have to pay for using the official YouTube app.
That's brilliant.
Man, I got to tell you, Ramiro, you seem like the perfect guy to just hang out with and learn amazing stuff.
You got to stop by the studio.
Hey, I have a table full of amazing knives.
You want to barter some knives for phones?
I would love to borrow some knives for Thorn.
I'm a big fan of Thorn myself.
Really?
Okay, well, I've got these.
I mean, this is the MagnaCut Alloy, and I'm a co-designer of these knives, and these knives are corrosion-resistant and incredible.
I mean, so look, I will trade you knives for phones, de-Googled phones, all day long.
And food!
We've got food, too, so you come shopping.
We don't need banks anymore.
It's all just straight goods.
I need to eat.
I need knives to protect myself.
Perfect.
You are welcome here.
Keep me posted when you can get to Central Texas and we'll have a blast bartering stuff.
We'd love to hang out with you, Mike.
Let me know, Mike.
Let's plan that because I've got to come out and get those cigars.
I know.
I have a box of cigars for you right over here.
It's sitting over there on the control board.
Indeed.
Okay.
All right.
Well, Ramiro, we're going to thank you for joining us today.
Todd and I will continue a few minutes of discussion, what we call the after party.
But this has been amazing.
I mean, you taught me stuff today I didn't even know, and I've been using this.
So, amazing stuff.
Thank you for what you do.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity.
Thank you guys for shining your light and spreading the message.
And yeah, just always remember, our connection is sacred.
Well said.
And I just want to let you know that I am demystified now with regard to all of this.
It was kind of a scary thought to me, but you cleared everything up for me to where now I'm just, I'm hyper excited about my next chapter with a de-Google phone.
It's great.
Oh, yeah.
You're going to have your food forest and your phone and your laptop.
I know.
Your whole life is getting revolutionized.
It is.
It's pretty cool.
It got on Bill Gates.
What?
Out of the device.
What was that?
It was like an exorcism twist on Bill Gates.
Like, get out of my device.
Yeah, that's so true.
Oh, man.
All right.
Well, very cool, Romero.
Thank you so much.
Have a great day.
Keep in touch, and we'll talk soon.
Absolutely.
Cheers.
All right.
Thank you.
All right.
Okay.
Well, thanks for watching, everybody.
And thank you, Todd.
Have a great evening.
All right.
Have a great weekend.
Okay.
Cheers, everyone.
All right.
Bye.
A global reset is coming.
And that's why I've recorded a new nine-hour audiobook.
It's called The Global Reset Survival Guide.
You can download it for free by subscribing to the naturalnews.com email newsletter, which is also free.
I'll describe how the monetary system fails.
I also cover emergency medicine and first aid and what to buy to help you avoid infections.
So download this guide.
It's free.
▲
Export Selection