I asked a similar question about the Pinebook Pro a while back and they got back to me very quickly:
"The keyboard firmware which include privacy switch can be update thru utility, please check out: https://github.com/ayufan-rock64/pineboo...rd-updater
Please note that the ARM CPU on Pinebook Pro cannot directly control/overwrite the privacy switch.
Regards,
Support team #1"
Someone would need to email support to verify this but i'd guess the Pinephone similarly asks a chip to turn hardware on/off rather than breaking the connection directly and this chip can probably be written to from the operating system so technically someone with a lot of Pinephone know-how and the ability to run something with root privileges on your phone could turn these back on.
I can't speak to why these aren't direct kill switches but here's my guess:
- Cutting power suddenly could cause software problems and the devs already have their hands full.
- Returning power suddenly could cause voltage drops.
- It may be considerably complex within the provided space to route direct power to the dip switches.
That I know of... there isn't a phone or laptop that exists with absolute/direct power off kill switches. That said... i'd like one
"The keyboard firmware which include privacy switch can be update thru utility, please check out: https://github.com/ayufan-rock64/pineboo...rd-updater
Please note that the ARM CPU on Pinebook Pro cannot directly control/overwrite the privacy switch.
Regards,
Support team #1"
Someone would need to email support to verify this but i'd guess the Pinephone similarly asks a chip to turn hardware on/off rather than breaking the connection directly and this chip can probably be written to from the operating system so technically someone with a lot of Pinephone know-how and the ability to run something with root privileges on your phone could turn these back on.
I can't speak to why these aren't direct kill switches but here's my guess:
- Cutting power suddenly could cause software problems and the devs already have their hands full.
- Returning power suddenly could cause voltage drops.
- It may be considerably complex within the provided space to route direct power to the dip switches.
That I know of... there isn't a phone or laptop that exists with absolute/direct power off kill switches. That said... i'd like one