You can’t always turn off your mobile phone or small tablet device when you travel. In most cases, customers use the GoDark® Faraday Bag for short periods of heightened privacy concerns, but they still need quick access to their phone and camera or other devices for safety or other reasons.

Journalists, activists, business travelers, and anyone else who wants to preserve their privacy and protect their data can still take comfort in knowing they can have their mobile phones out and photos rolling or emergency calls dialed while others wait for their phones to power up.

Good question. Several systems and subsystems comprise modern smartphones. One of these subsystems, often referred to as the baseband, controls and operates the radio transmitter and receiver. It can operate interdependently from your phone’s main operating system. This allows your devices to appear to be “turned off” while the radio subsystem remains powered and operational.

When you turn your phone off, it can instead enter a low-power state with full receiving and transmitting capability and you would never know it. The screen will turn off. You would not detect heat either, so it would provide the false impression that your phone turned off and keeps you safe from tracking. Apple’s “Find My” app offers a good example of this.

According to Apple, “Find My helps you locate this iPhone when it is lost or stolen, even when it is in power reserve mode or when powered off.”

As operating systems evolve, it becomes more difficult to know for certain when our phones, tablets, laptops, and other mobile devices operate and what programs run in an always-on state. Those who need privacy can turn to the GoDark® Faraday Bag to get peace of mind.

If you think airplane mode will save you, this could be a costly mistake. Setting your phone to airplane mode only prevents your device from transmitting, not receiving. Your phone or other digital devices still records data like location history and transmits it later when you reconnect. The GoDark® Privacy Bag prevents this by blocking incoming GPS and cell signals used by your phone to record your location. Since this stops devices from recording, they have nothing to share or transmit later.

Our GoDark® bag uses RF shielding fabric that passed the  MIL-STD-188-125-2 test, a standardized military test for EMP shielding effectiveness of small transportable containers. We use two layers of this RF shielding fabric in every GoDark® phone, tablet, and dry bag. We then cover the interior of the bag with a soft felt liner to protect the screen on your phone or other electronic devices.

These bags offer your electronic devices protection from EMF damage and data snooping. Using one of these bags to protect your devices shields them from EMPs, blocks GPS signals, stops cell phone tracking, and blocks EMF signals, including 4G, 5G, Wifi, and Bluetooth.

Yes, we believe GoDark® Faraday Bags offer strong protection from an EMP.  

The GoDark® RF shielding fabric used in each GoDark® Faraday Bag has been independently lab tested to exceed 100 dB of EMF signal attenuation and has passed the MIL-STD-188-125-2 standardized military test for High Altitude EMP shielding.

All GoDark Faraday Bags are built to deliver high-performance signal blocking. Our standard 2-layer models provide excellent everyday protection and are trusted by military and law enforcement.

We’ve recently introduced upgraded 3-layer versions for extra shielding in high-interference areas — like near cell towers, boosters, or certain government/military equipment. If you’re still experiencing signal leakage in such environments, a 3-layer bag may be the better choice.