The Controversial UP Phone: A Privacy-Focused Smartphone with a Shady Past

Unplugged, a company cofounded and backed by Erik Prince, the founder of infamous private military contractor Blackwater, has just released a new version of its "privacy-first" UP Phone that will be made in the US — at some point. The original UP Phone was described by the company as “the ultimate privacy-focused smartphone” and by privacy platform GrapheneOS as “a clear cut scam.”

Now, Unplugged has launched a “major update” to the phone. Echoing claims made by Trump Mobile regarding its T1 Phone, Unplugged says that it has plans to build the updated UP Phone in the US later this year, “creating jobs domestically, improving quality control, and reducing dependence on foreign supply chains.”

A Relaunch of the Same Hardware

The company describes this as a “relaunch” of the phone, but the hardware remains seemingly identical: a four-year-old MediaTek Dimensity 1200 chipset, 6.67-inch OLED display, 8GB RAM, and a triple rear camera led by a 108-megapixel main lens. The price remains the same, too: $989, only $10 cheaper than an iPhone 16 Pro or Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus.

The phone runs on UnpluggedOS, an Android fork that doesn’t include Google Mobile Services. It comes with a suite of privacy-centric features like a built-in firewall, a “no-logs” VPN, a dedicated Privacy Center app for managing your data, and, most interestingly, a hardware switch that “physically disables circuits” to entirely cut the phone’s power when it’s switched off.

A Modest Claims to Security

All these features were on the original phone, but Unplugged says that the OS, which used to be called LibertOS, has been “refreshed” with a “more intuitive UI, faster performance, and deeper privacy customization.” When I asked for more details on those manufacturing plans, I was told that the phones are currently made in Indonesia, which is where non-US models will continue to be manufactured — though the phone is currently only available to buy in the US and Canada.

Unplugged says it will eventually “hand-assemble” its US models domestically, including testing and quality assurance, though it admits that components will still be sourced from abroad. Privacy-centric phones aren’t new. John McAfee announced his own “hack-proof” phone in 2017, the likes of the Freedom Phone have capitalized on American patriotism to sell “free speech” phones, and /e/OS and GrapheneOS are open-source alternatives that emphasize efforts to keep your data out of the hands of tech giants like Google.

A Cautionary Tale of Trust

But can you trust Unplugged? The answer is complicated. You won’t find Erik Prince, Blackwater’s founder and Trump donor, on the website, with Unplugged more keen to promote its new CEO, Joe Weil, who previously led a special projects team at Apple.

But cofounder Prince isn’t too far away. He promotes the UP Phone on every episode of his podcast, Off Leash with Erik Prince, and has discussed it on The Tucker Carlson Show and elsewhere. He once even claimed that the phone could have prevented Hamas’s attack on October 7th, 2023. Rightly or wrongly, it’s partly because of his involvement that so many are suspicious of Unplugged’s motives.

Security Experts Weigh In

Christoph Hebeisen, director of security intelligence research at mobile security firm Lookout, described those to me as “definitely an overstatement” and “essentially meaningless,” respectively, so it’s for the best that Unplugged’s current claims are more modest.

Nicholas Weaver, a networking researcher at the International Computer Science Institute, suggested those worried about privacy are generally better off sticking to the major players. “If I need a really secure device it is going to be an iPhone, running Signal, with Lockdown Mode enabled and all cloud synchronization disabled,” he says.

A Complicated Picture

The UP Phone does offer features that an iPhone won’t give you, at least not out of the box. Hebeisen acknowledges that the kill switch is “not relevant for most users” but could be useful for “highly exposed users whose potential adversaries include nation states.”

But there’s also reason to be skeptical of Unplugged itself. Browse Reddit and you’ll find plenty of posts accusing the UP Phone of being a “honey pot,” just like Anom.