Make the privacy SHIFT happen with the new Murena SHIFTphone 8 and its hardware kill switch
According to the UN, every year, about 50 million tons of electronic waste are generated worldwide. A large part of it comes from short-lived smartphones. Although we are more or less aware of this problem, we struggle to change our habits.
Sustainable smartphones as the new normal
To make change happen, someone has to start it. So why not begin by selecting your smartphone as carefully as you would choose your car? You wouldn’t simply replace it just because the button to scroll down the window is broken, right?
The demand for repairable smartphones is steadily growing, and at Murena, we firmly believe that all smartphones should be modular and easy to repair. That’s why we carefully select hardware partners who share this vision. SHIFT is a great example of how sustainable innovation can take many forms.
SHIFT creates sustainable products designed for a long-term, empowering users to repair their devices themselves. If something breaks, you can open the device for repair without voiding the warranty. When you no longer use the phone, you can send it back to receive a refund plus its residual value. SHIFT then refurbishes the devices and sells them as “second life” products or uses the still-working modules.
As SHIFT’s CEO, Carsten Waldeck, said – he and his brother Samuel founded SHIFTphone to bring a little more light into a world that can sometimes feel quite dark. So when they share their slogan, “Sustainable technology. With love. From Germany.”– they mean it.
Cam and mic off – Privacy on: Meet the Murena SHIFTphone 8 with its privacy kill switch
Meet the result of our collaboration with SHIFT: The new Murena SHIFTphone 8 runs on privacy-focused /e/OS and has an extra privacy-tool: The hardware kill switch.
This hardware kill switch physically severs the electronic connection to the mic and camera, ensuring they’re completely deactivated. Unlike software-based solutions, it adds an uncompromising physical layer of security. To activate the hardware kill switch, simply remove the back cover and use a small tool like a needle or paperclip.
Combined with the SHIFTphone 8s fully modular design (18 user-replaceable modules) and IP66 water resistance, it’s built for those who demand control over their device and their data.
Its dual 50MP camera with pixel-binning delivers sharp, low-light photos and 4K video – without ever compromising your privacy. Thanks to the hardware kill switch, you decide when the camera is active, ensuring no unwanted access.
Focusing on the users’ privacy with transparency
At Murena, our main priority is to protect users from permanent personal data collection. As Murena’s founder and CEO Gaël Duval says: “I knew I had to break free from the Big Techs’ industrial data surveillance – and quickly realized I wasn’t the only one.”
He was right: by 2025, nearly 100,000 people – primarily in Western countries – are using /e/OS to protect their private data from Big Tech surveillance. /e/OS is an open source operating system with Advanced Privacy features to prevent tracking and protect your data which is available for free on over 200 different Android devices.
To make it even easier for you to use an operating system without Google, Murena provides smartphones and tablets that already run on /e/OS.
Murena gives you a real choice: The choice to keep your data safe from Big Tech – but also the choice to use mainstream apps, if you do wish to.
And now, together with SHIFT, we give you another choice: The choice to buy a sustainable smartphone, that protects not only the environment, but also your personal data – on a hardware level. It is available now in European Union, UK, Switzerland and New Zealand.
“Our collaboration with SHIFT is a big step for European tech sovereignty. The Murena SHIFTphone 8 combines sustainability, user repairability, and hardware-level privacy, proving that technology and ethics can go hand in hand.” (Gaël Duval, Murena founder and CEO)
3 Comments
This is good and I’ll keep this in mind when replacing my ageing iPhone12. I find it difficult, however, to be entirely optimistic that such ingenuity puts us in a better position to resist comprehensive surveillance and commodification of our personal data when the “data traps” multiply around us like mushrooms after an autumn rain.
I’ve just had to replace my car and I bought a state-of-the-art Renault Rafale. Essentially, as soon as I sit in that car, all my efforts to secure my online and telecoms privacy are comprehensively defeated.
The car requires a Google account to operate its advanced features. A connection, wired or Bluetooth, to my smartphone is helpful for some features. (The car also comes with a built-in data sim card, courtesy of Orange, which doesn’t seem to be easily swappable for another telecoms provider; after a short few months, onboard connectivity attracts a fee). Between the data leaked to the car manufacturer (whose app helpfully, or unhelpfully if your privacy matters more, tracks the car and its battery charge), to Google (which requires a google account for a fully operational driver profile) via eg the onboard satnav (even if the driver uses their preferred satnav, mirrored from their phone to the dash screen), data collected from the 4 cameras, from the driver vigilance monitor, and from the compulsory onboard microphone (my understanding is that a cam and mic kill switch wouild be illegal), I do feel quite exposed, especially as I’m unsure of the quality of data / systems security deployed onboard, on multiple remote servers, and in between, and I’m not at liberty to plug in and strengthen such security. There basically precious little difference, in terms of digital privacy, between using this car or comprehensively monitored public transport.
Of course I’m aware that Chinese- and American-made cars fare even worse in terms of data protection (ie none whatsoever) but that’s hardly worth pointing out. I bought a European-made car…
In short: A “Renault by Shift+Murena” would be a dashing, trailblazing innovation move (especially if it came with the freedom to chose the sim card provider, to customize data security, to block all data and surveillance leaks, and at least temporarily to kill indiscrete devices whenever necessary), a move that all (journalists, senior decision makers, security personnel, victims of harassment or stalking) who are legitimately concerned by a need for privacy or security would surely note !
In what country is the SHIFTphone 8 made?
Its manufacturing is based in China. The SHIFT team has chosen this approach because, in their view, it does not make sense to ship raw materials around the world for processing in Germany. They pay particular attention to fair working conditions. To learn more, you can read this blog article:https://www.shift.eco/en/german-smartphone-manufacturer-but-made-in-china-why-thats-not-a-contradiction/