We trust our devices with our sensitive data, so we want to have control over them. With that in mind, we started working on something we were really excited about back in April 2024: a hardware kill switch. No software tricks, just reliable physical switches that allow you to physically disable WiFi, Bluetooth, camera and microphone. Simple, direct and reliable. At least, that was the plan.
A good idea. On paper…
The idea was simple, two separate switches: one for WiFi + Bluetooth and one for camera + microphone. With a single slide, you could be sure that your device was truly offline and that no one could watch or listen to you. We tested the first versions in our prototypes starting in April 2024.
Limited space
As is often the case with innovations, the idea turned out to be a lot harder to make in practice than on the drawing board.
The problem: the space in the laptop’s case was limited, much more limited than we had expected.
Fitting the hardware kill switch without interfering with other components quickly became a technical puzzle.
Development costs
In addition to the technical challenges, costs were also rising very rapidly. Developing a reliable solution for such a sensitive and critical function is not cheap, as we soon discovered.
The purchase price of the switches alone would have exceeded 100 EUR per unit, not including the costs for installation and the necessary modifications to the laptop’s case. This would have had a significant impact on the final price of the device.
Reliability
And then there was the most important reason: reliability. In our internal tests, the switches sometimes failed. They did not always switch properly, broke quickly and were inconsistent in practice.
In a role that is designed to provide safety and security, “usually works” is simply not good enough: it has to work properly and consistently. All the prototypes we have tested so far are simply not reliable enough in practice.
What’s next?
We have therefore decided not to market the hardware kill switches. That’s a shame, because the idea was good and there is definitely a demand for it among users. But quality is very important. When we create something in the field of privacy, it has to be 100% right. No half measures.
Does this mean we’re done thinking about these kinds of features? Not at all. We’re always looking for smarter and more reliable ways to give users a higher level of control. For example, we already have an option to disable the camera via the firmware, or even to have the camera+microphone module removed entirely. You can still use an external webcam. By the way, this option is also available for the WiFi module.
Tristan van Rijn
