Ask HN: Why don't form-fitting Faraday iPhone cases exist?
by par_12 on 1/28/2026, 9:05:12 PM
I've been researching privacy tech and noticed something odd:<p>Camera slider cases exist (Spy-Fy, etc.) - they block physical camera access but offer no signal protection.<p>Faraday bags exist (SLNT, Mission Darkness, etc.) - they block all RF signals but you have to remove your phone from its case and put it in a pouch.<p>But nobody makes a form-fitting iPhone case that integrates both - a case you leave on your phone with a deployable Faraday shield you can toggle on/off without removing the device.<p>I spent some time doing market research and built out a full concept deck I'd be happy to share. The competitive gap seems real: - Current privacy case market: $30-40 camera sliders - Current Faraday bag market: $60-100 pouches - Integrated dual-mode case: Would sit at $149-249<p>The use case seems obvious: people who want on-demand full privacy (cameras + signals) without the friction of removing their phone from a case and putting it in a bag.<p>So my question for the HN community:<p>Why doesn't this exist?<p>Is it: - Engineering impossible? (Can't get proper RF seal with a deployable mechanism?) - Market too niche? (Demand overlap between camera privacy and signal blocking too small?) - Someone tried and failed? - Legal/regulatory issues? - I'm just missing something obvious?<p>I'm not looking to build this (no hardware experience), just genuinely curious why this white space exists.<p>Happy to share the full concept deck and market analysis if anyone's interested in tearing it apart.<p>Thanks!
Comments
by: Terretta
Where is this karma-farming marketing template from?<p>It's all over reddit to a tiresome degree, and increasing in Ask HNs as well, generally from new accounts (as of now, the OP account is green).<p>They all go like this:<p>---<p><i>I've been doing this thing, and noticed stuff.<p>"The gap seems real"<p>"The use case seems obvious"<p>"So my question to the community is:"<p>- product/market fit bullets<p>Re-assertion of being just "curious".<p>"Happy to" [market to you more] "if you're interested".</i><p>---<p>Who wrote the original structure? What is everyone using to generate this same form over and over?<p>(I could image it being one of those "$900 to learn this one cool trick" SEO influencers, maybe SaaS-ified into one of those custom GPTs? It <i>is</i> shockingly effective at driving engagement -- nerd sniping the genuinely helpful?)<p>Is there a way to filter these out?
1/31/2026, 3:13:22 AM
by: pibaker
Does turning off your phone or putting it in airplane mode provide sufficient protection against whatever attacks you are worrying about?<p>If your answer is yes, then you don't need a faraday cage.<p>If your answer is no, you are facing advanced adversary. You probably don't want a phone on you at all, faraday caged or not.
1/31/2026, 2:31:15 AM
by: CGMthrowaway
1) You can't have any moving parts on it or the seams become a slot antenna<p>2) Will drain your battery as it adds power to find a faraway cell tower (unless you are in airplane mode)<p>3) It actually does exist. It costs $1000: <a href="https://privoro.com/product-vault" rel="nofollow">https://privoro.com/product-vault</a>
1/31/2026, 12:55:45 AM
by: adastra22
Why do you remove your case to put a phone in a faraday bag?
1/31/2026, 1:06:21 AM
by: john01dav
I'm no EM expert, but is it possible to have a transparent Faraday cage material that lets a capacitive touch screen register touches and be seen without any leak of radiation/data? As I understand it a big conductive finger crossing a Faraday cage breaks it quite completely, but I'm not certain of this.
1/31/2026, 12:37:44 AM
by: thanhhaimai
I don't understand the use case. What would this provides that Airplane Mode doesn't?
1/31/2026, 12:52:36 AM
by: Enginerrrd
I think that the engineering is very challenging and the market for this is nonexistent.<p>First, anyone truly concerned about this for actual use cases just isn’t going to bring their phone with them at sensitive times. Especially after the infamous chip bag Italian meta data incident.<p>Second, it’s conspicuous and kinda suspicious so its use is limited to primarily virtue signaling privacy advocates or crazy people and the latter aren’t usually big spenders.<p>Third: the engineering sounds challenging. All that metal in an undeployed fashion is going to reflect and interfere with reception. ( it isn’t an iron man suit, it has to get packed somewhere.). That may also interfere with RF safety approvals? Finally, avoiding RF leakage is surprisingly difficult in practice.
1/31/2026, 12:40:47 AM
by: WaitWaitWha
There are plenty of Faraday bags readily available for cell phones.<p>Look in the digital forensics industry. Field forensic investigators can get bags or boxes (look like Pelican(r) cases), or inserts for Pelican cases (a 1615 fits just right into a sedan's trunk).<p>Long time ago when mobile forensics was in its infancy they were given out as swag.<p>The #1 problem is of course that if not in airplane mode, some not too smart phones keep increasing the power to the radio (smarter ones do this for a few minutes then power down radio, then cycle up again). Guess what happens with a bunch of juice dumped into electronics in a locked case inside a trunk in a hot car, with half dozen other phones doing the same thing (because it is never a single burner phone).<p>In a pinch, 3 to 5 layers of aluminum foil, stainless steel cocktail shaker, ammo can, or combination thereof works.<p>edit: Yes, if we are discussing this with physicists, RF cannot be blocked, it can be attenuated. The strength of the RF signal is reduced as it travels through different materials, and in theory it can never be completely eliminated. In practicality, the signal only needs to be attenuated until it cannot be picked up sufficiently even when very close by a receiver.
1/31/2026, 1:18:12 AM
by: aggregator-ios
You don't need a form fitting faraday cage. Want a free one? Find a food delivery bag that is insulated with foil. I believe some of the meal prep delivery services package their groceries in this. Stick your phone in there and wrap it up. All signals gone as far as I can tell.<p>Or, even more free or cheap: Wrap it in aluminum foil.
1/31/2026, 1:38:29 AM
by: addaon
Just electroless plate the interior of something like this [0]? Or use conductive paint if the polyurethane doesn't take an electroless well. Don't know what OEM Nillkin uses but I'm sure the factory has iPhone cases as well.<p>[0] <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Nillkin-Samsung-Leather-Magnetic-Protection/dp/B0DNW1NGPC" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Nillkin-Samsung-Leather-Magnetic-Prot...</a><p>Edit: Oh, missed the "toggle on/off without removing the device." Nah, that's not a thing that's going to work. Even with the flap open you'll be attenuating enough RF through the back that either you won't have a decent connection, or your battery life will be crap.
1/31/2026, 12:52:36 AM
by: raw_anon_1111
And camera slider cases are privacy theater. If somehow someone activated your camera remotely, don’t you think they could also activate your microphone, and your GPS?
1/31/2026, 2:57:03 AM
by: odo1242
You wouldn’t be able to use a Faraday case. The physics principle behind it requires it to surround the whole device which is being shielded.
1/31/2026, 12:41:00 AM
by: silisili
I'm curious how you'd plan the toggling to work. It'd have to be foldable at minimum to be able to wrap around and over the screen. But I'd imagine just having a folded back faraday shield on the back of the phone would tank network performance no?
1/31/2026, 12:45:40 AM
by: hattar
Maybe this is a dumb comment, but couldn’t you just turn the phone off? You’d have to trust that the setting to disable Bluetooth when powered down is reliable and configured correctly, but if your use case is that sensitive even carrying a smartphone seems questionable.
1/31/2026, 12:40:53 AM
by: wyldfire
Stupid question: can't you just turn it off? Does it emit signals / identifying information while it's off?
1/31/2026, 1:54:56 AM
by: wswin
Funny that this is a non-existent problem for the previous generation of phones, since they had removable battery.
1/31/2026, 1:49:35 AM
by: pwndByDeath
Start a viral campaign for iphone with mechanical switches
1/31/2026, 1:08:30 AM
by: lostlogin
Couldn’t you just turn off wifi, cellular data and bluetooth?
1/31/2026, 12:55:37 AM
by: stackghost
The Faraday effect can't really be toggled except by physically compromising the enclosure, i.e. opening the Faraday cage/pouch and removing the device. Your "Faraday case" wouldn't be meaningfully more convenient than a pouch or other enclosure.
1/31/2026, 12:38:09 AM
by: kube-system
> Faraday bags exist (SLNT, Mission Darkness, etc.) - they block all RF signals<p>They really don’t. “Blocking” RF really isn’t a thing. RF can be <i>attenuated</i>, but it is quite a complicated problem to solve. Have you tried any of these bags?
1/31/2026, 1:10:52 AM
by: beeflet
Who is concerned about privacy, but only when their phone is in their pocket?<p>Just use grapheneOS or calyxOS or postmarketOS or whatever.
1/31/2026, 3:22:23 AM
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1/31/2026, 12:48:18 AM
by: jeffbee
Because even though insane cranks are like 45% of HN they aren't a large enough customer base to move markets.
1/31/2026, 1:02:39 AM
by: halfcat
> Camera slider cases exist (Spy-Fy, etc.) - they block physical camera access<p>Do they block the front camera? I’ve only seen one case that even attempted to block it, and it was kind of flimsy and would uncover the front camera when you took it out of your pocket.<p>Plus you can’t block the front camera very well without impacting facial recognition.<p><i>(puts on tin-foil hat)</i> and you’ll notice that all new models only support facial recognition and no longer offer fingerprint unlock.
1/31/2026, 2:35:42 AM
by: kylehotchkiss
My phone with case fits into my 10 year SLNT bag?
1/31/2026, 1:50:52 AM