I can't think of one.
this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2025
22 points (92.3% liked)
Privacy
41827 readers
1558 users here now
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
There is no conceivable risk to a turned off laptop, that could be fixed by a faraday bag, that is not dwarfed by having a functional networked laptop.
It'll protect it from EMP's!
Technically, if it’s completely 100% off, there’s no electricity running through its circuits and CPU, then there’s no way any program of sorts can actually, physically run.
The point of a Faraday cage is to isolate what’s inside from any EM interference.
If there are no active circuits running, then there’s absolutely nothing to interfere with.
Just because the laptop is powered down does not mean that no circuits are getting power. Wake on LAN/WLAN is a thing, and most devices without a physical power switch, (a power bitton is not a switch), mean that there is a miniature power draw listening for that signal. The manufacturer might have other bits that are still active as well, you can't be sure. If your ultra paranoid about state level actors it might be a good idea. If you're just worried about somebody swiping your credit card number or something, probably overkill.
Technically, if it’s completely 100% off, […]
It's WoL, not WLAN. WLAN is Wireless Local Area Network.
I believe the previous post was talking about Wake on LAN (WoL) and Wake on WLAN (WoWLAN) which are separate things.
Is this work laptop? then yes, put that thing in there along with the corpo cell phone. If it is your own laptop and you installed the OS, ideally linux, then it is fine.
It Depends.™
On what exactly? If you work for a 3-letter government agency and your laptop was a gift from your new friend Sergei Notaspy who you met on vacation in Moscow?
On OP's needs and threat model.
I'm asking what are the scenarios where there is a point to having one, and if there are.
You could try running tails on your laptop. Nothing guarantees resting privacy like removable boot media
The same as a tin foil hat. Even better an Faraday Bag for your router
https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/22/whofi_wifi_identifier/
Nope