Dialing Back to Move Forward: Why the Landline Revival Signals a Future for Privacy
Purism
Latest posts by Purism (see all)
- Dialing Back to Move Forward: Why the Landline Revival Signals a Future for Privacy - October 1, 2025
- Who Owns Your Digital Self? - October 1, 2025
- Quantum Safe Private Communications: Building the Future Before the Threat Arrives - September 26, 2025
Who Owns Your Voice? Why Families and Journalists Are Returning to Analog
On September 30, 2025, The Washington Post reported a quiet trend in Washington, D.C.: the return of landline phones among officials and journalists seeking refuge from the omnipresent surveillance of smartphones. In a recent story, NBC News spotlighted parents in Maine and Seattle who are reviving landlines for their children—creating “landline pods” so kids can connect without the addictive pull of screens or the predatory reach of social media platforms.
At first glance, these stories might seem like quaint nostalgia: rotary dials, curly cords, and the satisfying click of a handset returning to its cradle. But beneath the surface, these choices are not about nostalgia—they are about survival. They are about trust. Or rather, the collapse of it.
The Symptom: Retreat to Analog
When seasoned journalists in D.C. abandon their smartphones for analog lines, it is not because they dislike convenience. It is because they know too much. They know that every swipe, every ping, every “smart” feature is also a surveillance feature. They know that the so‑called “ecosystem” of big tech is less a garden and more an all seeing, all knowing data collection operation.
Parents, too, are drawing the line. The NBC story showed families who refuse to hand their children smartphones. Instead, they are choosing landlines—devices that do one thing, and do it well: connect voices without harvesting lives. These parents are not anti-technology Luddites. They are protectors. They are saying: our children deserve connection without compromising privacy.
The Cause: Distrust in Big Tech
Both stories point to the same root cause: a profound distrust in the smartphone status quo. The public is waking up to the reality that the “free” services of big tech are not free at all. They are paid for with our data, our attention, and our autonomy.
When the most informed professionals in Washington and the most protective parents in Maine arrive at the same conclusion—that the safest path is to step backward into analog—it should shake us. It should remind us that the digital future we were promised has been hijacked by corporations who see us not as citizens, but as data streams.
The Alternative: Purism’s Librem Devices
At Purism, we understand this distrust because we were founded on it. We know that people should not have to choose between connectivity and privacy, between productivity and autonomy. That is why our Librem and Liberty devices exist: to provide the modern tools of communication and creation without the hidden costs of surveillance capitalism.
Unlike the analog retreat, Librem devices allow you to stay digital on your own terms. Built on free and open source software, with transparent design and user-owned keys, they’re not nostalgic—they’re liberating.
The Future: A Choice Between Regression and Renewal
The resurgence of analog phones is a warning flare. It tells us that trust in mainstream technology has eroded so deeply that people are willing to regress to the past rather than risk the present. But regression is not the only path. Renewal is possible.
Purism offers that renewal: a way to keep the best of digital life—mobility, productivity, connection—without the surveillance, without the manipulation, without the compromise.
Purism was founded in anticipation of the current backlash against big tech and the ecosystem surrounding smartphones. We are a Social Purpose Corporation and have loftier goals than simply profits above all else.
The question is not whether we will communicate. The question is whether we will communicate freely.
Purism Products and Availability Chart
| Model | Status | Lead Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Librem Key (Made in USA) | In Stock ($59+) | 10 business days | |
 | Liberty Phone (Made in USA Electronics) | In Stock ($1,999+) 4GB/128GB | 10 business days | |
| Librem 5 | In Stock ($799+) 3GB/32GB | 10 business days | |
 | Librem 11 | In Stock ($999+) 8GB/1TB | 10 business days | |
 | Librem 14 | Out of stock | New Version in Development | |
 | Librem Mini | Out of stock | New Version in Development | |
 | Librem Server | In Stock ($2,999+) | 45 business days | |
 | Librem PQC Encryptor | Available Now, contact sales@puri.sm | 90 business days | |
 | Librem PQC Comms Server | Available Now, contact sales@puri.sm | 90 business days |
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