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Megyn Kelly’s recent sit-down with Erik Prince and Unplugged CEO Joe Weil put a spotlight on something every American should care about: our phones are quietly turning us into products for Big Tech and foreign data harvesters. The UP Phone was presented as a straightforward alternative — a device built around privacy, with an operating system that strips out Google’s tracking hooks and tools meant to stop apps and carriers from siphoning your life away.
What Unplugged is selling isn’t just a different case color; it’s a different philosophy. The phone runs UnpluggedOS, a fork of Android without Google Mobile Services, and bundles a system-wide firewall, a no-logs VPN, encrypted storage, secure deletion tools, and a hardware kill switch that physically severs power when you turn the phone off — the kinds of hard protections Americans should demand from their devices. These are real technical choices that limit the surveillance economy that leftists and technocrats profit from.
Yes, privacy costs money: the UP Phone is listed at roughly $989 with the first year of the Unplugged privacy subscription included, then a modest monthly fee after that for the company’s secure services. For those who value their family’s safety and their right to private conversation, paying to opt out of the advertising racket is a small price compared to living as a tracked, targeted consumer every minute of the day. The device is even sold through mainstream outlets like Best Buy, which shows demand for alternatives to Big Tech’s monopolies.
Unplugged has also pushed back against the supply-chain argument that privacy-first hardware must be foreign-made, saying they manufacture in Indonesia now while committing to begin assembly in Nevada as they scale — a patriotic move to bring jobs home and reduce reliance on adversary-dominated supply chains. That message matters in an era when the left rewards outsourcing and applauds Silicon Valley’s cozy ties with foreign interests; Americans should cheer firms that try to onshore key parts of production.
Skeptics and establishment tech press have predictably attacked the project, calling it overhyped or worse, and some security experts warn small startups can’t match the long-term support of Apple and Google. Those are fair questions to raise, and even conservative buyers should demand transparency and robust audits, but the reflexive dismissal from the same gatekeepers who enabled mass surveillance for years smells political. When critics point to weaknesses, remember it’s been the same tech cartel that profited from our data — their warnings are not neutral.
At the end of the day, what matters is choice and independence: Americans should be free to choose a phone that protects their privacy without being forced into a surveillance ecosystem. Erik Prince and Joe Weil are offering an option that challenges Big Tech’s control and gives patriots a way to opt out, and that market pressure is how we win back our digital sovereignty. Be skeptical, demand accountability, but don’t let the media or technocratic elites bully you into accepting the status quo.
