Not Everyone Needs Military-Grade Security
Our team spent a week at Shot Show in Las Vegas from Sunday last week until arriving home early Sunday morning. It was our first time ever at the event, will definitely not be the last, and was memorable on numerous levels.
We were 1 of 2,800 vendors at the show and collectively had over 1,000 new conversations among the 55,000+ in attendance.
Exhausting doesn’t quite describe how we felt upon arriving home. Especially considering how we managed to make it back to South Carolina, with the winter storm literally on top of the state when the plane was landing, which was a miraculous story in and of itself.
What I’d like to focus on here, however, is an essential perspective that was driven home for me over and over again as I walked nearly all of the 13.9 miles of aisles sprawled across 19 acres of booths selling hunting tools and weapons of war and self defense of every imaginable shape, size and configuration imaginable.
A dual machine gun will most definitely provide maximum protection for my property… but is this what I actually NEED?
Perspective
The tools and training one needs to successfully protect oneself in the physical domain are almost infinite and can vary dramatically based on what one needs to protect as well as the budget and time available to focus on said protection.
This logic is directly parallel to the tools and applications we need to successfully protect ourselves in the digital domain, which vary drastically for different types of people and how they intend on interfacing with the world around them.
To this end, I could have blown a few thousand dollars (or, honestly, 10’s of 1,000’s) on all kinds of hunting gear and firearms that would definitely serve their intended purposes. However, I didn’t spend a dime because I knew none of them were necessary or needed given what I already own and know I can borrow from friends and family if required.
Simple Archetypes
We’ve started breaking down needs into some simple archetypes to hopefully help people along their journey. Some are as follows:
The Minimalist
- Basic flip phone with phone and text features only
- Optional Garmin GPS device for car for navigation
- Optional desktop or laptop for email, banking and paying bills online and basic web browsing
- Optional VPN use simply to prevent your internet service provider from watching everything you do online
- Patriot Mobile as carrier for the peace of mind your phone and text service provider isn’t selling your data
- Basic digital education, situation awareness and discernment
The Working Professional
- Smart Phone running GrapheneOS leveraging Private Spaces and a VPN
- Laptop running ZorinOS leveraging a VPN
- Patriot Mobile or EFANI as carrier
- Intermediate digital education, situational awareness and discernment
- Optional separate private and public accounts for email, phone and communications
The Influencer
- Ideally separate smart phones, both running GrapheneOS leveraging Private Spaces and a VPN
- Laptop running ZorinOS leveraging a VPN
- Patriot Mobile or EFANI as carrier
- Intermediate/Advanced digital education, situational awareness and discernment
- Separate private and public accounts for email, phone and communications
The Geek / Tinkerer
- Multiple smart phones running GrapheneOS, other experimental mobile operating systems as well as Google Android and iOS for testing
- Multiple laptops and custom hardware configurations running various Linux distributions with dual boot capabilities to use Windows and MacOS for testing
- Multiple VPNs leveraged to swap between as needed
- Phreeli or Cape as carrier and likely multiple Voice Over IP (VOIP) accounts to swap between as needed for testing
- Advanced digital education, situational awareness and discernment
- Countless private, public and alias accounts for email, phone and communications
The Point
Not everyone needs to be “The Geek / Tinkerer.” In fact, most people shouldn’t be.
The goal isn’t to own every tool but to own the right tools for your actual threat model.
This is where most people get stuck. They either do nothing because the digital privacy landscape feels overwhelming, or they over-engineer their setup and burn out maintaining complexity that doesn’t serve their real-world needs.
At Shot Show, I watched vendors selling rifles and optical gear that cost more than cars to people who would likely never fire them or use them.
Impressive? Sure. Necessary? Almost never.
The same principle applies to digital privacy.
Know Yourself First
Before you buy anything, ask these honest questions:
- What am I actually protecting?
- Who am I protecting it from?
- What am I willing to maintain?
- What’s my budget; both financial and time-based?
A missionary in a restrictive country needs different tools than a software developer in suburban America. A journalist covering sensitive stories needs a different approach than a parent trying to keep their family’s data out of corporate databases. A small business owner has different constraints than a Fortune 500 executive.
The minimalist approach isn’t inferior and is often more sustainable and appropriate. Someone running a basic flip phone, a GPS device in their vehicle, and a Linux laptop with disciplined habits has solved 80% of the problems that plague most people. They’ve also avoided the complexity tax that kills most security practices.
Discipline is a Multiplier
Talking to people at Shot Show, it was unanimous that the most effective operators weren’t necessarily carrying the most advanced gear. They were the ones with the sharpest situational awareness, the right tools to accomplish the mission at hand, and the most disciplined habits.
The same is absolutely true in the digital domain. A disciplined person on GrapheneOS with a VPN and basic digital literacy will outperform someone with bleeding-edge tools and sloppy habits every single time.
Tools amplify your existing discipline. They don’t replace it.
This is why digital education matters as much as the hardware and software you choose. You can have the most secure phone on the planet, but if you’re reusing passwords, clicking on phishing links, or sharing sensitive information carelessly, the technology means nothing.
What We’re Actually Selling
At MARK37, we’re not selling you a false sense of security. We’re not saying our Ghost Phones and Ghost Laptops will make you invisible or untouchable.
We’re selling you options: tools that move the asymmetry of information and control back toward you.
We’re selling you the ability to choose what you share instead of having it extracted. We’re selling you the option to have a conversation without corporate surveillance algorithms analyzing every word. We’re selling you the foundation to build whatever digital life aligns with your values and your actual threat model.
Whether you’re The Minimalist, The Working Professional, The Influencer, or The Geek / Tinkerer, there’s a path forward. The question isn’t whether you need military-grade security. The question is: where do you want to draw the line between convenience and control in your own life?
That line looks different for everyone. And that’s exactly how it should be.
Ready to Find Your Path?
If you’re uncertain where you actually fit in this framework, or if you’re wondering what tools genuinely make sense for your specific situation, we want to help you figure it out without any pressure or sales pitch.
We offer free 30-minute digital privacy consultations designed specifically to help you identify what’s necessary (and what’s not) for your unique use case. Whether you’re a minimalist looking for basic protection or someone with more complex needs, we’ll walk through your actual threat model together and help you build a practical roadmap.
No obligation. No upselling. Just honest guidance from those who have been in the trenches of digital privacy and infrastructure for over two decades.
If that sounds useful, [schedule your consultation here].
We’ll figure out TOGETHER what “right” looks like for you.