Drexel University recently announced that researchers in its College of Engineering developed a fabric coating that acts like a Faraday cage–it blocks electromagnetic waves and radiation. The material, Mxene, can be added as a coating on cotton or linen, which can then be used to create electromagnetic/radiation blocking clothes and accessories.
This is interesting, but it is odd that neither Drexel University nor tech journalist Devin Coldewey, who wrote about the innovation for Tech Crunch, seem aware of the obvious use case for such fabric.
Coldewey largely dismisses such fabrics as for the tinfoil hat set,
Faraday cages work because radiation in radio frequencies is blocked by certain metals, but because of its wavelength, the metal doesn’t even have to be solid — it can be a solid cage or flexible mesh. Many facilities are lined with materials like this to prevent outside radiation from interfering with sensitive measurements, but recently companies like Silent Pocket have integrated meshes into bags and cases that totally isolate devices from incoming signals.
Let’s be frank here and say that this is definitely paranoia-adjacent. RF radiation is not harmful in the doses and frequencies we get it, and the FCC makes sure no device exceeds certain thresholds. But there’s also the possibility that your phone or laptop is naively connecting to public Wi-Fi, getting its MAC number skimmed by other devices, and otherwise interacting with the environment in a way you might not like. And honestly… with the amount of devices emitting radiation right now, who wouldn’t mind lowering their dose a little, just to be extra sure?
But things like Silent Pocket are routinely used to thwart cell phone tracking by individuals concerned about their privacy.
Cell phone tracking is becoming almost omnipresent in the United States. We know that police routinely use it to track protesters and that cell phone location tracking data is routinely bought and sold in conjunction with other personally identifying information such as race, gender, income, etc.
This isn’t a paranoid fantasy. This is how the system actually works. The availability of fabrics that act as Faraday cages gives some control back to users to determine when their location is being monitored.