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Tom Hardy reveals he regularly 'bins and burns' his phones to prevent phone hacking

'We get hacked all the time,' Hardy says

Maya Oppenheim
Thursday 02 June 2016 13:09 BST
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Hardy revealed that he is frequently hacked and uses private offline severs to safeguard his private information
Hardy revealed that he is frequently hacked and uses private offline severs to safeguard his private information (Getty Images)

Tom Hardy has revealed he constantly changes his phone in order to protect his privacy and has said the perpetual threat of hackers is “painful”.

The 38-year-old actor said he is so paranoid about being hacked he regularly buys “burner” phones - cheap pre-paid handsets - which he later throws away.

Hardy revealed that he is frequently hacked and therefore uses private offline servers to safeguard his personal information from prospective hackers.

The actor said he does not use iCloud following the 2014 leak in which a number of high-profile figure’s accounts were exposed. Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton and Ariana Grande were among some of the individuals whose private photographs were leaked via iCloud.

“We get hacked all the time,” Hardy told The Evening Standard.

“People go on to messengers and try to set up accounts with profiles," he continued. "Or try to get into the phone itself, or they get hold of the number and they start fishing about, and my family as well, anyone I’m related to.”

“You just have to bin and burn the phone and start again, we have to go through burners. We’re burning numbers left, right and centre.”

While Hardy formerly used an iPhone and a BlackBerry, he now uses a £11,400 titanium-panelled Solarin by new tech firm Sirin Labs because of the strong levels of encryption it offers.

“I’ll burn numbers and then I’ll have private offline servers for my email accounts,” he added. “It’s quite painful when you think about, we’re quite normal people in that aspect.”

“My mum and dad don’t need to have their photos of stuff gone through or any of their private messages just because people want to find or piece together something maybe prurient or salacious, and even worse take money from people or move things around.”

A representative for Hardy did not immediately respond to request for comment.

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