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I want to charge my Android phone at my PC, but would like to only activate the power channel of the USB, not the data channel. I am paranoid that malware could somehow get from one device to the other (phone -> PC would be the bad direction). I have probably no good reason to be paranoid, but is there a way to disable the data Connection, either on the phone or the PC side?

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When you plug in your phone, you should receive a notification on it asking how to treat this connection. Choose "Charge only" and your data will be inaccessible from the computer.

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You can also get a $10 USB charger to plug into the wall, just in case malware on the phone takes over and makes the "Charge Only" setting invalid. I haven't heard of that happening specifically, but I am going to join in paranoically assuming that a physical link means data transfer can happen. It's been reported happening over ultrasound over speakers and microphones as well, but you can find yourself in a never-ending rabbit hole of mistrust if you start worrying about side channel chatter. Just get the $10 charger.

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  • It's also worth noting that wall chargers will supply more power than a computer USB port, and thus will generally charge faster
    – wysiwyg
    Commented Dec 7, 2017 at 17:15

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