the platform and devices are kinda counter to principles of privacy. the towers track you, “free” software where your data is the product, the panopticon of everyone having a camera… Places that need to actually be secure ban them. You can get by without a smart phone just fine if you have a regular computer but then you transfer all the vulnerability to that device, it’s just not physically with you and you have a little bit better control over it if you know or care enough to make the efforts.
how can acknowledging reality be toxic? it would be nice if it were different, but they’re right - smartphones are anathema to privacy as they exist today
Ok but this is like saying “I shouldn’t have to pay a 1/3 of my check to you” to your landlord and refusing to pay. You’re gonna end up on the street whether it’s true or not, until the security state and big tech is dismantled their phones are gonna be like this
Idk man by the company’s own admission it cant support a lot of the things people use smart phones for
If you depend on proprietary mainstream mobile messenger applications, banking applications, use loyalty or travel apps, consume DRM media, or play mobile video games on your fruit or Android smartphone, then the PinePhone Pro is likely not for you."
Like if you’re answer to “just use a dumb phone” is use one that’s this handicapped to the point it basically is a dumb phone with a touch screen then idk if it’s really there yet. (I am being somewhat hyperbolic here, I don’t want to split hairs about what counts as a smart phone I just mean it seems to be lacking functionality)
And a lot of the other solutions to this issue require a lot more tech competence than the average person has.
Edit: also isn’t saying “just use an obscure hong Kong produced device” the same kind of “go live in Afghanistan” kind of answer? Like you’ve done the same thing here but just with a slightly more advanced device
Those things are still in the developer stage, nobody who’s daily driving an iphone is going to switch to a half-broken linux device that isn’t ready for the average person to use it.
It doesn’t have to be, but it is the way it is. Acknowledging that isn’t toxic at all, it’s the correct materialist take. Nobody’s saying smartphones can’t be more secure, but they are not, so it would be ridiculous to behave as though they are.
The real toxic attitude is simply expecting everyone to have a smartphone. Stop trying to make me install an app or scan a QR code for everything. I’ve gone without using a smartphone for months at a time and I was fine. Pre-covid there were usually a couple times where some event or restaurant or work thing required some unnecessary app, but since covid I think people have gotten sick of this type of stuff and it’s not as common. Worse case scenario just get a burner phone for when you’re forced to use a smartphone.
Is there an iPhone equivalent of deleting System32 because that’s clearly the answer to this question.
If anyone is that worried about data privacy, they shouldn’t have a smartphone lol.
I think that attitude is frankly toxic. It’s the digital equivalent of “if you don’t like America, you can move to Afghanistan!”.
the platform and devices are kinda counter to principles of privacy. the towers track you, “free” software where your data is the product, the panopticon of everyone having a camera… Places that need to actually be secure ban them. You can get by without a smart phone just fine if you have a regular computer but then you transfer all the vulnerability to that device, it’s just not physically with you and you have a little bit better control over it if you know or care enough to make the efforts.
The RF side is one thing. The software is another. Actually Libre software phones aren’t an inherent impossibility.
neither is linux on the desktop. but reddit OP doesn’t have a threat model he just has racism.
But I’m not talking about OP but the comment left in this thread.
how can acknowledging reality be toxic? it would be nice if it were different, but they’re right - smartphones are anathema to privacy as they exist today
But they don’t necessarily have to be, to that level anyway.
even a locked down smartphone is worse than a dumbphone, it’s just the reality we live in
It doesn’t have to be that way though. Properly designed hardware combined with Libre software could make things much much better.
Ok but this is like saying “I shouldn’t have to pay a 1/3 of my check to you” to your landlord and refusing to pay. You’re gonna end up on the street whether it’s true or not, until the security state and big tech is dismantled their phones are gonna be like this
Their phones are, but not all smart phones are. You can today daily drive a PinePhone Pro running linux.
Idk man by the company’s own admission it cant support a lot of the things people use smart phones for
Like if you’re answer to “just use a dumb phone” is use one that’s this handicapped to the point it basically is a dumb phone with a touch screen then idk if it’s really there yet. (I am being somewhat hyperbolic here, I don’t want to split hairs about what counts as a smart phone I just mean it seems to be lacking functionality)
And a lot of the other solutions to this issue require a lot more tech competence than the average person has.
Edit: also isn’t saying “just use an obscure hong Kong produced device” the same kind of “go live in Afghanistan” kind of answer? Like you’ve done the same thing here but just with a slightly more advanced device
Those things are still in the developer stage, nobody who’s daily driving an iphone is going to switch to a half-broken linux device that isn’t ready for the average person to use it.
It doesn’t have to be, but it is the way it is. Acknowledging that isn’t toxic at all, it’s the correct materialist take. Nobody’s saying smartphones can’t be more secure, but they are not, so it would be ridiculous to behave as though they are.
the camera and microphone should be controlled by a toggle switch that physically disconnects it from power and the mother board
those exist. pinephone/pinephone pro being first to mind. They have lots of issues but they’re almost as good as it gets for open HW+SW right now
Yes definitely a good solution to one of the issues.
things not being conceptually bad in a vacuum has little relation as to how they are in the real world
Oh that’s a really nice way to put it, I hope you don’t mind if I use this without attribution.
not at all
The real toxic attitude is simply expecting everyone to have a smartphone. Stop trying to make me install an app or scan a QR code for everything. I’ve gone without using a smartphone for months at a time and I was fine. Pre-covid there were usually a couple times where some event or restaurant or work thing required some unnecessary app, but since covid I think people have gotten sick of this type of stuff and it’s not as common. Worse case scenario just get a burner phone for when you’re forced to use a smartphone.
That much I can 100% agree on.
It’s Apple, so no.
Don’t you believe in Miracles?
You could always flash an invalid baseband — heard that irrecoverably bricks the device