I find they’re a pain to use and I only have one out of social pressure, and privacy or not I’m constantly confused on why they’re so popular.
I just use a throwaway account and have the rule of not putting in any data that I don’t want to be read - which is barely anything any way because I do all my computing on my Linux laptop. I figure if they’re collecting location data and recording me then they’re just associating it with “random guy x” because I’ve never given it anything else. I should look in to one of the de-Googled Android distributions but I have so little interest and energy in anything to do with it, if it could be made totally private I would still rarely use it.
Lot of folks here making the “nothing to hide? Great show me your browsing history” type arguments.
I think this isn’t really arguing in good faith. There’s a big difference between a personal friend knowing something about you, and a faceless algorithm knowing something about you. The two cases are different; it’s fair to argue about how one is better or worse, but they are different.
I usually ask them to hand me their phone while its unlocked and that really makes some people think. Its funny because at the same time i have so little to hide that the only reason i have a passeord on my phone is because it makes stealing it harder. But im not gonna hand my data some random company just to watch braindead 30 second videos.
I guess they think they have nothing to hide, because they don’t know, or don’t care about, how their own information can be used against them.
Because it doesn’t happen in an obviously invasive manner, they don’t think it’s a big deal. It’s harder to associate an abstract concept to actual value.
I’d say a normal phone is a lot worse than smartphones in general, unless you don’t care about all your communications being readable by the carrier. With a smartphone you can make actually encrypted calls and texts over trustworthy applications/protocols (Signal, Matrix, Simplex, etc.), on a phone you’re stuck with the carrier service; another thing that comes to mind is the storage, as far as I know there are no normal phones with an encrypted filesystem while it is default for a long while on Android.
On the other hand, if your new smartphone model isn’t loaded with a privacy respecting ROM you’ll also have at least some data sent to other third parties like Google and whatnot, but if you can change the ROM, then the potential for better privacy far outweighs the benefits of normal phones doing fewer things with your data by default. If you’re going to use your new smartphone like an old phone, to make carrier calls and SMS, then there will be near to no improvements (except storage security maybe) and as you say, more data snooping
A normal phone doesn’t have AGPS download ephemeris (edit:they may today, I haven’t looked into it for a while), doesn’t have Google Services tracking everything, or third party apps phoning home.
I’d say by default a smartphone is way worse, it has fsr more data collection by default, even without an account. Every data point a feature phone has, a smartphone has, plus more.
Voice calls and SMS use the exact same infrastructure in exactly the same way on both types of phones.
But it can be mitigated quite a bit on Android by not using an account on it, disabling GPS, wifi, Bluetooth.
They could also debloat it to reduce some of the background nonsense (Universal Android Debloat has a “safe to disable” list). (I’m assuming it’s not an unlocked Pixel or a phone that’s on the Lineage list).
If they don’t care about apps, I’d even add NoRoot Firewall, configure it for always on, and set it to block all network access by default. This would be a Global Pre-Filter using asterisk (*) for both the address and port fields with both Wifi and Cell boxes checked (system apps will still have network access, this only affects users apps on a non-rooted phone).
Other than root or flashing a custom OS (like Lineage or Divest, Graphene if they were lucky enough to get an unlocked Pixel), this is about the best that can be done.
Google and hardware manufacturers aren’t motivated to make open devices. Quite the opposite, really.
They learned their lesson from the BIOS wars of the 80’s that resulted in standardized hardware interface, so any compliant OS could be installed. This is what gave MS the ability to beat IBM at their own game, and prevented strong DRM.
Phones don’t have a standardized BIOS like that, so each brand requires drivers built specifically for it (also a bit of a result of using Linux as the base, since it’s a monolithic OS). Without those drivers you can’t install an OS, and each device is different.
Google and friends like it this way, their long-term goal is fully locked down phones that you don’t control and can’t modify, so they can fully implement DRM.
If you’re really only making phone calls, the built in location tracking is probably the biggest issue? AFAIK, you can only use an off the shelf iPhone with an Apple account, and a similar Android phone with a Google account, so your location will be tied to and referenced with those.
Apple have branded themselves as guardians of their users’ data, so many consider that a safe assurance. YMMV but it may be slightly better than Google’s Dodgier approach. When in doubt, go to settings and turn everything off you don’t use, location services foremost.
You may want to disable other apps that come with your phone as well. Basically anything you don’t use. I don’t know how much data can be harvested from background services of an app that doesn’t have a user signed in, but at this point I’d err on the side of caution. Plus, as you say, your position can always be approximated by your mobile carrier through the cell towers you’re connected to, but that goes for dumb phones as well.
Personally, I only use Android smartphones with custom ROMs like LineageOS without installing the Google apps or services framework because I Just Don’t Use Google. Instead I install microG to spoof the GSF to apps that require it. That’s a privacy compromise I can live with because I use my phone as an internet device as well. Needless to say I take privacy precautions on an app level as well.
Yup. And again, millions of iOS users take that as assurance of Apple’s trustworthiness. In this game, we all need to choose who we trust with our data 🤷
You can setup Android without a user account. I’m not sure about iPhone, I don’t believe that’s an option in the setup process (but it’s been a while, since I set mine up).
Yes, nothing to hide and you are not the only one. Assurance companies have observed that people who masturbate are healthier. And based on your surf, you don’t. So you have to pay more.
Now what do you want to do? Masturbate to pay less or ?
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