Is it worth unlocking the bootloader on my phone? It’s a Samsung with One UI 7.0 (I’ve been avoiding upgrading to 8.0 since they don’t let you unlock it after that). I just want to avoid having Google Services and AI installed. I use my phone to take photos of my art / send it to friends on signal and hate the idea of it being scanned by AI. I use a camera and gallery from fdroid but somehow the default photos app still has access (I know because it makes GIFs of pictures I took even though I marked permissions as “not allowed”). I also would love to get rid of the default apps I don’t use. While I can unlock the bootloader (for now), I can’t install a custom ROM because there are none compatible with my phone, so will I just be forced into using 8.0 at some point anyway? :( ATP I’m pretty much ready to give up smartphones and get a digital camera for anything I don’t feel comfortable feeding to tech companies.
Wrong, sold and unsold software spies. We need libre software, software we control.
This is the type of guy who tells obese people they can get healthy without losing weight, never really answering the problem, totally ignoring reality.
Yeah, but while libre software is only available on specific, expensive hardware, it is a PRIVILEGE for the rich.
Do a test: think of a country that you believe people would need GrapheneOS to protect themselves against the government. Be sure Pixel phones aren’t available there, so just take the retail price of the latest model (because of its limited support time, and other models are going to be just as expensive, buying the latest is more cost-effective) and convert it to that country’s currency. Add 5% because banks get a share in the exchange. Expect that this cost will be at least doubled by tariffs, as third-world countries are full of protectionist taxes and corruption. Wait, we didn’t add the shipping costs yet. So if the retail cost of a Pixel is $800, expect someone from a third-world country to pay $1600~$2000 for it.
But wait, now check the average income of that place, and you can safely remove 30% of it to get a number closer to the real average income because of top 1% earners and higher income inequality. Now consider that if someone manages to spend only 80% of that income on housing, utilities, transport, clothing, food, healthcare, education/childcare, etc, that person is in a really comfortable zone and can think about buying a new smartphone. Hell, if that person is committed to not eating out even once and only keeps some money for emergency medicine and such, they could spend up to 10% on it. How many months would it take for them to pay for a Pixel 9?
I did the math quickly here: for a Venezuelan, it would take about 88 months of heavy sacrifices and having no savings, which means the phone would go out of support before they could fully pay for it… oh, and I didn’t take interest rates into account.
So yeah, thanks to everyone who gave tips on how to improve privacy and security on commercial OS.
Well, 800 - 1000€ for a new pixel is normal even in EU. Where the fuck could I even get that kind of money as a highschooler? I’ll just use my old (2017) Redmi 4x with LineageOS for the time being. I know it isn’t secure, but it’s the best I have.
And of course, I don’t recommend buying older redmis (I got mine for free around a year ago). The security is atrocious since it doesn’t support AVB (not even with original OS). I’m always anxious about it starting to bootloop (since it randomly restarts, I saw the same issue on multiple Xiaomi phones, even ~2 year old ones). And while I have used some decent phones from 2017, the Redmi’s performance is underwhelming while others (like my mom’s huawei p10) still perform well.
Then, just admit it. Fake privacy does not fix that.
Like saying it’s useless to use Tor if you are not on Tails…
I suggest that you just admit you don’t want to help people improve privacy within their means. If they can’t have it all, they should have nothing.
We can spread Tor without lying about Windows or macOS being private or crying over comments showing libre system software.
Do you really block the word “improve” in your head? Not fucking once I claimed commercial OS could be private so you are arguing against your own imagination here.
Yeah, if someone got a phone and he doesn’t have the means of getting one compatible with a better OS, I really hope he manages to IMPROVE his privacy with better programs and workarounds. If you however don’t give a fuck and think it’s useless to try to improve his privacy because the OS is still shit, well, either buy that person a device that can use a better OS or move on, because telling that person to just buy it isn’t helping.