Big tech continues to be the giant arm of totalitarian government:
So for a small group of apps, they will have a special "Exposure Notifications" privilege that allows for a feature called "locationless scanning" meant ONLY for COVID purposes, or so they say.
Only your state "public health" governments have access to this feature. Yeah, whatever. I learned about these Exposure Notifications when T-Mobile stuffed the Android 11 update down my throat despite my continued resistance to updating from 10, which I was already happy with.
With the app, the app uses Bluetooth to "scan nearby" for other people with the app. The only problem is - even though this "scan nearby" tech has existed for years, you chose to opt into the tech at your discretion. This COVID program, however, while it's opt-in for now, you know governments will NOT hesitate to force you to enter this program if infection rates ever go up.
This "pick up data and swap with others" feature is something a few programs and even some games out there use (DS/3DS games I think did this before). The only thing is, you didn't mind that because game consoles had very limited info on you and at worst they'd mess with your game.
Considering how much stuff that's stored on our phones, and considering how Google is far more evil than boomer companies like Nintendo, this is something we should all be worried about. This just makes government more powerful and Big Tech is following it along for the ride.
They probably been doing this like this for years now so I'm not surprised at all
They finally got around to adding it to whatever ancient version of iOS my ancient iphone uses as well.
I'm getting to the point where I'm starting to wonder if it's even worth having a cell phone vs. just getting landline service.
That's a... 350 EUR dumbphone. What the fuck dude, why not just get a normal one for a tenth of the price? And the rest of the store is just as bad:
This piece of shit that looks like something I could get for $12 on Aliexpress doesn't even have a price listed but I'm guessing it's at least 200.
Fucking hipsters, I swear to god. How the fuck does a normal alarm clock cause an "information overload"? Does this one gently caress my fucking face when it's time to wake me up instead of just making a sound? Does it wake me up with a blowjob?
There's always PinePhone for $150. It's been on my short list for a while, though it still needs development to become a daily user.
Holy shit it's a spiritual successor to my all-time favorite cell phone: the Motorola F3. However it's also 10x more expensive than my Motorola F3 was. Still might be worth it though; I loved that phone.
Yeah thing was sturdy too. I would have kept buying them except they stopped making new batteries for it, and by the time I needed a replacement the batteries were all dated 5 years prior.
If they had made it a bit thicker and had it take AAA batteries it would have been perfect, and I would have just stocked up on a lifetime supply of the things.
I've got an iphone 5, its great because it doesn't haven any iOS updates for forever, I don't have any of the wacky updates at all.
I have the 5S, and it took a long time for it to get that update. I didn't even think they were updating the software for it anymore, but one day it appeared.
I've just got a plain 5. Software is 10.3. I don't get any updates anymore, I believe that the 5S is the oldest model still currently supported.
Scary isn't it? They finally update your phone... and it's to add government-backed tracking to it. No new features, no optimizations, no nothing, just fucking COVID tracking.
It is the moral responsibility of every citizen to spoof the locational data of their phone. Reroute the bluetooth. There is no laws against such an action (though you may break a few ToSes for Pokemon Go), and it prevents foreign hostile spies from using your data against your own people. Thus, unless it is mandatory for you to use it for some reason, it is only reasonable and patriotic to ensure that enemy spies have as much junk data and actively malicious data as possible.
After all, it is ILLEGAL to spy on your own citizens without just cause proven in a court of law in basically any sane country, so the only people such an action would be harming, the only ones with valid complaint, should be tried, court-martial, as traitors and as enemies of the state.
I just patently refuse to accept that my phone is actually "offline" like it says it is on the screen. I was in airplane mode during this past winter storm that knocked out my power for a few days, and I still got an alert for a phone game I have (it's the only one on there, I promise). IN AIRPLANE MODE. When I had no power to my house at all, definitely no wifi, and unless I don't understand what airplane mode actually does, it's supposed to disable in/out communication so I don't understand how my phone received a message in the first place.
What stops someone with backdoor access to my phone's OS from just having this thing running in the background all the time, anyway? The screen says bluetooth is off, but I can't see or hear the signal, so how do I actually know? I'm gonna have to faraday cage the thing like a misbehaving dog all the time.
I use Bromite, which is an open source "Degoogled" version of Chrome, but yeah, I am thinking of rooting this thing and placing as much anti-google shit on it to minimize any shit it can do to me.
I'm using Youtube Vanced and bitslide as well and have disabled all types of syncing, information gathering, history keeping, etc.
One more reason I refuse to get a smart phone.
I feel pretty smug about my phone being dumb every time I hear this sort of news. When I'm eventually forced to get a smart phone, I'll just get a landline phone instead and go back to carrying a watch.
And this is why I don't carry a phone.
It's weird how backwards I've gone over the years. As a kid I was super tech gadget kid always wanted something crazy. I had one of those Timex watches where you could send calendar and contacts to it, despite not having any use for those features. I had a Palm Pilot. I was constantly buying computer stuff, well when I could get my hands on money (that was quite elusive). For years I went after hot new cell phones.
At some point I just hit a wall, particularly with personal electronics. I have one of the cheapest smartphones you can buy and with the way I use it, I'd miss very little if I could trade for a phone that would only call and text (with a keyboard). On my arm is a watch that shows me the time the day of the week and the date with nothing but springs and gears. The CPU in my computer came out in 2013 and it's totally fine. It's not that I quit buying gadgets and stuff, I buy loads of stuff. I really think just the mainstream gadgets quit offering anything to someone like me.
This is why boomers are bad with tech by the way.
Back when they were young they could probably operate TVs, VCRs, telephones, etc. easily - that was easy. But just like us Gen X/late millennial old farts, you eventually hit a wall, and then you regress in your acceptance of tech.
Whereas young millennials, Gen Y, and Gen Alpha embrace it, because it's been a part of their lives for ages. Just like how TVs, VCRs, etc. were a default part of our lives back in the 80s and 90s.