Future of smartphone privacy (sopuli.xyz)

submitted 2 years ago by novarime@sopuli.xyz to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

6 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Ironically, a large number of privacy minded individuals are using Google Pixels flashed with custom roms (Calyx, Graphene, Lineage, etc)

If not designed specifically for privacy, these Android forks are at the very least not stock Android, and stripped of many anti-privacy features.

This can be accomplished due to the Pixel's (mostly) unique attribute - a bootloader that can be unlocked and relocked.

I don't know why Google have allowed their bootloaders this freedom, but I can't imagine that a company with a reputation for killing anything they touch would allow it to continue for much longer.

If/when the day comes that the Pixel is fully locked down, what options are there for privacy enthusiasts to continue using a smartphone, an inherently unprivate device?

Does anyone know of development going into looking at how to unlock bootloaders on any device, opening the door for custom rom flashing to continue?

Are the pinephones, fairphones, etc going to have to ramp up production?

Anything going on in the iphone department allowing for detachment from the Apple ecosystem?

What happens next, really?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] n33rg@lemmy.ml -1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

So I’m hesitant to mention this, but I have been noticing similar problems trending worse and worse over the entire Android ecosystem. I love the projects that are trying to solve this, but I don’t see them gaining traction or building top notch phones with high end cameras that compete with Samsung or Apple.

So I recently decided to start trying out something else: after avoiding it like the plague, I’ve been using an iPhone 14 fairly regularly and have been pleasantly surprised by the privacy and security features. Everything seems to be implemented to give you control over what apps can do.

I’m not trying to start and Apple vs Android fight, there are many aspects I hate still, notably all their proprietary nonsense. But that aside, what’s everyone’s opinions on the privacy aspect of iPhones?

Edit: forgot to chime in on the key question: no, I don’t see Apple ever allowing custom ROMs unless it’s legally required. But I don’t see that entirely as a bad thing as long as the platform is appropriately secured and privacy friendly, which is why I’m asking this question and hoping those who know better can explain more.

this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2023

3 points (100.0% liked)

Privacy

32517 readers

267 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
Don't promote proprietary software
Try to keep things on topic
If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
Be nice :)

Related communities

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS