I trust code more than politics.
Hey, if you can manage it, and if that’s what makes you happy, I respect it! I do agree there is more freedom on a desktop, but I’ve found a balance between minimizing my phone usage and still using it for what I need. I really only use it for messaging, news, pictures, and an occasional game.
So Android it remains for now, alas.
A corporate OS on a mobile device with lots of sensors which follows you around everywhere - this is always going to be a privacy minefield.
Have you taken a look at GrapheneOS? It’s a “de-googled” version of Android, which means it has none of the trackers and even has a network permission toggle for apps.
I’d love to see a website or app that has a full privacy roadmap. Even if there is one, I doubt it would be very good. You need something that constantly reminds you “Hey, you’ve been fighting for privacy for X months, and you’ve achieved so much! Look at how far you’ve come.” It would also need to be tailored to each person, because some people already use Android, others don’t, so the switch to a custom ROM may be harder for some people. It would have to make sure to have easy incremental steps, defined goals, threat modeling, “good” rewards, etc.
Sadly, I’m far from capable of coding that, even if I tried. Best of luck to that one Lemmyer that sees this and says “Hold my beer”
Thank you!
I’d honestly love to share the whole crazy story of how I got into privacy in the first place, but it would reveal too many personal details about me and other people. It’s not an easy battle, and I’ve certainly made plenty of mistakes along the way, but I wouldn’t change a single thing about how it turned out. It takes a lot of time and effort, so it is unfortunate to see, as you said, many posts of despair.
Some YouTube clients allow “local extraction” (FreeTube and LibreTube, to name a couple), which sidesteps the need for an instance altogether. However, that then means either 1. You use a VPN to hide your IP from YouTube and risk getting the VPN server IP banned or 2. You don’t use a VPN, expose your IP to YouTube, and have a (small) chance of banning your own IP.
The best alternative would be to remove YouTube altogether and switch to something like PeerTube or Odysee, but you can’t expect all your favorite creators to be there.
This video seemed to have been the start of an anti-GrapheneOS movement. I won’t get into details, because it’s been explained to death, but it’s here for your convenience.
I use and love GrapheneOS as well.
I will continue to use Proton and their services, not because I support or endorse any political decisions from the CEO/board members (and I don’t), but because they provide open source, secure, and private software that I love.
This is no different than arguing about using GrapheneOS based on the behavior of the maintainers.
This is very bad news, because this means any app that wants your data could do the same.
So… they only warn people about how insecure texting is after someone else exploits it…
If anything, I love GrapheneOS for its “Network” permission toggle. It’s nice knowing that my keyboard (or any other unnecessary apps) can’t phone home.
First off, if you’re concerned about phone privacy, consider a custom OS for your phone that respects privacy such as GrapheneOS.
It’s easy to figure out that your device isn’t listening to a constant audio stream 24/7, since that would drain battery and send a lot of noticeable data over the network. However, it is entirely possible to listen for certain keywords as you mentioned, and send them encrypted with another seemingly legitimate packet. There’s no way to be 100% certain, but it is possible in theory without draining too much battery.
The steps you took are good, making sure that apps don’t have any permissions they don’t need. Privacy is a spectrum, so it’s not “all or nothing”. As I mentioned before, if you’re seriously concerned about mobile privacy and want a solution, you can get a custom operating system that can remove any privacy invasive elements. GrapheneOS also allows you to disable the camera and microphone system-wide (although this functionality is present on some other Android builds).
If it eases you any, a lot of these advertisements happen to be coincidence and trigger confirmation bias. It could be that those ads happened to show up by coincidence, or that advertisers managed predicted your interests, or that you got tracked by some other means while downloading the movie. The possibilities are nearly endless.
I used GNOME Disks to modify /etc/crypttab and /etc/fstab to auto decrypt and auto mount on boot. Jellyfin still loses its access each time I restart, even though the
jellyfin
group still displays having access to the files.Edit: Turns out it does have access, but it’s no longer under the /media/username directory. I have to point Jellyfin to /mnt/UUID instead. This fixed it!