New Zealand still uses SMS predominantly.

I wish I could use Matrix on my phone without it eating my battery 🫤

I essentially did this with Facebook. People still fucking contact me on Messenger.

I’m am ex web dev/des and still maintain some websites for non-profits. I think you underestimate the human stupidity factor. I already have to front an infuriating level of stupid questions and problems that people have caused themselves by not following the most simple of directions. Do I like JavaScript? No. Do I wish I could completely ditch it? 100%. But people are stupid. And without it’s use, I would be handling even more CS than I am now. The average person expects a website to act a certain way and without that they lose their minds.

This is such an underrated comment for such an important point.

And Obtainium for open source apps. I use Aurora only for apps I can’t get via Obtainium.

Replying to this excellent comment on a refurbed (no money to Google) Pixel 7 with GrapheneOS.

Setup was definitely more complex than a spyware android phone (I went from a Samsung Galaxy) but once its set up, it just works and there’s no way I’d go back to anything else.

Its not just about us using Linux though - it’s also users on the other end that were interacting with. If I handle sensitive information, use encryption and disappearing messages and what have you, that doesn’t mean squat if I have to send some sensitive information to someone using insecure email and Recall. Microsoft, Google and whatever other gods awful privacy invading service and companies the person on the other end now have that data.

And a lot of people just don’t even think about this stuff. They could be the type of person who will promise yo keep your secrets or sensitive stuff and actually do that, but keeping that away from privacy invading companies isn’t even on their radar.

I have a Google Pixel with Graphene OS and I only install bare minimum of apps on it. I’ve never used Temu and don’t have an account. So not asking for myself 🙂 But I know many family members who have the most frustratingly ad ridden, notification nagging and invasive apps known to humankind - was asking to help them debloat, improve their privacy and free up some of their time and sanity.

It’s a shame there’s no list of those thousands of apps that take screenshots. While its not all apps, it would have still been a handy reference.

Do you know where in Exodus you can see if an app takes screenshots? Looking through the permissions of two of the most invasive apps I could think of off the top of my head (Facebook, Google, Temu, Instagram, some popular mobile games) I couldn’t find any permissions specifically related to screenshot. If most apps tested are taking screenshots, I would have thought it would be easy to see :/

There’s a book called Gamechanger by L.X. Beckett that explores the idea of a society that is completely open with zero privacy. Your life is always watched and anyone and everyone can see. Pretty much the only thing left private is thoughts. It was an interesting read and my only wish was that the author had explored the negatives and struggles of a fully transparent society more as I feel like this was glossed over too much.

Will it work running in a VM with pass through?

I don’t feel like this adequately accounts for stupid people though. The number of times I’ve seen people freak out over a perfectly legit website because a cert warning popped up or others who have ignored the warning and clicked through to a scam or malware… 🤦‍♀️

If you want to get really technical, each Signal account actually has a ‘secret’ account number that the phone number is linked to. The phone number requirement is actually a means to reduce spam and scam accounts.