71–80 of 231 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I noticed after about two weeks that every single word I typed into any application was being collected and sent to a third party How did you discover this? Has it been written about? Seems pretty scandalous.
He goes on to explain it was in the keyboards About menu
Why is it not possible to compile and install a complete clean Android directly from the sources on your phone? What are the things that prevent that?
I bought -- full price, retail -- a midrange Samsung phone for a relative recently. The amount of bloatware was incredible. Various social networks and shopping apps were preinstalled. In addition to all the Samsung apps that more or less duplicate the Google stack, poorly. The entire setup process was full of dark patterns designed to extract as much data from you as possible. No way a regular person gets through th…
The first time I had a samsung phone I noticed after about two weeks that every single word I typed into any application was being collected and sent to a third party whose privacy policy said it was used to collect data about my interests, my social life, to make guesses about my intelligence level and education, and that the data would be sold for "market research" among other things. No user would ever suspect tha…
I bought -- full price, retail -- a midrange Samsung phone for a relative recently. The amount of bloatware was incredible. Various social networks and shopping apps were preinstalled. In addition to all the Samsung apps that more or less duplicate the Google stack, poorly. The entire setup process was full of dark patterns designed to extract as much data from you as possible. No way a regular person gets through th…
Could it be that it's a US-specific thing? My last three phones have been EU-sold Samsung S series, and the only things I'd consider "third party bloat" were pre-installed versions of Facebook and MS Office, both easily removable. The Samsung replacement apps is down to personal preference, I find them easier to use than Google "originals". Having casually interacted with phones from other brands, I consider Samsung…
I bought -- full price, retail -- a midrange Samsung phone for a relative recently. The amount of bloatware was incredible. Various social networks and shopping apps were preinstalled. In addition to all the Samsung apps that more or less duplicate the Google stack, poorly. The entire setup process was full of dark patterns designed to extract as much data from you as possible. No way a regular person gets through th…
I bought -- full price, retail -- a midrange Samsung phone for a relative recently. The amount of bloatware was incredible. Various social networks and shopping apps were preinstalled. In addition to all the Samsung apps that more or less duplicate the Google stack, poorly. The entire setup process was full of dark patterns designed to extract as much data from you as possible. No way a regular person gets through th…
The first time I had a samsung phone I noticed after about two weeks that every single word I typed into any application was being collected and sent to a third party whose privacy policy said it was used to collect data about my interests, my social life, to make guesses about my intelligence level and education, and that the data would be sold for "market research" among other things. No user would ever suspect tha…
When we were young, this was called a keyloggger and one running was a sign that your computer was compromised.
I guess times have changed.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The first time I had a samsung phone I noticed after about two weeks that every single word I typed into any application was being collected and sent to a third party whose privacy policy said it was used to collect data about my interests, my social life, to make guesses about my intelligence level and education, and that the data would be sold for "market research" among other things. No user would ever suspect tha…
Oh dear. I had disabled the Samsung keyboard for some other, but it seems it got reenabled again. Maybe Google broke some API endpoint and the old keyboard didn't do the update grind. No warning what so ever for their spyware taking over the keyboard functionally. The need for some FOSS mobile is really over due by now. Edit: > I immediately found an open source keyboard to replace samsung's with Which keyboard did y…
There is already a Foss mobile OS, it's called Android, or more specifically a distribution of it like LineageOS. But installing it is so difficult that only 1% of people have the technical know how to even attempt it, and it's getting more difficult as manufacturers introduce more and more hurdles in this process.
Which is all irrelevant anyway because the vast majority of people done even realise that everything they see, do, or type on their phones is reported to hundreds of companies, processed, and te-sold to thousands of companies all over the world.
We need regulation, full stop.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Could it be that it's a US-specific thing? My last three phones have been EU-sold Samsung S series, and the only things I'd consider "third party bloat" were pre-installed versions of Facebook and MS Office, both easily removable. The Samsung replacement apps is down to personal preference, I find them easier to use than Google "originals". Having casually interacted with phones from other brands, I consider Samsung…
This was in Germany, so no. It's probably a midrange vs flagship thing, or it has gotten worse over time. I had an S10 and I don't remember it being so bad.
But even with everything disabled (predictive text, spell checker (as may be obvious reading this), ...), it does cause network traffic.
Any login-data ever used can now be considered leaked. Great.
Why is it not possible to compile and install a complete clean Android directly from the sources on your phone? What are the things that prevent that?
In general it is possible to do that (assuming the phone has an unlockable bootloader), but you can't do that for the exact same image from the manufacturer, because they don't provide the source for a lot of it. You might be able to install a third-party, community-maintained OS, like LineageOS, though, if your hardware is supported. The downside is that I believe apps like Google Pay won't work anymore, since they…
One and only problem i see with Lineage is that VoLTE wont work and as we dont have 3G anymore it is must have.