> This seems like much bigger news than it's being received as.
This has been widely known for more than a decade (Sorry I can't provide with a source. I was expecting Google search-in-the-past feature to work, but it doesn't).
As to whether the privacy policy has been declared properly or not, it depends on the OEM: See for instance https://www.bsr.at/mediafiles/Handbuch/CipherLab/User_Guide_... which shows Qualcomm's IZat default integration (This documentation shows an Android 7, but that screen has existed since at least Android 4.4)
> Sure, other chip makers do sketchy things, but is that really where we're at in 2023?
Literally all chip makers literally do that exact thing (except maybe the Unique ID part), just because that's how you're supposed to do A-GPS. For A-GPS you need at some point an oracle that is capable to give you an approximate location. There are some privacy-compatible ways to do that, but I'm not aware of anyone who even looked at it. (Looks like GrapheneOS skims that feature altogether, that's a way that works)
> It's a horrible time too because the embedded 5G chips are about to be part of everything, sending telemetry back
Even though Qualcomm can make things worse, the vast majority of IoS already do just that, and don't require 5G.
Of course I overall agree with you on lost ownership of modern electronic devices (and as you point out, everything became electronic devices), I'm just saying that it's nothing new. I think you need to get back at least a decade to see the unstoppable start of it (though DRMs are much older than that)
> I can only hope the RISC-V combined with people willing to care can lead to a return to a time when people actually own stuff and ownership is something we respect.
What does the ISA change in that regards? I would guess that the currently most deployed RISC-V device are nVidia graphic cards. And you're probably very aware that you don't fully own nVidia graphic cards. I'm also aware of other RISC-V devices in the field that are even more locked down.