4 ms·

Am I the only one who has decided that I'm more comfortable with iOS and an AppleID than I am with something like LineageOS and still having to have a Google ac

by darrmit 10y ago

Am I the only one who has decided that I'm more comfortable with iOS and an AppleID than I am with something like LineageOS and still having to have a Google account - even though I prefer Android? I'm operating under the assumption that Apple is more privacy friendly than Google under pretty much any circumstance. I've done the Cyanogen + F-Droid thing and it's just miserably inconvenient, and none of the "proprietary" alternative app stores have any sort of catalog to write home about.

manmal 10y ago
Yes, same here. I'd use iMessage over WhatsApp or Duo (or whatever Google's chat du jour is called) any time. They do have glitches (like the recently exposed iCloud bug where private browsing histories were stored indefinitely), but I don't attribute them to monetizability.
- ahassan 10y ago
  Why WhatsApp? Messages are E2E encrypted so it's fairly safe to use. Are you worried about metadata collection?
  - manmal 10y ago
    I am worried about backdoors, keys being stored somewhere else, ...
BeetleB 10y ago
>I'm operating under the assumption that Apple is more privacy friendly than Google under pretty much any circumstance. I'm curious as to why...?
- jacobwg 10y ago
  Because Google is primarily (not solely) an advertising / information company, so there's a financial incentive to sacrifice privacy. Apple is primarily (not solely) a hardware / product company, so the financial incentives are different. There's also a stronger history of Apple fighting for user privacy against government requests, etc.
  - darrmit 10y ago
    Yes, this. If it's free, you're the product. Same reason I pay for Fastmail.
    - paulcole 10y ago
      interesting phrase. did you coin it?
      - darrmit 10y ago
        No, think I saw it on here first..but it's a pretty powerful phrase.
        majewsky 10y ago
        I saw it first on this comic: https://www.ethannonsequitur.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/facebook-and-you-pigs.jpg https://www.ethannonsequitur.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/... (not on that site though, I searched for it on Google Images)
        Esau 10y ago
        My understanding is that Andrew Lewis first said it. http://www.metafilter.com/95152/Userdriven-discontent#3256046 http://www.metafilter.com/95152/Userdriven-discontent#325604...
    - pdimitar 10y ago
      I fully agree, but I still cynically wonder if there are no insolent companies out there who know that people believe in this sentiment and will make you play PLUS sell your info to 3rd parties. Yep, I am fun at parties.
  - on_and_off 10y ago
    >There's also a stronger history of Apple fighting for user privacy against government requests, etc. Is there ? AFAIK Google has been pretty pro-active in giving as little data to the governments as it legally can. Or maybe I have been influenced by the PR Google has been doing about this for years.
- jjn2009 10y ago
  The general theory is that advertising companies profit from software that decreases privacy.
stOneskull 10y ago
that wasn't the question.
thinbeige 10y ago
Think the same. Biggest annoyance of Android are the millions of permissions which every app asks for and which allow perfect fingerpinting. Phone number, all device accounts, wifi access names, mac adress are some examples. I know that one can switch off those permissions with newer Android versions but thia is too much hassle for me. And my second gripe with Android is the slow browser: Android's Chrome is much slower than iOS' Safari. Safari is as fast as Chrome on my Macbook. Third and biggest bummer: the updates on Android. Android is in general and as an OS quite good.
dillon 10y ago
I'm actually a user of LineageOS and I do not run the Play Store nor the Google Services. I prefer to install everything with F-Droid failing that I use a Play viewer called Yalp that downloads apk's from the Play Store. The only app I ran into that fails to load is Hangouts (I use that for work). While Facebook Messenger shows an error when loading it doesn't crash when using it. Yalp will ask for your Google credentials, but I also saw that it also has a fake account mechanism. My only other complaint is that by default the ROM comes with a couple non-free apps like Br0Zip that is quite obnoxious and you can't uninstall. I could re-flash my device and remove the app, but that's just annoying. If anyone from LineageOS is reading this please remove this ridiculous app. Honestly though I'm just happy that I'm running an OS that's open source at it's core and that I have access to an app store that exclusively hosts open source applications. It even warns when apps promote non-free software (like Yalp). PS: I'm not saying you're wrong, but that I've had quite a pleasant experience.
hypercluster 10y ago
No, same here. Tried the Cyano-Fdroid route as well and came to the same conclusion. Even tried not using a Google account but even free apps are often dependent on the Google servers.

by darrmit 10y ago

manmal 10y ago

Yes, same here. I'd use iMessage over WhatsApp or Duo (or whatever Google's chat du jour is called) any time. They do have glitches (like the recently exposed iCloud bug where private browsing histories were stored indefinitely), but I don't attribute them to monetizability.

ahassan 10y ago
Why WhatsApp? Messages are E2E encrypted so it's fairly safe to use. Are you worried about metadata collection?
- manmal 10y ago
  I am worried about backdoors, keys being stored somewhere else, ...

BeetleB 10y ago

>I'm operating under the assumption that Apple is more privacy friendly than Google under pretty much any circumstance. I'm curious as to why...?

jacobwg 10y ago
Because Google is primarily (not solely) an advertising / information company, so there's a financial incentive to sacrifice privacy. Apple is primarily (not solely) a hardware / product company, so the financial incentives are different. There's also a stronger history of Apple fighting for user privacy against government requests, etc.
- darrmit 10y ago
  Yes, this. If it's free, you're the product. Same reason I pay for Fastmail.
  - paulcole 10y ago
    interesting phrase. did you coin it?
    - darrmit 10y ago
      No, think I saw it on here first..but it's a pretty powerful phrase.
      - majewsky 10y ago
        I saw it first on this comic: https://www.ethannonsequitur.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/facebook-and-you-pigs.jpg https://www.ethannonsequitur.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/... (not on that site though, I searched for it on Google Images)
        Esau 10y ago
        My understanding is that Andrew Lewis first said it. http://www.metafilter.com/95152/Userdriven-discontent#3256046 http://www.metafilter.com/95152/Userdriven-discontent#325604...
  - pdimitar 10y ago
    I fully agree, but I still cynically wonder if there are no insolent companies out there who know that people believe in this sentiment and will make you play PLUS sell your info to 3rd parties. Yep, I am fun at parties.
- on_and_off 10y ago
  >There's also a stronger history of Apple fighting for user privacy against government requests, etc. Is there ? AFAIK Google has been pretty pro-active in giving as little data to the governments as it legally can. Or maybe I have been influenced by the PR Google has been doing about this for years.
jjn2009 10y ago
The general theory is that advertising companies profit from software that decreases privacy.

stOneskull 10y ago

that wasn't the question.

thinbeige 10y ago

Think the same. Biggest annoyance of Android are the millions of permissions which every app asks for and which allow perfect fingerpinting. Phone number, all device accounts, wifi access names, mac adress are some examples. I know that one can switch off those permissions with newer Android versions but thia is too much hassle for me. And my second gripe with Android is the slow browser: Android's Chrome is much slower than iOS' Safari. Safari is as fast as Chrome on my Macbook. Third and biggest bummer: the updates on Android. Android is in general and as an OS quite good.

dillon 10y ago

I'm actually a user of LineageOS and I do not run the Play Store nor the Google Services. I prefer to install everything with F-Droid failing that I use a Play viewer called Yalp that downloads apk's from the Play Store. The only app I ran into that fails to load is Hangouts (I use that for work). While Facebook Messenger shows an error when loading it doesn't crash when using it. Yalp will ask for your Google credentials, but I also saw that it also has a fake account mechanism. My only other complaint is that by default the ROM comes with a couple non-free apps like Br0Zip that is quite obnoxious and you can't uninstall. I could re-flash my device and remove the app, but that's just annoying. If anyone from LineageOS is reading this please remove this ridiculous app. Honestly though I'm just happy that I'm running an OS that's open source at it's core and that I have access to an app store that exclusively hosts open source applications. It even warns when apps promote non-free software (like Yalp). PS: I'm not saying you're wrong, but that I've had quite a pleasant experience.

hypercluster 10y ago

No, same here. Tried the Cyano-Fdroid route as well and came to the same conclusion. Even tried not using a Google account but even free apps are often dependent on the Google servers.