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> Life with a smart phone is so much better than life before a smart phone. But at what cost? The software and OS is a locked-down ecosystem for most consumer
by paavoova 8y ago
> Life with a smart phone is so much better than life before a smart phone.
But at what cost?
The software and OS is a locked-down ecosystem for most consumers. The hardware even more so. Such mass adoption forces one to conform in order to participate, meaning even for the privacy-conscious, consumer trends dictate all. Just a couple months ago US carriers were found to be selling realtime customer location data. Whether or not they're selling, they can track your phone via cellular triangulation. The baseband is a proprietary black box that runs its own privileges OS, can read memory and disk, and basically transmits at all times (mandated by law in some countries, for emergency network connectivity) to whoever picks up the signal, and this includes a unique IMEI. No removable batteries, and no hardware switches means masses of phones are being tracked at all times from point A to B, whether or not for nefarious purposes. Add the ever-growing trend of cashless transactions, OS-level third-party GPS tracking, and the reality becomes a slippery slope nightmare.
I feel that sentiments like yours, one's where "life" and "phone" are nearly synonymous, are fostering a dangerous future where one is obligated to own a phone else be left in the dust. This is already nearly the case socially, and in some careers also. Literature classics warn of mass surveillance and control, of chip implants under the scalp, but why go there when the populace already wear a tracking device willingly of their own accord, and grow to depend on it ever more?
- andai 8y agoWhat are you doing to combat this?
- paavoova 8y agoNothing, besides refusing to succumb to the idea that a mobile device is a necessity of modern life. The benefits don't outweigh the immediate concerns, but of course many disagree.
- oblio 8y agoIf the average person doesn't care enough to: * vote into power people that actually care about privacy * or to only buy products that protect their privacy what makes you think all this matters? The average person has decided that life is better for him like this...
- paavoova 8y agoIf the trend moves towards a total societal reliance on smartphones as tools of everyday life, and a couple decades down the path it becomes impossible to opt out while still retaining a normal lifestyle and career, then it matters. It matters even more so that the average person is making this push, because, as you bring up, it's ripe for exploit (e.g. recent events in China with state-sponsored malware installed on phones).
- oblio 8y agoI think you're missing my point. This is not a tech problem. It's a people problem. The most dystopian tools ever imagined can be perfectly harmless if the people using them don't want to use them for dystopian purposes. It's only moving towards a dystopy because people don't care or know enough. That's what has to be fixed.
- ryanmercer 8y ago>The average person has decided that life is better for him like this... Indeed, I do. You want to track the stores I drive by and what websites I visit? In exchange I can have real-time commnuication with friends all over the world without having to align scheduled to make phone calls of varying connection quality, I can get step by step directions on how to do just about anything including get from point A to B, I can take photos and share them, I can read, I can consume video and audio, I can track my macros, I can get immediate weather alerts, track ODB-II data for my car, get curated news, get raw news, augment my memory with drive/dropbox/evernote, I can track my finances? DEAL!
- thatfrenchguy 8y agoMore likely, we all got manipulated into thinking it’s better.
- Fnoord 8y agoIf you don't take your phone with you, you're not being tracked. It isn't an all-or-nothing proposition. We have the choice of not taking our phone with us. Also, PTSN can be easily eavesdropped as well, and paying by the minute isn't attractive. The phone companies squeezed us long enough.
- ersii 8y agoWell... even if we do leave it at home, everyone else has at least one where ever you go..
- Fnoord 8y agoThat depends. Generally, sure, but that doesn't mean one cannot lead by example. If not just for the fact that you finally got some rest and finally are not reachable by phone/WhatsApp/e-mail/etc. We're discussing mostly location tracking here (GPS etc), but we also shouldn't neglect the impact of cameras or mics. Nor the way GPS coordinates are embedded in pictures we ourselves take and we ourselves share on Instagram. Yesterday on TV there was a talkshow about the decline on Facebook due to privacy reasons (with which they seemingly agreed), and someone went how Instagram was the next hottest thing (owned by the same parent company). I wanted to bash my head... Right now I'm watching Tour de France and the 24/7 in-ears/mics and cameras make it a vastly different game than how it was before the TV era and during the TV but not yet everyone having ears.