8 ms·

I'd switched to a OnePlus a few years ago and was delighted by the performance/cost. In the last few years the combined privacy invasion from: 1. Google at th

• beefield 8y ago
  > Facebook with asking for/getting insane levels of permissions from Android for their apps. Why then use the app in the first place? I mean, the mobile sites of fb are pretty much functional to me. (Admittably, I am happy to have no notifications on my phone outside sms and calls)
  • shmageggy 8y ago
    They've been progressively gimping the mobile site for a while. Now you can't use messenger from the mobile site, for zero good reason as far as I can tell. They just want to force people into using the app where they can harvest more data.
    • slow_donkey 8y ago
      I regularly use the mobile site messenger - you have to request a desktop site with m.facebook and the overlay won't show. I suspect it'd be trivial to remove the overlay with CSS.
    • sixstringtheory 8y ago
      mbasic.facebook.com still has messenger built in and doesnt take ages to load
      • rakoo 8y ago
        Thanks so much. I've been using m.facebook.com but they removed the messenger from there. I've been using messenger lite because it doesn't require as many permissions and is just so much lighter to use, but it lacks one of the most important things to me: gifs
        • parthdesai 8y ago
          privacy, battery life and ram >>> gifs.
      • reaperducer 8y ago
        In my experience, m.facebook.com and mbasic.facebook.com return far less content than the full web page. And mbasic gets the least. There have been times when mbasic has shown me two items, and that's it. Switching to m returned more. But only going to the full www showed me everything going on. So now I restrict myself to using Facebook just one day a week. It's not as good as cutting Facebook off entirely, but it at least reduces some of its data gathering on me.
        • dwighttk 8y ago
          You might do it on a big computer if you have one. I keep Facebook in a fluid instance on my Mac. About 3 times in the past few years I’ve wished I had my login on my phone to get an address for an event or something, but haven’t gone there since I can remember. I don’t really use messenger though.
    • PascLeRasc 8y ago
      Have you tried Messenger Lite? I don't know about privacy implications of having it alone on your phone, no other FB apps, but it's quite good.
    • rapnie 8y ago
      Google (YouTube, Search) and LinkedIn are doing that too. Especially if you are also using FireFox. Subtle differences in functionality, things missing here and there. Still I am opting for the web versions with my privacy settings and Privacy Badger, etc. LinkedIn app has a builtin Chromium browser that you can't control and may have custom code additions.
    • gnicholas 8y ago
      You can still go to m.facebook.com and then request desktop version to get access to messenger. But this is annoying, and most people aren’t aware of workaround like this.
  • bossx 8y ago
    +1 and even better: http://mbasic.facebook.com http://mbasic.facebook.com loads extremely fast and includes messenger.
  • LeifCarrotson 8y ago
    I don't have a Facebook account. But the app is bundled with my 'unlocked' LG G5, and there's no option in the Play store to uninstall it. Only "update", which I refuse to do.
  • richliss 8y ago
    I ended up not using the app but I know lots of non-tech people who are unaware and so carry on. That for me isn't great.
• adamduren 8y ago
  Have you checked out Facebook Lite and Messenger Lite? I haven't looked into it much but it's possible they request less permissions as the app is built to have limited functionalities.
  • briandear 8y ago
    It’s still feeding Facebook the company and ultimately rewarding privacy-unfriendly business models.
  • erythpplerainbw 8y ago
    for anyone mentioning Facebook Lite & Messenger Lite: stop, stop using them right away, the 2 apps enable all permissions without asking (because Android is saying it needs to enable all for old apps, WHAT?) also on Android, you can't share a photo to Facebook Messenger without granting at least Storage permission or Photo permission (which is not the case on Instagram)
    • amaccuish 8y ago
      oh wow, thanks for that!
• pasta 8y ago
  Sony + Sailfish OS could also be an option since support for Sailfish is official.
• elborro 8y ago
  Sadly also Apple collects data on their users. Last year around 300TB a day on what users search for, which apps they use, how many times, where you click and navigate through the OS and in the apps, etc. :(
  • jpttsn 8y ago
    I’d love to learn more
  • mitch3x3 8y ago
    This is something all businesses do. The issue is whether or not they sell that information.
    • shawnz 8y ago
      Why is that "the issue"? There are many other problems with excessive telemetry besides data being sold to third parties. Besides, both Google and Apple claim that they don't sell telemetry data to third parties, so how is that aspect of the issue even relevant here?
      • Cyph0n 8y ago
        Well, the question I always ask is who has more to gain (financially) from selling user telemetry: Apple or Google?
      • yalogin 8y ago
        Well, ok but Apple also - does not use that data to sell stuff to you. - don't have a reason to profile you and store those profiles constantly updated. - don't have a reason to "follow" you across the web everywhere you go to update that profile. Just having that profile on you makes a company a liability. C you trust a company that makes money solely based on the information they collect about you to make decisions that benefit you? or your privacy and security?
      • bryanrasmussen 8y ago
        Any third party that would pay google enough for the data would probably be seen by Alphabet as a company ripe for disruption.
• at-fates-hands 8y ago
  I did the same and now I'm feeling the same way. Currently I'm running with an MS Lumia 950 and when necessary, I'll switch back to Android. I've completely removed all my social media apps on both phones. The most recent reason I needed to switch back to my OnePlus 2 was because my hockey manager now uses Venmo to accept payment for the upcoming season. I was pissed when I found out Venmo won't allow you to process payments from your desktop account anymore. You are forced to download and install the Android app, and then send money that way. It just feels so invasive. I felt like they were saying, "We can't get the data we want on your PC, so we'll force you to download and install the app, and in the process, give us the permissions we want to get to your data.
• anotherelise 8y ago
  There's at least one other company trying to provide a solution https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/ https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/
• fbis251 8y ago
  Can you expand on the Lineage OS DNS issues?
  • richliss 8y ago
    I'd read previously that Lineage's DNS is hardwired into Google's DNS due to Google tying their DNS into pretty much everything. Check out the comments here: https://www.xda-developers.com/e-google-free-lineageos-fork-nexus-oneplus-xiaomi/ https://www.xda-developers.com/e-google-free-lineageos-fork-...
• rqs 8y ago
  However, the most Apple's system is close sourced, meaning if they want to do something, you're still defenseless. There are no Eden now, you need to protect yourself. People's will towards privacy is still weak, they don't know what those company could do with that amount of data. Ignorant, that's why those company keep doing what they do. It's just like running a restaurant, as long as people can't see disgusting thing in their food, then everything will be fine and dandy, no matter how unhygienic the kitchen was. Sad.
  • chakalakasp 8y ago
    Most good stuff is closed source now. It is what it is. It boils down to trust. Do you trust Google? Do you trust Apple? I trust Google to care very much about security. I also trust that they are gathering as much information as they can about me. Even as a paid customer. It’s baked into their business model. I trust Apple to care very much about security. I also trust that they fundamentally believe in privacy and are not gathering large swaths of data about me, and are doing what they can to keep others from doing so if I play in their garden. It’s baked into their business model.
    • clay_the_ripper 8y ago
      To me it boils down to this. At some level, there is a point where you have to trust people/companies. I don’t have time to spend researching and installing custom software to protect privacy. I fully understand that there are people here who have the time to devote to that or want to spend time doing that, but it’s not practical for most people to really spend much time on it. So, given that I have to trust someone (and for 99% of people on the planet this is also true) I choose to trust Apple.
    • rqs 8y ago
      > It boils down to trust. Do you trust Google? Do you trust Apple? Why don't boil down even further? How comfortable you are when you put your own security on other people's hand? Do you trust others will protect you no matter what? Do you trust others will completely be honest with you no matter what? I don't know about you, but for me, I always trying to figure out the detail of the thing that will be rely on, even it's just a door alarm. Only after that, I can then tell whether or not I trust it. If I understand you correctly, I can say that your "trust" is actually a form of trade off: I want to use the awesome __________ Phone, so I can ______________. For that, I could take some shit from __________ as long as they don't ______________. However, that just means you've convinced yourself to trust something, hardly anything else. And speak of "business model", many company was cool and awesome when it's young. Things change. So, if it's a question: Do you trust Google? Do you trust Apple? Both no. I kept my file encrypted when uploading to Google Drive, and I don't use iCloud at all. I have 16 different Google accounts and 3 Apple accounts, each for different things, and I replace most of then every two years (Or when Google start to ask me for my phone number). My advise: Don't dip yourself into that situation when you have to make a choice like that.
• dredmorbius 8y ago
  Purism and Tuxedo Computers are two otions for mobile, laptop, and desktop systems without preinstalled surveillance capitalism. https://puri.sm https://puri.sm https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en (No association.)
• urza 8y ago
  Apple might offer better privacy than Google or Facebook now, but it can change easily because privacy is not their core product. I have high hopes for Librem 5 where privacy of user is the core product of the company. https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/ https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/
• ece 8y ago
  You're not free until you're libre.