Posted on 02/01/2025 9:37:53 AM PST by cuz1961
.. . The real story is what’s being done to lock down Android, and why you’ll need a newer model phone in 12-weeks time...
The other highlight further narrows the gap to iPhone, removing some of the looser restrictions that enabled threats to more easily fester on its ecosystem than Apple’s. “The Play Integrity API," Google says, “allows developers to check if their apps have been tampered with or are running in potentially compromised environments, helping them to prevent abuse like fraud, bots, cheating, and data theft.” The company also notes that “apps using Play integrity features are seeing 80% lower usage from unverified and untrusted sources on average,” and that “over 91% of app installs on the Google Play Store now use the latest protections of Android 13 or newer.”
Those last two stats are critical. Because Google’s Play Integrity API is changing, and for the 750-million-plus users on Android 12 or older, you may need to go buy a new phone if you can’t run a newer OS to keep your apps functioning as now. . ..
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
I hate to break the news to you but Android IS Linux.
But there are Android ROMS that are G**gle-free. LineageOS is the oldest but AFAIK no one sells phones with the LineageOS ROM. You have to flash it yourself, and that requires compatible hardware and a fairly high degree of techno-literacy.
CalyxOS takes an even more strict approach with there "privacy-focused" ROM than LineageOS, and there is at least one company that sells phones pre-installed with it (privacy phone shop dot com). Best of all, they're using Pixel phones but they've ripped out the G**gle ROM and replaced it with CalyxOS.
There are other privacy-focused, non-G**gle ROMs but I don't know of a source that sells phones using them complete with the factory warranty.
I'm counting maybe half a dozen companies that sell phones preinstalled with non-Android Linux but the phones they're based on IMHO come nowhere near a Pixel.
One other point.
You should have figured out ages ago that G**gle is da Debil. So if you’re still one of their victims, you did this to yourself and I have no sympathy for you.
I bought a Samsung Galaxy S21 5G, US Version, 128GB, Phantom Gray - Unlocked (Renewed) back in Nov, 2024 for $217 when I upgraded to 1GB internet speed. It arrived in perfect condition.
Spectrum wanted me to switch the 2 lines I had from T-Mobile as part of the deal. They also said the LG G7 that my relative who had one of the lines was to old. It was not but they wanted the change. I had ordered the LG G7 in Sept 2020. I have a used Samsung S10+ priced at $279 in Aug, 2021. Also arrived in perfect condition.
My current bill till Nov 15 is $62 for 1GB internet and $40 for the 2 lines for cell phone service from Verizon.
I’d love a landline phone. ACTUAL old-school landline. Not VOIP, which some people call a landline. And one that doesn’t require electricity. But the house we bought doesn’t even have phone jacks in it.
At our last house, we had a landline which worked during power failures, which was often. Then AT&T came through the subdivision and installed fiber optic. The power failed, I tried to call the electric company to report it as I’d done for years, but it was dead. Later, I called AT&T and was told that the new cable required electricity.
I wonder if this issue — cellular privacy / spying — is something that Brendan Carr is planning to look at at the FCC. It’s so invasive and ubiquitous that maybe that’s on his To Do List.
We have a place nearby that I think is a franchise called “i fix and repair”. They’ve replaced batteries for me in phones with non-replaceable batteries. I’ve bought the batteries online through Amazon, and taken them in.
Maybe look at this, too, by Erik Prince, which is supposed to be super spy proof.
I didn’t know that Elon is coming out with cellular. With his ideas re free speech, maybe his will be much safer. Will check that out.
“an attempt to ban jailbreaking your phone.”
What is “jailbreaking” in this context? Turning off spyware and tracking?
That’s kind of what we do. Would never do anything financial via cellular. And at home we have one of our PCs strictly for financial things and shopping, and never ever do web surfing or email on that system. Supposedly most breaches come in via email.
We do have email on the Android devices because we were told you can’t use the phone without one. But we never use those email addresses.
Don’t you need a Google account to use an Android device? We were told that was necessary.
Thanks for the info!
Mark
“I wonder if this issue — cellular privacy / spying — is something that Brendan Carr is planning to look at at the FCC. It’s so invasive and ubiquitous that maybe that’s on his To Do List.”
I have been researching this for many years now because of my own interests in Tech. The terminology they are using is “censorship”. So they very well might address censorship coming from community forums and “cancelling” for political reasons. But what they do not ever mentioned is the term “privacy”. In fact the technocapitalists are all for stealing private data and selling it as the huge lucrative market it is now. It is capitalism, it is “just business”. And ANYTHING is fair in business. Anything that will make a buck and improve the economy is fair game moral or not. If you want to even access or use technology then you have to agree to let them stomp on you as they like, it is in the contract, there is no “opt out” clause and still be able to use devices or the internet. Even store discount/bargain cards and Credit Card companies are doing this.
So no, while they might tackle censorship and political discrimination I do not see anything becoming more “private” in the future. It is just going to get even worse. They are never going to give up any of that. There is too much power and control in it.
Since actions speak louder than words just look at the power hungry technology entities who have flocked around Trump. This is pointed towards total global technocracy control using technology. They have not read Trump into what their joint effort and intentions truly are yet. But they are NOT there to help Trump or the people as they claim. This is demonstrated by Trump saying no to digital currency when all those entities would LOVE to have digital currency. They are still working on warming him up to the fact you cannot rule the world with technology without it. Or they will put everything else in place and do that last when Trump is no longer President, or when the democrats get back the house and Senate two years from now.
But privacy is never going to be part of the effort. The spy tech world is just too powerful and too big to fail. And right now they are ALL working together as one club to set up the proverbial “matrix” to enslave us globally. This is not tinfoil hat, just look at the techno-predators swarming around Trump right now. When these entities all gather together in one place around one target nothing good ever comes from it.
“I didn’t know that Elon is coming out with cellular. With his ideas re free speech, maybe his will be much safer. Will check that out.”
It won’t. The only difference will be that you will be tracked by satellite instead of terrestrial land towers. It is much more accurate. There will be no difference in privacy. Musk might support free speech, but what he supports even more is gathering data.
He is already paid by the intelligence community to do this very thing. If he even claims he is against it then it is only because he wants to rub out the competition and gather more for himself.
“Don’t you need a Google account to use an Android device? We were told that was necessary.”
You can keep “skipping” to do later when you set up the phone when you get it new. And then just never do it. But this does not keep them from still spying on you. It is not your phone, it will forever belong to Google. It is in the use agreement to even activate and use that device at all.
It is extortion...
You do not need a Google account.
Only if you want app store.
Show me the evidence. And show me the evidence they don’t routinely spy on Linux.
I repeat - it is none of our business and the dumb mistakes we made spending our money stupidly don’t make it our business. It is not our country. You act like we bought the country. We have no business there. None. And it is time we stop acting like the Boss of the World. That would be a good policy for the New Sheriff.
Linux wasn’t even part of the discussion bud.
Go find that yourself.
As to the evidence, the search function works quite nicely on this forum, so go hunt for it, because it was posted here.
The discussion was about cell phones being secretly surveilled. So, all cell phones. Flip phones were mentioned. Is a Linux phone a phone? Then same question applies.
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