pogmommy

I use Grapheneos, though I'm not opposed to suggesting stuff from the play store where foss options don't cut it. I just personally don't feel like they make much sense in a post in a degoogling community

Buys a bomb

complains when it blows up

This is about as politically agnostic as it gets. I don't care for some of the eurocentrism I've seen in the ongoing conversation, but it arises from concerns that other western countries are experiencing following their reliance on the increasingly-unstable american empire.

My condolences for being stuck with Verizon. Learned the hard way that any phone originally from their network can't have its bootloader unlocked, even if the manufacturer otherwise supports it.

Recommending an app from the play store seems counterintuitive to degoogling, no?

Not to discredit your experiences with Linux but you just listed Ubuntu four times

You can't get a virus if your computer's already dependent on one!

I mean yeah, but for a lot of people if they ditch their phone they'll also lose their job and possibly relationships they value.

Cell phones spying on people isn't good, but most people are simply not informed about how invasive they are and couldn't make an informed decision if they tried. Pair that with the fact that cell phones are essential for a lot of modern life, and it's not difficult to see why the average person is generally more wary of smart speakers than cell phones.

I meant they're easier to justify in the sense that I see why people don't put much thought into putting a spying device in their pocket, not that I agree with the disregard. Most peoples' friends, family, employers, etc. all expect them to have a cell phone and be available by it. Additionally, the way most people interact with their phones, the spying is much less obvious. They joke about them "always listening", but a lot of people don't understand the privacy concerns of pretty typical internet use, so the fact that the device has more than just a microphone, it appears to be worth it to a more typical consumer than us.

Contrast that with an Alexa, google home, or apple home thing, devices which nobody cares if someone else doesn't own, which most people only see as a microphone and speaker, and whose primary functionality is to always be listening to you. The skepticism is much easier to arise.

I'm not saying the level at which cell phones spy on their users is acceptable or even worth it, just that I see why the average user who isn't conscious of their privacy doesn't regard them with the same concern they do smart speakers.

Phones are at least easier to justify since everyone kinda needs one now and there aren't many great private options, especially for the lay person

1. Unplug your amazon echo devices

2. Hit it with a hammer

3. Send it to an electronics recycler

My understanding is that Fennec only removes Mozilla's telemetry, whereas IronFox (forked from the discontinued Mull) is that plus patches to further harden the browser.

IronFox is available through F-Droid via the project's own repository, but is recommended to install through Accrescent, which you can learn more about here.