I have a setup on GrapheneOS which works using a DNS whitelist So everything is blocked by default (ControlD dns provider) and only a few websites are accessible. The password to the owner profile is locked away and can only be unlocked by waiting, so the DNS setting can't be changed on a whim. I'm very happy with this setup.
This way it does not really matter that you can install apps because to be interesting they need internet access.
I went back to a old Motorola phone not once but twice. Both attempts were unsuccessful. For directions I got a Garmin potable gos navigator. Once I was coming back from somewhere with my kids and it was 10:30 pm. They were hungry and wanted pizza. I used the Garmin gps and went to the restaurant but it was closed. That happened because the gps unit did not have the latest information. My family was mad and I went back to smartphone. The second time my extended family living outside the country were mad because they couldn’t call me on WhatsApp. So I went back to my smartphone. Totally two failed attempts at using a dumb phone.
> Just in my toilet, I’m supposed to have an app for the seat, an app for the flush and one for the ventilation.
There should be some sort of unofficial rule that if you’re writing something that strains credulity, you should actually link to something that explains it.
I do have a smartphone, but I don't seem to feel the pain the author feels about being inundated by QR codes and apps. Maybe I have all the apps I need already? Maybe I just don't mind having an app on my phone because I know that I can set it to basically never bother me. Most of my apps have notifications silenced. My home screen is empty, save the handful of apps I do want. And for the little bit of effort I put forth to tweak the device to my liking, I get the world in my pocket - a full browser, every song I've ever liked, every picture I've ever taken, all my scanned documents, etc - not to mention all my loved ones available at a moment's notice. My battery lasts long enough, and when it doesn't, it's because I was using the device. I just don't understand the complaint I guess. Make the device work for you, not the other way around?
I think the problem is that things that once did not require and realistically shouldn't require apps (like the toilet example - which I can't tell if hyperbole or not) are now "app enabled" by default.
Sure, you have taken the time to curate your mobile experience and silence things but a majority of the people in the world don't do that as it takes more time and effort than they are willing or able to give (why silence things or uninstall apps when you can browse instagram or tiktok for 2 hours). These people are the most affected but don't often know how inundated they are.
The example could be hyperbole, but Home Depot and Lowes both offer a wide selection of "smart toilets" and if we think "oh this is just a weird niche thing that will never catch on" let's remember how difficult it is to not purchase a Smart TV when television shopping these days.
The whole point of the label "smart" is to fill in vague positive thoughts for the customary "..." that comes right before "profit" in the standard /. business plan. And the real problem is that it works.
It is kinda funny that “smart” is the branding we’ve converged on for these devices that have unnecessary computer features. Most engineers would, I guess, call it pretty stupid to add a computer to the BoM of your toilet.
Gastroenterologists generally categorize feces into ~7 categories. They can be indicators of a variety of dietary deficencies, including dehydration or insufficient fiber intake. Others can be indicators of a variety of medical issues, up to an including colon cancer. Ubiquitous smart toilets scanning and categorizing our feces would move the needle of overall public health and well-being.
Auto-flush, seat warmer, scheduled seat warmer, cleaning cycle, scent dispenser, "you haven't been going as often" sensing, auto high/low flush depending on time on toilet...
Just off the top of my head, and I'm no toilet engineer. I'm sure there are lots of possibilities with just a sensor or two.
Most appliances have "smart" features now, it's getting hard to avoid. But I've never enabled them. My dishwasher and my clothes washer have both bluetooth and wifi features but I never set them up. I just use the controls on the device. I have no interest in getting information about my appliances when I am not physcially in front of them.
Yes, but the controls on the device cost the manufacturer a couple of cents that they will be happy to not pay as soon as they can get away with it. First it'll be (in some cases already is) the advanced or rarely used functionality. Eventually you'll be expected to connect the damned thing before it can be used at all.
> I think the problem is that things that once did not require and realistically shouldn't require apps (like the toilet example - which I can't tell if hyperbole or not) are now "app enabled" by default.
It's ridiculous how often & where tech is required these days where it really shouldn't.
One example: recently I discovered that on the (main) train station in the province capital near me, going to the toilet requires a bank (ATM/debit) card. What?!? FYI: we're talking a city with ~100k inhabitants.
Decades ago, you could just use a toilet. Done.
But ofcourse it needs cleaning, and personnel costs money. So, they'd put up a bowl where people could drop a few coins.
That didn't last long lol. Next: some small mechanism attached to door handle. Insert coin, open door.
Of course, some acts of vandalism & theft later: do away with the cash. And because 'everybody' around here pays with card+PIN 'everywhere' anyway, let's stick that onto the access-to-toilet.
On the surface, this whole progression seems 'logical'. But it's not! You've replaced something that shouldn't require tech at all, or at most a simple mechanical thingie, with something that requires electricity, internet connection, an electronic payments system backend, and may have the ability to track who used what toilet, where, when & bank account involved.
Insane! Issues like 'how to pay for toilet use' play worldwide, and this is the best you could come up with?
I don't think he's complaining about having a lot of apps, or the ability to have a lot of apps. He's complaining about being required to use apps for hundreds of small interactions every day that don't, or shouldn't, require an app. And he's correct. Companies are doing this not because they think it's better, but because they believe that if they can worm their way onto your device, and insert their cloud service (even if it's initially free), that they can turn you into a more reliable and/or recurring revenue stream in the future, either because you feel locked into their ecosystem so you will buy other products from their lineup, or, even better, buy a subscription service.
When I moved to a new apartment in 2021, I did a tally and there was something like 17 new apps associated with it. Off the top of my head:
- Rent payment/contracts app
- Rent deposit app (for some reason a different app)
- Maintenance app
- Community notices/amenities app
- Dry cleaning app
- Package app
- Pet concierge app (reserve the dog park, etc.)
- Apartment building parking/valet app
- App for the company that owns the building so you can use amenities at any of the other company buildings in town
- Another company app so you can reserve a guest suite at another company-owned building in another city
- App to unlock your apartment door if you lose your fob
- App for the restaurant in the lobby
- Internet company app (Man, that place had great internet. I miss that the most.)
- Satellite TV company app
- City parking app
There were other apps, but I don't care enough now to go looking for the list I made back when I cared about it.
From a technical standpoint, almost all of those apps could be consolidated into one app, but that's not how the real world works. These days companies outsource each little function to a different provider, and each of those providers has its own app.
Maybe I'm in a tech desert, but I can't remember the last time I was required to use an app for anything. It's a convenient option for my grocery store loyalty card, certain restaurant menus, my HVAC system, etc., but not mandatory. I've heard of restaurants that have no physical menus but I haven't come across one myself.
90% of the “coupons” at Safeway are “digital deals”. You have to use the app to scan the barcode in store just to get a regular price. Fast food is the same, don’t order through the app and you get ripped off. You’re not forced to use an app an unless you’re okay with getting ripped off.
You're missing the point entirely. You're opting in and enjoying it, great! Do you really believe you chose to opt in? The author is saying that opting out is extremely painful and that THAT is wrong. We should all get to choose if we want to walk around with a smart phone or not. It's now basically required to invest in a privacy destroying device that makes huge corporations that much richer to function in society.
You don't understand why someone would complain about that?
Depending on where I park in the city, I have to install a different parking app. And create an account, and pay with a credit card via the app. There was a time, however brief, when some of the parking meters just accepted credit cards, or get this, coins.
This is what happens when a large number of people claim they "don't seem to feel the pain" and comply with the data broker's wishes. We all get stuck in the data brokers web, or we have to break the law to park on a public street.
100% this, and it is annoying. I pay for street parking (i'm ok with it, it's a tax base for the city I live in), but i'm not Ok with having to pay .50 per transaction. And i used to carry a stack of quarters in my car. And then you add all the vendors with their proprietary apps in this space, the tracking of the data of what car parked where, when, etc.
I'm suprised they were allowed to remove the coins from the meters, but they were. So people who don't have a premiere phone, because the apps don't work on your old crappy phone, or people who don't have a credit card to feed into the app on the phone, are SOL.
> Maybe I just don't mind having an app on my phone because I know that I can set it to basically never bother me.
Apps are a problem in more ways than just the nuisance of notifications and having an icon on your home screen.
As long as an app is installed it can run in the background whenever it feels like it collecting and sending data. If you have a physical product that requires an app to use, it may not bother you until you go to use it and it fails because a server shut down or it refuses to run because it silently updated at some point and has now decided that your phone is no longer supported and suddenly the product you paid for is useless.
If you are very careful about which apps you install/refuse to install you'll probably be fine, but most companies that push apps are doing it because they want your device to work for their benefit at your expense.
It's pretty annoying when traveling to new countries, which I do often.
Always figure out all the apps I need to use local transport, to park, to charge the car, etc. In plenty of regions you also need special (often confusing) wallet apps to be able to pay for stuff without local bank accounts.
I would appreciate it if more of this ran on the web as well.
> Always figure out all the apps I need to use local transport, to park, to charge the car, etc. In plenty of regions you also need special (often confusing) wallet apps to be able to pay for stuff without local bank accounts.
And everybody's favourite, apps that have been region-locked to local-inhabitants-only, because foreign visitors don't exist, right?
Same, I never use apps because they're the simplest way for vendors to violate your privacy.
The real reason why vendors want users to use their apps is that an app maximizes the information they can steal from users with the minimum disruption (unfortunately users aren't aware of the fact).
I've never understood why this isn't obvious to everyone.
For years, I've avoided giving my phone number out to organisations by saying I don't have a phone. It's blistful, I almost never receive an unwanted call.
When you buy something from a medium-sized shop in India, they would insist for your phone number, as their POS app have that field as almost mandatory. I had to fight at a pharmacy checkout, holding up the queue behind me, as I refuse to give my phone number.
So what do you do if your flushing app breaks? Or the manufacturer goes out of business and flush tracking servers go down? Or google decides to suspend it while you're on the toilet?
We could all be a bit more humble about the onerous “tools” we’ve built . I have a lot of sympathy for the elderly, and the ridiculous rituals they go through just to book an appointment, fill a subscription, buy tickets to a concert, order groceries.
The McDonalds app is 15+ screens to order a burger. Compare that to walking in a, “hi, how are you, I’d like a Big Mac meal with a Coke, here’s my money, thanks”.
Let’s all have a bit more humility, and even humiliation, for the absurd protocols we’ve imposed on everyone.
Frustratingly, I haven't even had that in-store experience for a while now. You do the same app-based ordering process, but on a big tablet. If there's an issue with your order, it can take several minutes to get near enough to an employee to get their attention.
You’re right, and many American franchises still do, but they’ve understaffed the place so heavily that it’s often onerous to find someone to come to the counter. Plus, most (but not all) staff have lost social skills.
The list is missing a couple of points, including:
- my camera isn't working
- I don't have a QR code scanner app
And, of course, since we've already shown we're fine with bending the truth a little if it helps our case: "I scanned the QR code. It leads to a porn video. Are you going to argue with me about that over a couple of pixels, or will you give me the plain URL?"
> "I don’t have a smartphone," is what I tell people and professionals nowadays
I did this today too. I happened to walk past a branch of my bank, and remembered my debit card is playing up due to wear-and-tear, so I popped in to order a replacement. I made the request and the first response was "do you have our banking up, you can do it on there?". "No".
It wasn't even busy.
(I also happen to have my mortgage with my bank, so paying quite a lot of interest to them each month...)
Did you consider if they were trying maybe just to save you the trip/inconvenience in the future by informing you of something most people would be able to use?
That's the least charitable interpretation, most people aren't avoiding the app intentionally you have to adjust to the fact you're anomalous for not having a smartphone at this point.
> I happened to walk past a branch of my bank, and remembered my debit card is playing up due to wear-and-tear, so I popped in to order a replacement. I made the request and the first response was "do you have our banking app, you can do it on there?". "No".
I switched banks over something similar.
I'd had an account with Wells Fargo (and before that with First Interstate before Wells Fargo bought them), dating all the way back to when I was a kid. I'd used that account for everything, for 20+ years, and kept all my assets in there.
I regularly went into the branch to do certain transactions, like making deposits or withdrawals, for any number of reasons. (This was long before you could do any kind of remote check deposit.)
And the teller decided to provide an overt reminder suggesting to do this via the ATM rather than talking to a teller.
That day, I requested a cashier's check for my entire balance, and went to another bank to put it in my account there.
What happens when you run out of banks, will you put your cashier’s check under a mattress? I’m old & get told what to do at banks all the time, but that’s no reason to change banks as it will just happen again at the new bank. My wife & I don’t have electronic banking & I wonder how long we’ll have tellers to help us. We’ve also had 2 branches close out from under us & force us to use less convenient ones nearby. We can’t change what’s happening in banking by running away, it will always catch up to us.
There are many, many banks and credit unions out there. Not all of them treat customer service as less important than whatever optimization they were trying to do.
This is why Google's war on sideloading is so terrible. It does very little to make people safer, and it restricts user's ability to make a free market choice about which companies they transact with.
calling it "Google's war" is an interesting take. No doubt they have added some hoops to jump through and reduced freedoms, but Apple has been leading the charge against installing arbitrary software for decades.
I have a motorola smartphone. I don't have google play installed. I mainly use obtainium for app installation. Its a bare bones phone and it drives my business partner crazy.
"Just log into our instagram account and. . .right, you don't have insta installed on your phone."
"Can you log into our scheduling app and. . . right, you don't have that installed on your phone either."
Some of the more painful things you have to deal with:
- Chromite and Iron Fox filtering out a ton of stuff so a lot of sites simply don't work
- Organic maps is slow and hard to use compared to Google and Apple maps.
- Fairmail that blocks a ton of images and other code - which is good, but had to get used to seeing everything blocked visually.
- Not having any banking apps on my phone. Every time my son needs a few bucks in his account, my wife has to do it if we're out.
- The open source weather apps are not very accurate. Usually within a few degrees, and the radar is hit or miss.
Kind of odd that we have to try so hard to ensure our own privacy. I'm up for a new phone this Fall so I'll most likely be moving to a newer Pixel and will get Lineage or Graphene installed on it.
> - Not having any banking apps on my phone. Every time my son needs a few bucks in his account, my wife has to do it if we're out.
This is the most tyrannical things about smart phones -- banking apps. I get it, the bank wants to ensure the platform is not a liability. But it forces most of us to use one of the only two "trusted" mobile providers on earth: Google or Apple, both of which are American (and I'm an American.) The only alternative is a browser which comes with its own set of problems.
In my experience in the U.S., I can manage my accounts at various banks and brokerages just as well from the website as from a mobile app. I’m ok with them restricting how their apps can be used as long as the browser remains an option. The requirement to use an app for all account management (or for authenticating to a website) seems to be mostly a European phenomenon.
I realize this is true. This is more of a personal choice since apps like Venmo can still track you on Graphene:
GrapheneOS does not strip proprietary tracking code embedded directly inside third-party apps like Venmo. If you log into Venmo, the app collects your financial activity, device analytics, and interactions
Venmo requires a verified account tied to your real identity, phone number, and bank account, meaning the service already knows who you are regardless of your operating system.
Venmo can see your IP address and any location data you permit the app to access, or data derived from your connection
To each their own, but this seems more like purposefully handicapping yourself (and annoying those around you) over a very much false sense of privacy or “disconnection”. If it works for you then kudos, but I personally see this as an increasingly futile exercise with very little to no positive net return.
Business requires sacrifice. I'd get a separate business phone for your business's Instagram and your business's Facebook and so on. You have to have Instagram the same way you have to have an accountant - hold your nose and do it anyway.
as email client I would suggest abandoned Nine Mail, works fine without gapps
Weawow is great weather app with plenty of sources to choose fom
don't really understand your complaints, seems like you are using some slow budget motorola phone which is causing issues like Organic Maps you mention
btw. I dont have any banking apps either, I am perfectly fine with everywhere using bank card and just in case I carry small cash in wallet, if I need to send money I can do it from computer where I sit most of the days anyway, why would I be doing it somewhere outside apartment? that's like trimming your nails outside apartment, sure you can do it, but why it wouldn't wait for home?
I've been able to say this truthfully up until 4 years ago. I was perfectly familiar with iOS and Android, and I could pick one up and use it as competently as anyone else. Was the same even when I decided to get one 4 years ago. Not having a Google and Meta account remains true for me. Never had a Meta/Facebook account at any point in time, and I deleted my Google account a decade ago.
It is frustrating dealing with people not willing to accept this is an option people have, and anything requiring an app is a dealbreaker for me. I didn't realize it was quite as bad as the author suggests with his various household items, but I am worried it will continue to get worse in that way without laws in manufacturing partitioning technology from life.
I use this method ^ which lets you keep essential apps but otherwise have dumb phone (no browser, no App Store). Highly recommend.
On the other hand, I have turned my laptop into a dumb computer using cold turkey blocker. I've never seen anyone talking about this here. I'm a standard user (for hardening reasons). And set up so I haven't watched YouTube largely for years because it's blocked and not at all in the past few days. It's flexible to configure and then because it's literally impossible to bypass you never try and then just end up living a calm life. (No ai, no reddit, no crappy news sites, etc.)
Came here to link this same thread. Have been following this approach for 6 months and its been great. The only non utility apps I have on my device are ChatGPT, Duolingo, and Spotify. I recently removed email.
I'm not nearly as disciplined with cold turkey though.
> Do you consent to us collecting your data? This form has the only purpose of requesting a copy of ASD-STE100. Details are for record and statistical purposes only and will not be used or disclosed in any form to anyone. You can find out more about STEMG privacy policy here.
Only has a "Yes" option, and so I couldn't submit the form.
So you filled out a form with your personal data and were about to press the submit button to send it to them, but you don't consent to them having that data?
I agree with all the assumptions, but it is a moving goalpost on being included in society.
Same as in some areas being a productive member of society includes: have a job, have a car, have a permenant address.
The only exceptiosn seem to skew to the top and bottom 10%? And even then it can steer more closet to top/bottom 5%? 1%? Where it doesn't matter you have enough or a complete lack of social proof that it doesn't matter.
I got a Sunbeam F1 in January and have been pleased with it. The hardest part is when I lost it, there is no find-my-phone (at least not that I know of, I should look, they are always adding new features). It has GPS and weather which is perfect for me. I just can't go to restaurants that don't have paper menus, which is fine.
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[ 0.28 ms ] story [ 99.8 ms ] threadThis way it does not really matter that you can install apps because to be interesting they need internet access.
Some might consider that a benefit.
There should be some sort of unofficial rule that if you’re writing something that strains credulity, you should actually link to something that explains it.
Sure, you have taken the time to curate your mobile experience and silence things but a majority of the people in the world don't do that as it takes more time and effort than they are willing or able to give (why silence things or uninstall apps when you can browse instagram or tiktok for 2 hours). These people are the most affected but don't often know how inundated they are.
By traditional, not Japanese or anything of the sort. I'm sure it's also not taking medical samples.
So what on earth could it do?! Report the flushes!?! Why? Are you going to magically decide not to crap as much?
Just baffling.
Just off the top of my head, and I'm no toilet engineer. I'm sure there are lots of possibilities with just a sensor or two.
Or one that automatically ads cleaning products and notifies you on your phone when you need to refill them.
"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't flush that".
It's ridiculous how often & where tech is required these days where it really shouldn't.
One example: recently I discovered that on the (main) train station in the province capital near me, going to the toilet requires a bank (ATM/debit) card. What?!? FYI: we're talking a city with ~100k inhabitants.
Decades ago, you could just use a toilet. Done.
But ofcourse it needs cleaning, and personnel costs money. So, they'd put up a bowl where people could drop a few coins.
That didn't last long lol. Next: some small mechanism attached to door handle. Insert coin, open door.
Of course, some acts of vandalism & theft later: do away with the cash. And because 'everybody' around here pays with card+PIN 'everywhere' anyway, let's stick that onto the access-to-toilet.
On the surface, this whole progression seems 'logical'. But it's not! You've replaced something that shouldn't require tech at all, or at most a simple mechanical thingie, with something that requires electricity, internet connection, an electronic payments system backend, and may have the ability to track who used what toilet, where, when & bank account involved.
Insane! Issues like 'how to pay for toilet use' play worldwide, and this is the best you could come up with?
This is the exaggeration that makes these claims fall flat for me.
How are you getting to hundreds of smartphone interactions per day that require apps?
And daily I maybe use 4-6 apps at most.
From a technical standpoint, almost all of those apps could be consolidated into one app, but that's not how the real world works. These days companies outsource each little function to a different provider, and each of those providers has its own app.
A few years ago I could have done it all on a Linux PC.
You don't understand why someone would complain about that?
This is what happens when a large number of people claim they "don't seem to feel the pain" and comply with the data broker's wishes. We all get stuck in the data brokers web, or we have to break the law to park on a public street.
I'm suprised they were allowed to remove the coins from the meters, but they were. So people who don't have a premiere phone, because the apps don't work on your old crappy phone, or people who don't have a credit card to feed into the app on the phone, are SOL.
>Maybe I just don't mind having an app on my phone because I know that I can set it to basically never bother me.
Maybe when the government decides you're a dissident, they can purchase the location information from all your convenient apps?
Apps are a problem in more ways than just the nuisance of notifications and having an icon on your home screen.
As long as an app is installed it can run in the background whenever it feels like it collecting and sending data. If you have a physical product that requires an app to use, it may not bother you until you go to use it and it fails because a server shut down or it refuses to run because it silently updated at some point and has now decided that your phone is no longer supported and suddenly the product you paid for is useless.
If you are very careful about which apps you install/refuse to install you'll probably be fine, but most companies that push apps are doing it because they want your device to work for their benefit at your expense.
Always figure out all the apps I need to use local transport, to park, to charge the car, etc. In plenty of regions you also need special (often confusing) wallet apps to be able to pay for stuff without local bank accounts.
I would appreciate it if more of this ran on the web as well.
And everybody's favourite, apps that have been region-locked to local-inhabitants-only, because foreign visitors don't exist, right?
The real reason why vendors want users to use their apps is that an app maximizes the information they can steal from users with the minimum disruption (unfortunately users aren't aware of the fact).
I've never understood why this isn't obvious to everyone.
For years, I've avoided giving my phone number out to organisations by saying I don't have a phone. It's blistful, I almost never receive an unwanted call.
If anyone at Google is reading this, please answer urgently, my legs are starting to go numb.
The McDonalds app is 15+ screens to order a burger. Compare that to walking in a, “hi, how are you, I’d like a Big Mac meal with a Coke, here’s my money, thanks”.
Let’s all have a bit more humility, and even humiliation, for the absurd protocols we’ve imposed on everyone.
Not the point but they haven't been needed for at least half a decade now. Both iOS and Android's built in cameras detect and scan QR codes now.
The poorer you are, the more of your life you must waste looking at a screen instead of gazing upon beautiful landscapes and friendly faces.
"Must", perhaps. But plenty of people of any wealth are addicted
It’s pretty much like those vegans people tend to make fun of: it’s performative. It’s humble-brag-fuelled activism that craves audience approval.
I did this today too. I happened to walk past a branch of my bank, and remembered my debit card is playing up due to wear-and-tear, so I popped in to order a replacement. I made the request and the first response was "do you have our banking up, you can do it on there?". "No".
It wasn't even busy.
(I also happen to have my mortgage with my bank, so paying quite a lot of interest to them each month...)
Also, this is a bank that loves to shout about how it's keeping its branches – a promise to keep its branches open, no less.
Perhaps adjust your opinion for this context?
I switched banks over something similar.
I'd had an account with Wells Fargo (and before that with First Interstate before Wells Fargo bought them), dating all the way back to when I was a kid. I'd used that account for everything, for 20+ years, and kept all my assets in there.
I regularly went into the branch to do certain transactions, like making deposits or withdrawals, for any number of reasons. (This was long before you could do any kind of remote check deposit.)
And the teller decided to provide an overt reminder suggesting to do this via the ATM rather than talking to a teller.
That day, I requested a cashier's check for my entire balance, and went to another bank to put it in my account there.
There are many, many banks and credit unions out there. Not all of them treat customer service as less important than whatever optimization they were trying to do.
"Just log into our instagram account and. . .right, you don't have insta installed on your phone."
"Can you log into our scheduling app and. . . right, you don't have that installed on your phone either."
Some of the more painful things you have to deal with:
- Chromite and Iron Fox filtering out a ton of stuff so a lot of sites simply don't work
- Organic maps is slow and hard to use compared to Google and Apple maps.
- Fairmail that blocks a ton of images and other code - which is good, but had to get used to seeing everything blocked visually.
- Not having any banking apps on my phone. Every time my son needs a few bucks in his account, my wife has to do it if we're out.
- The open source weather apps are not very accurate. Usually within a few degrees, and the radar is hit or miss.
Kind of odd that we have to try so hard to ensure our own privacy. I'm up for a new phone this Fall so I'll most likely be moving to a newer Pixel and will get Lineage or Graphene installed on it.
This is the most tyrannical things about smart phones -- banking apps. I get it, the bank wants to ensure the platform is not a liability. But it forces most of us to use one of the only two "trusted" mobile providers on earth: Google or Apple, both of which are American (and I'm an American.) The only alternative is a browser which comes with its own set of problems.
I don't need to deposit checks often, but I'd rather not have to mail it in when I do.
GrapheneOS does not strip proprietary tracking code embedded directly inside third-party apps like Venmo. If you log into Venmo, the app collects your financial activity, device analytics, and interactions
Venmo requires a verified account tied to your real identity, phone number, and bank account, meaning the service already knows who you are regardless of your operating system.
Venmo can see your IP address and any location data you permit the app to access, or data derived from your connection
I find Organic Maps working perfectly fine
as email client I would suggest abandoned Nine Mail, works fine without gapps
Weawow is great weather app with plenty of sources to choose fom
don't really understand your complaints, seems like you are using some slow budget motorola phone which is causing issues like Organic Maps you mention
btw. I dont have any banking apps either, I am perfectly fine with everywhere using bank card and just in case I carry small cash in wallet, if I need to send money I can do it from computer where I sit most of the days anyway, why would I be doing it somewhere outside apartment? that's like trimming your nails outside apartment, sure you can do it, but why it wouldn't wait for home?
It is frustrating dealing with people not willing to accept this is an option people have, and anything requiring an app is a dealbreaker for me. I didn't realize it was quite as bad as the author suggests with his various household items, but I am worried it will continue to get worse in that way without laws in manufacturing partitioning technology from life.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45171200
I use this method ^ which lets you keep essential apps but otherwise have dumb phone (no browser, no App Store). Highly recommend.
On the other hand, I have turned my laptop into a dumb computer using cold turkey blocker. I've never seen anyone talking about this here. I'm a standard user (for hardening reasons). And set up so I haven't watched YouTube largely for years because it's blocked and not at all in the past few days. It's flexible to configure and then because it's literally impossible to bypass you never try and then just end up living a calm life. (No ai, no reddit, no crappy news sites, etc.)
I'm not nearly as disciplined with cold turkey though.
It's like 4-5 years old and still kicking.
It has Music, Maps and Telephone.
Also my significant other can follow me on Find My Friends to know when I'll arrive.
I've had this exact problem this morning, I wanted to download the ASD-STE100 https://www.asd-ste100.org/STE_downloads.html#article02-2l and they use a request form to get the download.
Unfortunately the last question:
> Do you consent to us collecting your data? This form has the only purpose of requesting a copy of ASD-STE100. Details are for record and statistical purposes only and will not be used or disclosed in any form to anyone. You can find out more about STEMG privacy policy here.
Only has a "Yes" option, and so I couldn't submit the form.
Great success.
Any anyway, my biggest gripe was the phrasing, don't say it as if I have a choice.
Same as in some areas being a productive member of society includes: have a job, have a car, have a permenant address.
The only exceptiosn seem to skew to the top and bottom 10%? And even then it can steer more closet to top/bottom 5%? 1%? Where it doesn't matter you have enough or a complete lack of social proof that it doesn't matter.