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diff --git a/content/entry/why-i-dont-have-a-smartphone.md b/content/entry/why-i-dont-have-a-smartphone.md index 9e96c56..fde1547 100644 --- a/content/entry/why-i-dont-have-a-smartphone.md +++ b/content/entry/why-i-dont-have-a-smartphone.md @@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ title: "Why I Don't Have a Smartphone" date: 2021-12-26T00:00:00 draft: false -makerefs: false --- # Phonelessness I don't carry a smartphone. Not even a dumb phone. Most people assume I'm too poor to afford a phone plan. Not true. I voluntarily live without a phone. Technically I do own smartphones, but I don't use them. @@ -39,7 +38,7 @@ Lots of people don't really need a mobile phone and definitely not a smartphone. ## Smartphones Don't Respect User Freedom Yet another reason not to have a smartphone is they don't fully respect user freedom. My Google Pixel had a nonfree Goolag bootloader. It was very off-putting every time I saw the Google logo show up on boot, knowing the bootloader was nonfree and couldn't be replaced. The fact that GrapheneOS only supports devices with a nonfree bootloader written by a spooky company diminishes the good of it. -I could go the Replicant route[1]. But none of Replicant's fully supported devices have free bootloaders. +I could go the [Replicant](https://www.replicant.us/freedom-privacy-security-issues.php#recommendations) route. But none of Replicant's fully supported devices have free bootloaders. ## The Linux Smartphone App Ecosystem Isn't Mature Enough The more recent Linux smartphones are sufficiently free. I actually own a PinePhone. Its nonfree modem is isolated from the SoC and main memory. It has hardware kill switches for the few closed subsystems that require non-free blobs. So the problem there isn't freedom. @@ -55,7 +54,7 @@ Even if I didn't have a phone to borrow, I could use the PinePhone as a home pho Regular readers of this journal are probably wondering when I'm going to mention privacy. It's widely understood that smartphones are tracking and surveillance devices, so surely that's another objection, right? ## Smartphones Are Surveillance Devices -Well actually no. It's possible to have a smartphone that isn't a mass surveillance device. When I had the Google Pixel, I enabled airplane mode and MAC randomization. I used free software from F-droid exclusively. Traffic was onion-routed via Tor. Bluetooth was disabled and wifi as well when I wasn't using it. I taped both front and rear cameras.[2] So privacy wasn't an issue for me. +Well actually no. It's possible to have a smartphone that isn't a mass surveillance device. When I had the Google Pixel, I enabled airplane mode and MAC randomization. I used free software from F-droid exclusively. Traffic was onion-routed via Tor. Bluetooth was disabled and wifi as well when I wasn't using it. [I taped both front and rear cameras.](/2021/04/07/cover-your-cameras/) So privacy wasn't an issue for me. The average person's smartphone is a surveillance device with dozens of proprietary apps tracking them every which way and a crippled, vendor-locked excuse for the latest version of Android. As for iPhones, there's no excuse for having that trash. They're even worse for your freedom than vendor-locked Androids. @@ -76,8 +75,3 @@ Given all the kids addicted to smartphones and tablets, I'm not hopeful young pe In my own experience using a smartphone without social media or notifications, I still wasted time on it with passive entertainment rather than doing other things I would've liked to do. For me, if it's capable of web browsing, it's too distracting. I'm better off without one. That's why I don't have a smartphone. - - -Link(s): -[1: Smartphone Recommendations](https://www.replicant.us/freedom-privacy-security-issues.php#recommendations) -[2: Cover Your Cameras](/2021/04/07/cover-your-cameras/) |