If you are an Android user, I recommend familiarizing yourself with Universal Android Debloater. It works on any phone without rooting, and allows you to clean your phone of unwanted Google apps...
If you are an Android user, I recommend familiarizing yourself with Universal Android Debloater. It works on any phone without rooting, and allows you to clean your phone of unwanted Google apps (you can remove everything--right down to the dialer and SMS apps to replace with alternatives from the Play Store or F-Droid), as well as manufacturer-installed bloatware. It might take a bit of learning to get it working, since you need to set up adb on your computer and enable developer mode on your phone, but the clean, buttery smooth close-to-pure-Android experience you can get on any Android device makes it worth it, in my opinion.
Because in the modern world you need a smart phone with certain apps. For instance, my work requires that I use GroupMe for communication. Do I like this? No. Do I have a choice? Also no. I've...
Because in the modern world you need a smart phone with certain apps. For instance, my work requires that I use GroupMe for communication. Do I like this? No. Do I have a choice? Also no.
I've just come to accept this part of modern life.
I've actually begun to push back hard against this kind of thing. I tell my employers I don't have a smartphone, and if it's not in my employment contract that I must install on a smartphone that...
I've actually begun to push back hard against this kind of thing. I tell my employers I don't have a smartphone, and if it's not in my employment contract that I must install on a smartphone that it is my responsibility to purchase, they either have to buy me a work smartphone or give up on the requirement.
It's always an interesting set of conversations, because their projects are based on this assumption that everyone has a smarphone. However, neo-Luddite-ism is a thing; devices like the LightPhone exist, and many people are starting to realize and resist the deep reach the tech companies have in their lives. Even my parents, going on 70 years of age, have made an effort to de-Google their lives. So when their assumption gets broken, they're often on the back foot trying to figure out what to do.
When they required MS Authenticator app, I said I didn't have a compatible smartphone. After some discussion, suddenly it was possible to ship me a FIDO2 key instead.
The work requirement isn't as much a requirement as you think (unless it's in your contract).
iirc here in Germany it's required for the company to pay for a company device if they expect you to do work on that device. The impression I got from my boss was that my using Slack for work on...
iirc here in Germany it's required for the company to pay for a company device if they expect you to do work on that device. The impression I got from my boss was that my using Slack for work on my personal smartphone was skirting the rules for this. Not sure if that applies all the way to 2FA, but I wouldn't be shocked if it did
iPhone to me today seems to be the obvious pick. I realise it’s an imperfect world but there is no longer the enormous price differential between apple and anything android with such a full second...
iPhone to me today seems to be the obvious pick. I realise it’s an imperfect world but there is no longer the enormous price differential between apple and anything android with such a full second hand market and the creep of flagship prices across the board.
The problem with iPhone, for me, is the greater limitations on what you can do with your device. I can very easily make an android device as privacy friendly as I want, for example. As I...
The problem with iPhone, for me, is the greater limitations on what you can do with your device. I can very easily make an android device as privacy friendly as I want, for example.
As I understand it, even the nuclear option of jailbreaking isn't possible on most newer iPhones.
When it comes to privacy, it's important to understand that Apple cares about privacy only inasmuch as they believe it will impact their sales. There is nothing stopping them (within the bounds of the GDPR and friends) from changing their privacy practices at any time. Apple is what you buy when you want somewhat better privacy out of the box, not when privacy or security are a true concern.
Other problems with Apple include the predatory nature of their ecosystem (ty EU for forcing them to at least move to USB C) and the inevitability of enshittification at a company their size. Apple's business model relies heavily on making a much larger amount of money per customer than any of the competition, which is the sort of model that begs for enshittification. It's when and how fast, rather than if.
Also, as a company, they aren't good for the market from a consumer perspective. Their dominance means the decisions they make both normalize things for consumers and influence other companies. As they enshittify, so does everyone else. Apple trained consumers to expect less control of their devices, pioneered the walled garden business model and singlehandedly killed the headphone jack, for example.
Which is not to say people shouldn't buy iPhones if they want them. For many they're the best option.
With all due respect, this is every company. The difference is that Apple has done a much better job than most other companies. But for your other things: yeah, totally.
When it comes to privacy, it's important to understand that Apple cares about privacy only inasmuch as they believe it will impact their sales. There is nothing stopping them (within the bounds of the GDPR and friends) from changing their privacy practices at any time.
With all due respect, this is every company. The difference is that Apple has done a much better job than most other companies.
I'd correct your claim to say that's every big company. I'm absolutely sure there are companies out there where business owners do the right thing and care about ethics or social responsibility....
I'd correct your claim to say that's every big company. I'm absolutely sure there are companies out there where business owners do the right thing and care about ethics or social responsibility. They just won't ever be dominant players in any industry, because ethics costs money, and leaves even more money on the table.
Less ethical business will always outperform ones that limit their success due to ethics.
Every public company, definitely. And we should remind each other of it often. The reason I mention it in this case is that Apple's marketing intentionally creates the feeling that they really...
Every public company, definitely. And we should remind each other of it often. The reason I mention it in this case is that Apple's marketing intentionally creates the feeling that they really care about privacy, which implies that they will fight for it. When in reality they don't and, at some point, won't.
This is just a little too cynical for me. Maybe one day their stance will change; people make up companies and people come and go. But right now, there's no reason to believe that there isn't some...
This is just a little too cynical for me. Maybe one day their stance will change; people make up companies and people come and go. But right now, there's no reason to believe that there isn't some pro-privacy group in power at Apple. If Apple only cared about privacy as a means to sell devices, they could have been marginally better than Google and Samsung and still been fine to run marketing campaigns poking at Android. But they routinely go well above and beyond in their privacy features to the point where you really have to wonder if it was necessary in order to sell more phones.
Do most people turn on Advanced Data Protection? I'd wager not since it's kind of hidden, kind of hard to understand, and kind of scary to enable. Yet it exists and it probably took a lot of engineering effort across many years. There is no other platform that has this feature.
In the "AI" space, Apple came out with Private Compute Cloud and built their hardware infrastructure around the whole concept. Again, why did they even need to do this? It's great for end users, but literally no other company has anything remotely near what PCC is, to the point that no other company will even talk about it because they know they have nothing on the roadmap any time soon to match it. If they think that the feature, the sole purpose of which is to enable user privacy, is worth it, they would need to start working on it today because they were not working on it the day PCC was announced. No one was even thinking about it. Apple could have gotten away with not having it because that was the established norm.
It's very hard to be too cynical when it comes to giant publicly traded companies, tech in particular. We've lived through the birth, rise and plateau of all the big ones and it only ever goes one...
This is just a little too cynical for me
It's very hard to be too cynical when it comes to giant publicly traded companies, tech in particular. We've lived through the birth, rise and plateau of all the big ones and it only ever goes one way. There's variance in how fast it happens, but that's about it.
By the way in case it wasn't clear I'm not saying Apple doesn't have a better privacy track record than other smartphone makers, they definitely do.
Though if they truly wanted to be privacy focused the data on devices and in the cloud would be encypted and stored in such a way that Apple couldn't access it even if they wanted to. And they wouldn't collect most of the metrics they do. Then they couldn't give backdoor access to governments. That's table stakes for a company that genuinely cares about user privacy.
That's what Advanced Data Protection is. It turns on end-to-end encryption for most of Apple's services. It's not on by default because the average user wants the ability to easily recover their...
That's what Advanced Data Protection is. It turns on end-to-end encryption for most of Apple's services. It's not on by default because the average user wants the ability to easily recover their devices if they forget their password, but for the power user it's there. It shouldn't be considered table stakes since no other company comes close to offering E2EE in this scope. There's a handful of companies that do it for photos (Ente), a handful of companies that do it for notes (Standard Notes), but is there a platform that does it and does it widely? There is none.
It looks like ADP is a big step forward for Apple in terms of privacy. A quick skim shows that they exempt the metadata they collect which still leaves them in a "sorta private" kind of space that...
It looks like ADP is a big step forward for Apple in terms of privacy. A quick skim shows that they exempt the metadata they collect which still leaves them in a "sorta private" kind of space that allows them to collect and share the stuff governments are most commonly after.
but is there a platform that does it and does it widely
What difference does that make? You either have full E2EE or you don't have privacy. If your system is storing user data in a form that you (the service provider) can access then it's in a form that can be hacked or accessed with a warrant.
I'm not saying Apple is obligated to do full E2EE, I'm saying a company that truly cares about protecting user privacy has no choice but to do it.
They do care about it. They care about it because it's a product differentiator, and Apple isn't set up to make use of said data, so it's a win-win for them. That's different than Google, who does...
They do care about it. They care about it because it's a product differentiator, and Apple isn't set up to make use of said data, so it's a win-win for them. That's different than Google, who does have the infrastructure to ingest and use the data.
The Fairphone /e/OS (Gen. 6) seems like a decent one. I haven't looked into it too much as I'm not in a need of smartphone now but they will be the first company I'll be checking out once I will...
The Fairphone /e/OS (Gen. 6) seems like a decent one. I haven't looked into it too much as I'm not in a need of smartphone now but they will be the first company I'll be checking out once I will be buying!
I have used CalyxOS and F-Droid on a Fairphone 4 as a daily driver since soon after Murena started selling them in the US. It is the best Android phone I have used since the Nexus 4 (rip smaller...
I have used CalyxOS and F-Droid on a Fairphone 4 as a daily driver since soon after Murena started selling them in the US. It is the best Android phone I have used since the Nexus 4 (rip smaller devices). This setup allows me to scoff at, e.g., the forcing of Gemini from op, but I admit to placing Software Freedom higher in priority than many, and would rather forgo something like a banking app requiring attestation that give up the former. The AOSP ecosystem is much better these days than it used to be, but still will probably not fully work for everyone.
It is exciting that we will have the 6 available after they skipped over the 5, although the rumors about Google killing AOSP are concerning. More exciting is the slow but steady progress on a Linux stack from projects like PostmarketOS. There is still nothing that is fully "there" as a daily driver, but various projects continue to get closer. And I say this as someone holding onto hope since Openmoko flopped!
Do you have any issues with NFC, Car Auto, different delivery apps, banking apps? I just found: https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/2135-list-of-apps-tools-that-positively-will-not-work and while...
That post is 3 years olds, Android Auto works well now. I don't use NFC so I can't speak to that. For everything else, it depends on the app. Nothing that I use refuses to work in GrapheneOS.
That post is 3 years olds, Android Auto works well now. I don't use NFC so I can't speak to that.
For everything else, it depends on the app. Nothing that I use refuses to work in GrapheneOS.
Delivery apps and banking apps work fine Android Auto is supported as well: https://grapheneos.org/features#android-auto NFC works, though GPay doesn't - that's an issue with GPay specifically...
NFC works, though GPay doesn't - that's an issue with GPay specifically banning third-party systems, not with payments in general, for example my bank app has their own NFC payment system and it works fine.
Probably a combination of cost and hardware/software limitations of alternative options. For example I just bought a Motorola G Stylus 2025, and I had to manually remove a bunch of bloat and...
Probably a combination of cost and hardware/software limitations of alternative options.
For example I just bought a Motorola G Stylus 2025, and I had to manually remove a bunch of bloat and disable some invasive services. But if you restrict options to devices with 3.5mm jack and microSD slot, you have already reduced the pool of options greatly. You start adding other considerations and it gets to the point of very few options.
I can uninstall bloatware, I can't build a 3.5mm jack into the phone. Dongles suck hardcore.
There were a few Sony options I preferred more, and perhaps one other brand, I just couldn't justify the cost.
At this point in time neccesity. Personally I waited to about 2022-2023 to get a specifically Android/ios pocket computer preloaded with user hostile sw because I needed to to function in society....
At this point in time neccesity. Personally I waited to about 2022-2023 to get a specifically Android/ios pocket computer preloaded with user hostile sw because I needed to to function in society.
I also tried a PinePhone but in around 2023 but even regardless of its limitations the expectation that anyone has a smartphone has gotten even worse since.
At least for Android phones, there's a lot of good hardware out there that then gets marred by software in the privacy sense. But also, I don't think the average consumer is as worried about...
At least for Android phones, there's a lot of good hardware out there that then gets marred by software in the privacy sense. But also, I don't think the average consumer is as worried about privacy as this forum might be.
I'm personally a big fan of Canta (https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/io.github.samolego.canta) and Shizuku (https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/moe.shizuku.privileged.api) - they allow...
I used it to get rid of the worst of the bloat on a Samsung phone I bought but there is so much and so integrated into basic functions that I definitely did not get all of it and maybe not even...
I used it to get rid of the worst of the bloat on a Samsung phone I bought but there is so much and so integrated into basic functions that I definitely did not get all of it and maybe not even most of it.
I would also like to take this opportunity to call out how insane it is to have to run command line from another device and how even with that it is still not possible to do a lot of things because of how root is treated. Apparantly to try to actually take control of the device I bought is very bad and the ecosystem around it will do its best to make it undesirable. Linux seems to have made that work fine.
For instance it is not actually possible to uninstall these apps globally, just for the current user.
You can't go wrong with the Fossify suite of apps on F-Droid. I uninstall all the Google equivalents and use the Fossify dialer, contacts, calendar, gallery, SMS, camera, and probably other apps...
You can't go wrong with the Fossify suite of apps on F-Droid. I uninstall all the Google equivalents and use the Fossify dialer, contacts, calendar, gallery, SMS, camera, and probably other apps that I'm forgetting. They're very minimal and pretty closely mimic the vanilla Android apps that you get with un-googled AOSP Roms. For email I'm on Fastmail so I use their app, but some popular ones that I've used in the past are K-9 and FairEmail.
edit--There are also a lot of alternative keyboards if you want to replace GBoard. Simple Keyboard is a nice barebones one, and Futo is another nice one that also has a pretty good/accurate on-device speech-to-text input method that can replace Google's voice input. The ones I use are a bit more esoteric and aimed more at developers (ThumbKey on my phone and Unexpected Keybord on my tablets).
Also I think everything I linked here on F-Droid is also available on the official Play Store if you'd rather get them there.
My interpretation is that this is about what happens if you install the Gemini App on your phone. It's optional and I don't have it installed. That's probably why I didn't get this email? (It...
My interpretation is that this is about what happens if you install the Gemini App on your phone. It's optional and I don't have it installed. That's probably why I didn't get this email? (It appears to be preinstalled in Pixel 9, but I have a Pixel 8.)
There are apparently features in the Gemini App that allow it to access and control other apps, and they are adding permissions about whether it's allowed to do that. But if you don't install it at all (or uninstall it), I don't think this affects you?
The other part is about logging. I've used Gemini from the website a handful of times, and I see that all those chats are logged in "Gemini Activity." It's a useful feature. (Similarly, when I use ChatGPT, I have access to a history of all my previous chats.)
But, just because a chat history is useful to me doesn't mean I want to share it! It doesn't sound like there is any choice about that in the consumer apps. If you want to keep a history, they also have access to it. Unless you delete it, or diable it. Being able to disable it is new.
So I think your headline might be inaccurate. Just because the Gemini App is there doesn't mean you have to use it, and you could uninstall it.
Also, from a privacy perspective, the Gemini app was worse before (it didn't have these settings). I guess the new settings would be somewhat helpful to people who actually use the Gemini app.
It doesn't help that Google seems to be naming everything AI-related "Gemini," similar to how Microsoft names everything "Copilot."
I don't know Android at all, but I recently got a Pixel 9 like you mention and there is no Gemini App. I had to delete the Google app to get it to stop popping up, which then messes with other...
I don't know Android at all, but I recently got a Pixel 9 like you mention and there is no Gemini App. I had to delete the Google app to get it to stop popping up, which then messes with other aspects of the phone. But frankly that seems worth it regardless.
(My plan is to put Graphene on it when I get a chance)
I'm a pixel user, and recently the Google App has started demanding fine-location data for weather, as if clouds care about my 5M gps coordinates more than they do my triangulated position from...
I'm a pixel user, and recently the Google App has started demanding fine-location data for weather, as if clouds care about my 5M gps coordinates more than they do my triangulated position from Cell-towers.
It also regularly switches to Farenheit despite me living in Canada, and occasionally it picks up a cell-tower near my house that tells me I'm in another province.
Every single day I wonder if I'd be happer with a land-line.
Gemini is the default assistant on the Pixel 9; it replaces Google Assistant and claims to still offer some of its features but not all. Sometimes, you will see Gemini visually "hand off" tasks to Google Assistant.
That actually checks out to me why there isn't an app then, as it's integrated directly in. I had tried changing it off as the default assistant, but Gemini stuff would still pop up on my phone...
That actually checks out to me why there isn't an app then, as it's integrated directly in. I had tried changing it off as the default assistant, but Gemini stuff would still pop up on my phone ruthlessly needlessly
Thankfully, after deleting the Google app, the "digital assistant app" setting page just shows "none" and the phones been working a lot smoother without any of that
I tried deleting the Google app on my phone. Under "default apps," I had to set "caller ID & spam app" to the phone app. I'm wondering how much this will degrade the spam filter? Also, weather...
I tried deleting the Google app on my phone. Under "default apps," I had to set "caller ID & spam app" to the phone app. I'm wondering how much this will degrade the spam filter?
Also, weather isn't displayed in some places where it used to.
But to Google's credit, these are only minor annoyances so far.
Curiously, my device replaced assistant with Gemini and I did not get the email, I wonder if you need the latest Android version as well? My phone is at 13 and not getting updated. Gemini is just...
Curiously, my device replaced assistant with Gemini and I did not get the email, I wonder if you need the latest Android version as well? My phone is at 13 and not getting updated.
Gemini is just less functional than assistant, is there an OS alternative that has assistant or a similar feature in place? I'd like to be able to ask my phone to set a timer and not get an incorrect explanation of how to set one in the clock app. I seem to recall that I may lose access to banking apps if I ditch stock android though.
My phone at Android 15, I do not have Gemini installed, but I just got notification few hours ago about Gemini Assistant. Automatically closed it, but now I very curious what app sent it. Also...
My phone at Android 15, I do not have Gemini installed, but I just got notification few hours ago about Gemini Assistant. Automatically closed it, but now I very curious what app sent it. Also long tap on central button shows Ask Gemini anyway..
Kinda off topic. Gemini is on Google Docs too. I recently used the translate document feature on a short story, which I thought might still be Gemini free. The translation was instant, which made...
Kinda off topic.
Gemini is on Google Docs too. I recently used the translate document feature on a short story, which I thought might still be Gemini free. The translation was instant, which made me think that it might not be AI. Gemini itself "told" me that there is a mix of old and new going on. I suppose that is why it is fast. It is tailored specifically for translation.
When I compared the translation to chatGPT, Google Docs translation was better. It respect more of my choices and tried to keep it closer to the original. chatGPT, on the other hand, added a bunch of "improvements" and changes that were way too creative for a translation. Sometimes it was just wrong.
So yeah, the built-in translation on Google Docs is pretty good, and it leverages Gemini now (I'm almost certain). Answering to a previous question I made, I am not allowed to use dumb-translation on Google Docs anymore. I guess that is consistent with the theme of the post since it is forcing me to use AI now.
Naive question: is it deployed in the same way in Europe or, thanks to GDPR, users must give a specific consent? Because the idea that you just give Google the ability to read everything in your...
Naive question: is it deployed in the same way in Europe or, thanks to GDPR, users must give a specific consent? Because the idea that you just give Google the ability to read everything in your phone, even inside proprietary apps "that boost e2e cryptography" doesn't sound right...
I am fairly sure that I saw an announcement a little while ago about google replacing the android assistant with Gemini soon. I'd assume this is related to that, I'll see if I can dig up the news...
I am fairly sure that I saw an announcement a little while ago about google replacing the android assistant with Gemini soon. I'd assume this is related to that, I'll see if I can dig up the news article.
Feel free to mark as noise. But please don't ask me to send notifications. The landscape is such that if websites do that I almost automatically assume they are spammy in nature. If I want to be...
Feel free to mark as noise. But please don't ask me to send notifications. The landscape is such that if websites do that I almost automatically assume they are spammy in nature. If I want to be notified of your posts I will do so proactively. If you do want to use browser notifications, offer it as a button.
Really depends on what you install/visit. I have notifications allowed for almost all of my apps, and I basically don't receive anything I don't need. On the other hand, I've seen people who have...
Really depends on what you install/visit. I have notifications allowed for almost all of my apps, and I basically don't receive anything I don't need. On the other hand, I've seen people who have a lot of free mobile games, spammy social media and other adware installed on their phone, and their notification panel is impossible to use.
Technically you are mostly correct, it also sidesteps the feedback I am giving here. The point isn't that workarounds exist, it is that auto prompting creates a poor user experience that makes...
Technically you are mostly correct, it also sidesteps the feedback I am giving here.
The point isn't that workarounds exist, it is that auto prompting creates a poor user experience that makes sites appear spammy to me. In fact, if I had encountered the website in a more random setting I probably would have bailed straight away.
As I also said you are mostly correct. Enabling that setting blocks all requests done with Notification.requestPermission(). This includes requests triggered by the user on their own accord. I still want to enable notifications for some websites/services where they offer notifications through a button I have to press myself. I just don't want to be nagged about it when I first enter a website and have no clue if it is worth revisiting.
Hmmm, this is sensible. I wonder if there's a middle ground between prompting the visitor to subscribe and not offering at all (or only after a click in a specific button, which is almost as it...
Hmmm, this is sensible. I wonder if there's a middle ground between prompting the visitor to subscribe and not offering at all (or only after a click in a specific button, which is almost as it doesn't exist). Any thoughts?
If it's important enough that you're willing to force a popup, why not use a DOM overlay that includes support/subscription/notification options (including a button to trigger the notification...
If it's important enough that you're willing to force a popup, why not use a DOM overlay that includes support/subscription/notification options (including a button to trigger the notification request).
Not that people will necessarily appreciate that more than the notification requests, but it would likely be more effective, both because there are more options and because it gives you a chance to write/display an appeal in order to make a connection.
Side note: personally I have a similar reaction to @creesch when I see a notification modal.
I personally feel like that if your content is worth it people will find these options. Any blog I find interesting enough to revisit gets added to my feed for example.
I personally feel like that if your content is worth it people will find these options. Any blog I find interesting enough to revisit gets added to my feed for example.
I'm afraid this path only works for tech-savvy people. I feel, running this blog for +11 years, that even people that's interested in, but not tech-savvy, don't bother to follow in any way. I...
I'm afraid this path only works for tech-savvy people. I feel, running this blog for +11 years, that even people that's interested in, but not tech-savvy, don't bother to follow in any way. I think of the notification nag as a little push to connection.
I increased the delay to show the notification prompt from 15 to 210 seconds. I guess if someone spends 3,5 minutes in my blog (way above the average time spent per page view), they may enjoy what I write, and for short posts like this one it's possible to read and leave without being bothered. (Plus, there's a box after the post with the usual “follow me” links, including one for manual subscribing to get push notifications.)
If you are an Android user, I recommend familiarizing yourself with Universal Android Debloater. It works on any phone without rooting, and allows you to clean your phone of unwanted Google apps (you can remove everything--right down to the dialer and SMS apps to replace with alternatives from the Play Store or F-Droid), as well as manufacturer-installed bloatware. It might take a bit of learning to get it working, since you need to set up adb on your computer and enable developer mode on your phone, but the clean, buttery smooth close-to-pure-Android experience you can get on any Android device makes it worth it, in my opinion.
Why people buy these privacy offending devices will always escape me.
Because in the modern world you need a smart phone with certain apps. For instance, my work requires that I use GroupMe for communication. Do I like this? No. Do I have a choice? Also no.
I've just come to accept this part of modern life.
I've actually begun to push back hard against this kind of thing. I tell my employers I don't have a smartphone, and if it's not in my employment contract that I must install on a smartphone that it is my responsibility to purchase, they either have to buy me a work smartphone or give up on the requirement.
It's always an interesting set of conversations, because their projects are based on this assumption that everyone has a smarphone. However, neo-Luddite-ism is a thing; devices like the LightPhone exist, and many people are starting to realize and resist the deep reach the tech companies have in their lives. Even my parents, going on 70 years of age, have made an effort to de-Google their lives. So when their assumption gets broken, they're often on the back foot trying to figure out what to do.
When they required MS Authenticator app, I said I didn't have a compatible smartphone. After some discussion, suddenly it was possible to ship me a FIDO2 key instead.
The work requirement isn't as much a requirement as you think (unless it's in your contract).
iirc here in Germany it's required for the company to pay for a company device if they expect you to do work on that device. The impression I got from my boss was that my using Slack for work on my personal smartphone was skirting the rules for this. Not sure if that applies all the way to 2FA, but I wouldn't be shocked if it did
Unfortunately for me, my contract is "you do anything and everything we tell you to" so I don't have much of a choice.
Your contract really, really doesn't say that.
That’s a strange choice among all of the options.
In your opinion what is a good alternative?
iPhone to me today seems to be the obvious pick. I realise it’s an imperfect world but there is no longer the enormous price differential between apple and anything android with such a full second hand market and the creep of flagship prices across the board.
The problem with iPhone, for me, is the greater limitations on what you can do with your device. I can very easily make an android device as privacy friendly as I want, for example.
As I understand it, even the nuclear option of jailbreaking isn't possible on most newer iPhones.
When it comes to privacy, it's important to understand that Apple cares about privacy only inasmuch as they believe it will impact their sales. There is nothing stopping them (within the bounds of the GDPR and friends) from changing their privacy practices at any time. Apple is what you buy when you want somewhat better privacy out of the box, not when privacy or security are a true concern.
Other problems with Apple include the predatory nature of their ecosystem (ty EU for forcing them to at least move to USB C) and the inevitability of enshittification at a company their size. Apple's business model relies heavily on making a much larger amount of money per customer than any of the competition, which is the sort of model that begs for enshittification. It's when and how fast, rather than if.
Also, as a company, they aren't good for the market from a consumer perspective. Their dominance means the decisions they make both normalize things for consumers and influence other companies. As they enshittify, so does everyone else. Apple trained consumers to expect less control of their devices, pioneered the walled garden business model and singlehandedly killed the headphone jack, for example.
Which is not to say people shouldn't buy iPhones if they want them. For many they're the best option.
With all due respect, this is every company. The difference is that Apple has done a much better job than most other companies.
But for your other things: yeah, totally.
I'd correct your claim to say that's every big company. I'm absolutely sure there are companies out there where business owners do the right thing and care about ethics or social responsibility. They just won't ever be dominant players in any industry, because ethics costs money, and leaves even more money on the table.
Less ethical business will always outperform ones that limit their success due to ethics.
Every public company, definitely. And we should remind each other of it often. The reason I mention it in this case is that Apple's marketing intentionally creates the feeling that they really care about privacy, which implies that they will fight for it. When in reality they don't and, at some point, won't.
This is just a little too cynical for me. Maybe one day their stance will change; people make up companies and people come and go. But right now, there's no reason to believe that there isn't some pro-privacy group in power at Apple. If Apple only cared about privacy as a means to sell devices, they could have been marginally better than Google and Samsung and still been fine to run marketing campaigns poking at Android. But they routinely go well above and beyond in their privacy features to the point where you really have to wonder if it was necessary in order to sell more phones.
Do most people turn on Advanced Data Protection? I'd wager not since it's kind of hidden, kind of hard to understand, and kind of scary to enable. Yet it exists and it probably took a lot of engineering effort across many years. There is no other platform that has this feature.
In the "AI" space, Apple came out with Private Compute Cloud and built their hardware infrastructure around the whole concept. Again, why did they even need to do this? It's great for end users, but literally no other company has anything remotely near what PCC is, to the point that no other company will even talk about it because they know they have nothing on the roadmap any time soon to match it. If they think that the feature, the sole purpose of which is to enable user privacy, is worth it, they would need to start working on it today because they were not working on it the day PCC was announced. No one was even thinking about it. Apple could have gotten away with not having it because that was the established norm.
It's very hard to be too cynical when it comes to giant publicly traded companies, tech in particular. We've lived through the birth, rise and plateau of all the big ones and it only ever goes one way. There's variance in how fast it happens, but that's about it.
By the way in case it wasn't clear I'm not saying Apple doesn't have a better privacy track record than other smartphone makers, they definitely do.
Though if they truly wanted to be privacy focused the data on devices and in the cloud would be encypted and stored in such a way that Apple couldn't access it even if they wanted to. And they wouldn't collect most of the metrics they do. Then they couldn't give backdoor access to governments. That's table stakes for a company that genuinely cares about user privacy.
That's what Advanced Data Protection is. It turns on end-to-end encryption for most of Apple's services. It's not on by default because the average user wants the ability to easily recover their devices if they forget their password, but for the power user it's there. It shouldn't be considered table stakes since no other company comes close to offering E2EE in this scope. There's a handful of companies that do it for photos (Ente), a handful of companies that do it for notes (Standard Notes), but is there a platform that does it and does it widely? There is none.
It looks like ADP is a big step forward for Apple in terms of privacy. A quick skim shows that they exempt the metadata they collect which still leaves them in a "sorta private" kind of space that allows them to collect and share the stuff governments are most commonly after.
What difference does that make? You either have full E2EE or you don't have privacy. If your system is storing user data in a form that you (the service provider) can access then it's in a form that can be hacked or accessed with a warrant.
I'm not saying Apple is obligated to do full E2EE, I'm saying a company that truly cares about protecting user privacy has no choice but to do it.
They do care about it. They care about it because it's a product differentiator, and Apple isn't set up to make use of said data, so it's a win-win for them. That's different than Google, who does have the infrastructure to ingest and use the data.
The Fairphone /e/OS (Gen. 6) seems like a decent one. I haven't looked into it too much as I'm not in a need of smartphone now but they will be the first company I'll be checking out once I will be buying!
I have used CalyxOS and F-Droid on a Fairphone 4 as a daily driver since soon after Murena started selling them in the US. It is the best Android phone I have used since the Nexus 4 (rip smaller devices). This setup allows me to scoff at, e.g., the forcing of Gemini from op, but I admit to placing Software Freedom higher in priority than many, and would rather forgo something like a banking app requiring attestation that give up the former. The AOSP ecosystem is much better these days than it used to be, but still will probably not fully work for everyone.
It is exciting that we will have the 6 available after they skipped over the 5, although the rumors about Google killing AOSP are concerning. More exciting is the slow but steady progress on a Linux stack from projects like PostmarketOS. There is still nothing that is fully "there" as a daily driver, but various projects continue to get closer. And I say this as someone holding onto hope since Openmoko flopped!
GrapheneOS
Do you have any issues with NFC, Car Auto, different delivery apps, banking apps?
I just found: https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/2135-list-of-apps-tools-that-positively-will-not-work and while article is quite old, it did not make me confident..
That post is 3 years olds, Android Auto works well now. I don't use NFC so I can't speak to that.
For everything else, it depends on the app. Nothing that I use refuses to work in GrapheneOS.
Probably a combination of cost and hardware/software limitations of alternative options.
For example I just bought a Motorola G Stylus 2025, and I had to manually remove a bunch of bloat and disable some invasive services. But if you restrict options to devices with 3.5mm jack and microSD slot, you have already reduced the pool of options greatly. You start adding other considerations and it gets to the point of very few options.
I can uninstall bloatware, I can't build a 3.5mm jack into the phone. Dongles suck hardcore.
There were a few Sony options I preferred more, and perhaps one other brand, I just couldn't justify the cost.
At this point in time neccesity. Personally I waited to about 2022-2023 to get a specifically Android/ios pocket computer preloaded with user hostile sw because I needed to to function in society.
I also tried a PinePhone but in around 2023 but even regardless of its limitations the expectation that anyone has a smartphone has gotten even worse since.
Before that I have no idea.
At least for Android phones, there's a lot of good hardware out there that then gets marred by software in the privacy sense. But also, I don't think the average consumer is as worried about privacy as this forum might be.
I'm personally a big fan of Canta (https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/io.github.samolego.canta) and Shizuku (https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/moe.shizuku.privileged.api) - they allow you to do the same thing without ever having to connect to a computer, fully on your smartphone. Shizuku uses wireless debugging to launch adb, and then Canta allows you to uninstall all bloatware. Same thing, different (and IMHO easier) method.
I used it to get rid of the worst of the bloat on a Samsung phone I bought but there is so much and so integrated into basic functions that I definitely did not get all of it and maybe not even most of it.
I would also like to take this opportunity to call out how insane it is to have to run command line from another device and how even with that it is still not possible to do a lot of things because of how root is treated. Apparantly to try to actually take control of the device I bought is very bad and the ecosystem around it will do its best to make it undesirable. Linux seems to have made that work fine.
For instance it is not actually possible to uninstall these apps globally, just for the current user.
I've never taken the time to get familiar with other apps from the app store. Do you recommend any replacements for the OOB Android software?
You can't go wrong with the Fossify suite of apps on F-Droid. I uninstall all the Google equivalents and use the Fossify dialer, contacts, calendar, gallery, SMS, camera, and probably other apps that I'm forgetting. They're very minimal and pretty closely mimic the vanilla Android apps that you get with un-googled AOSP Roms. For email I'm on Fastmail so I use their app, but some popular ones that I've used in the past are K-9 and FairEmail.
edit--There are also a lot of alternative keyboards if you want to replace GBoard. Simple Keyboard is a nice barebones one, and Futo is another nice one that also has a pretty good/accurate on-device speech-to-text input method that can replace Google's voice input. The ones I use are a bit more esoteric and aimed more at developers (ThumbKey on my phone and Unexpected Keybord on my tablets).
Also I think everything I linked here on F-Droid is also available on the official Play Store if you'd rather get them there.
My interpretation is that this is about what happens if you install the Gemini App on your phone. It's optional and I don't have it installed. That's probably why I didn't get this email? (It appears to be preinstalled in Pixel 9, but I have a Pixel 8.)
There are apparently features in the Gemini App that allow it to access and control other apps, and they are adding permissions about whether it's allowed to do that. But if you don't install it at all (or uninstall it), I don't think this affects you?
The other part is about logging. I've used Gemini from the website a handful of times, and I see that all those chats are logged in "Gemini Activity." It's a useful feature. (Similarly, when I use ChatGPT, I have access to a history of all my previous chats.)
But, just because a chat history is useful to me doesn't mean I want to share it! It doesn't sound like there is any choice about that in the consumer apps. If you want to keep a history, they also have access to it. Unless you delete it, or diable it. Being able to disable it is new.
So I think your headline might be inaccurate. Just because the Gemini App is there doesn't mean you have to use it, and you could uninstall it.
Also, from a privacy perspective, the Gemini app was worse before (it didn't have these settings). I guess the new settings would be somewhat helpful to people who actually use the Gemini app.
It doesn't help that Google seems to be naming everything AI-related "Gemini," similar to how Microsoft names everything "Copilot."
I don't know Android at all, but I recently got a Pixel 9 like you mention and there is no Gemini App. I had to delete the Google app to get it to stop popping up, which then messes with other aspects of the phone. But frankly that seems worth it regardless.
(My plan is to put Graphene on it when I get a chance)
I'm a pixel user, and recently the Google App has started demanding fine-location data for weather, as if clouds care about my 5M gps coordinates more than they do my triangulated position from Cell-towers.
It also regularly switches to Farenheit despite me living in Canada, and occasionally it picks up a cell-tower near my house that tells me I'm in another province.
Every single day I wonder if I'd be happer with a land-line.
That's odd, Gemini seems to be advertised as a major feature of the Pixel 9. From last year:
Pixel 9 phones: The Gemini AI stuff, reviewed
That actually checks out to me why there isn't an app then, as it's integrated directly in. I had tried changing it off as the default assistant, but Gemini stuff would still pop up on my phone ruthlessly needlessly
Thankfully, after deleting the Google app, the "digital assistant app" setting page just shows "none" and the phones been working a lot smoother without any of that
I tried deleting the Google app on my phone. Under "default apps," I had to set "caller ID & spam app" to the phone app. I'm wondering how much this will degrade the spam filter?
Also, weather isn't displayed in some places where it used to.
But to Google's credit, these are only minor annoyances so far.
Crap like this is a good part of the reason why I am using GrapheneOS.
Curiously, my device replaced assistant with Gemini and I did not get the email, I wonder if you need the latest Android version as well? My phone is at 13 and not getting updated.
Gemini is just less functional than assistant, is there an OS alternative that has assistant or a similar feature in place? I'd like to be able to ask my phone to set a timer and not get an incorrect explanation of how to set one in the clock app. I seem to recall that I may lose access to banking apps if I ditch stock android though.
My phone at Android 15, I do not have Gemini installed, but I just got notification few hours ago about Gemini Assistant. Automatically closed it, but now I very curious what app sent it. Also long tap on central button shows Ask Gemini anyway..
Kinda off topic.
Gemini is on Google Docs too. I recently used the translate document feature on a short story, which I thought might still be Gemini free. The translation was instant, which made me think that it might not be AI. Gemini itself "told" me that there is a mix of old and new going on. I suppose that is why it is fast. It is tailored specifically for translation.
When I compared the translation to chatGPT, Google Docs translation was better. It respect more of my choices and tried to keep it closer to the original. chatGPT, on the other hand, added a bunch of "improvements" and changes that were way too creative for a translation. Sometimes it was just wrong.
So yeah, the built-in translation on Google Docs is pretty good, and it leverages Gemini now (I'm almost certain). Answering to a previous question I made, I am not allowed to use dumb-translation on Google Docs anymore. I guess that is consistent with the theme of the post since it is forcing me to use AI now.
Naive question: is it deployed in the same way in Europe or, thanks to GDPR, users must give a specific consent? Because the idea that you just give Google the ability to read everything in your phone, even inside proprietary apps "that boost e2e cryptography" doesn't sound right...
I am fairly sure that I saw an announcement a little while ago about google replacing the android assistant with Gemini soon. I'd assume this is related to that, I'll see if I can dig up the news article.
Feel free to mark as noise. But please don't ask me to send notifications. The landscape is such that if websites do that I almost automatically assume they are spammy in nature. If I want to be notified of your posts I will do so proactively. If you do want to use browser notifications, offer it as a button.
I've daydreamt about getting a cheap second phone and allowing notifications every time I'm prompted. I wonder how quickly it would become unusable.
Really depends on what you install/visit. I have notifications allowed for almost all of my apps, and I basically don't receive anything I don't need. On the other hand, I've seen people who have a lot of free mobile games, spammy social media and other adware installed on their phone, and their notification panel is impossible to use.
You know there’s an option in your browser that blocks all notifications requests from web browsers, right?
Technically you are mostly correct, it also sidesteps the feedback I am giving here.
The point isn't that workarounds exist, it is that auto prompting creates a poor user experience that makes sites appear spammy to me. In fact, if I had encountered the website in a more random setting I probably would have bailed straight away.
As I also said you are mostly correct. Enabling that setting blocks all requests done with
Notification.requestPermission(). This includes requests triggered by the user on their own accord. I still want to enable notifications for some websites/services where they offer notifications through a button I have to press myself. I just don't want to be nagged about it when I first enter a website and have no clue if it is worth revisiting.Hmmm, this is sensible. I wonder if there's a middle ground between prompting the visitor to subscribe and not offering at all (or only after a click in a specific button, which is almost as it doesn't exist). Any thoughts?
If it's important enough that you're willing to force a popup, why not use a DOM overlay that includes support/subscription/notification options (including a button to trigger the notification request).
Not that people will necessarily appreciate that more than the notification requests, but it would likely be more effective, both because there are more options and because it gives you a chance to write/display an appeal in order to make a connection.
Side note: personally I have a similar reaction to @creesch when I see a notification modal.
I personally feel like that if your content is worth it people will find these options. Any blog I find interesting enough to revisit gets added to my feed for example.
I'm afraid this path only works for tech-savvy people. I feel, running this blog for +11 years, that even people that's interested in, but not tech-savvy, don't bother to follow in any way. I think of the notification nag as a little push to connection.
I increased the delay to show the notification prompt from 15 to 210 seconds. I guess if someone spends 3,5 minutes in my blog (way above the average time spent per page view), they may enjoy what I write, and for short posts like this one it's possible to read and leave without being bothered. (Plus, there's a box after the post with the usual “follow me” links, including one for manual subscribing to get push notifications.)
Thanks!
I mean, your blogs mostly are aimed at tech-savvy people ;) But I also do see your point. Adding a delay probably is a good compromise here.