Posted by gniting 3/29/2025
Have they even been pretending on this front?
I think I call bullshit on this.
But I agree that they could do way more and that they don't seem to care.
edit: Oops, I left out texting. Which phone for that?
The for all the smart stuff, Pixel 6 with GrapheneOS. You can confine various "classes" off apps to dedicated profiles, so they'll never know of each other, and you get a vastly improved security (multiple releases in the month) and significantly improved privacy.
But I digress, excusing your bad form of answering a question with a question, I am interested in your opinion of the possible conundrum of the two phone idea.
For a serious answer then: Rather than segregating phone calling vs the rest, if you want to go to the hassle of maintaining multiple phones, I would put sensitive apps (i.e. bank apps) separated from the rest.
But ultimately it depends on which threat model you are trying to mitigate. Most people would worry about protecting their financial information. If you are worried about possible backslash from a fascist state, you shouldn't use normal phone calls at all and switch to a privacy app.
OTOH, a dedicated phone just to make phone calls makes sense if your threat model is your significant other.
> Third, f-droid apps are curated like a very rigorous linux repo.
Yes, I know. My question is is this one of the things they're screening for?
I suppose they must be too busy ticking off "anti-features" like "can communicate with non-Free services" to notice that sort of thing.
(No, really. F-Droid will tag applications like a Mastodon client as having "anti-feature: Non-Free Network Services", presumably because it can be configured to connect to servers running non-free software?)
Alternatively, you can continue with the standard setup, accepting that you’re willingly providing companies with an unprecedented level of access to your personal data. It’s puzzling that many seem more concerned about breaking a familiar routine than about the risks associated with sharing every detail of their lives with companies that, in turn, share that data with one (or more) hostile government(s).
There is certainly a lot of justified concern about government overreach and abuse of power on HN. It remains difficult to understand why many with these warranted concerns do nothing to adopt a more coherent and rational approach — such as merely attempting to protect their personal data by not deliberately and voluntarily feeding it entirely to companies that are secretly coordinating with the very same hostile governments these people claim to seriously fear and detest.