Comment by bigiain
4 years ago
> Stop. Using. Apple.
But is there a realistically better alternative? Pinephone with a personally audited Linux distro? A jailbroken Android device with a non-stock firmware that you built yourself? A homebuilt RaspberryPi based device? A paper notepad and a film camera and an out of print street map?
The best bet is probably a pixel phone with GrapheneOS. (Do note, that copperhead os is a scam and is not to be used)
Gnu/linux phones have nonexistent security, other than being niche (so security by obscurity at most). And also, they are not yet usable as a daily driver for me personally, at least.
"Nonexistent security" is not an accurate description. It's just a totally different approach to security. It's verifiability.
https://puri.sm/posts/defending-against-spyware-like-pegasus...
https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/community-wiki/-/wikis/Freque...
That’s not how security works.
Whether or not I am allowed to check that my entrance has no locks whatsoever doesn’t make it harder to open it. And the reverse, even if I don’t know the details of the lock in my door, it will not let others pass through.
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> Do note, that copperhead os is a scam and is not to be used
Can you expand on this point a little bit?
While it may be biased, this is a great summary: https://grapheneos.org/history/
Basically Micay is a legitimate security researcher who created the project and it was later hijacked by the company funding some of it. That company since then try to badmouth Micay at any place they find and is doing shady things on top of the still open source code base. Micay was so professional to destroy the verification key at the time of the forking.
> Pinephone with a personally audited Linux distro?
Even if you don't personally audit it, you still benefit from other people doing it. Especially if the software is reproducible (and many packages are).
An Android device running non-stock is a realistically better scenario. The big problem there is that the state of Android drivers means your hardware options are severely cut down (in practice, to a selection about the size of Apple's - the Pixel line and some assorted others).
do you still get patches via google play services?
With non-stock (assuming not jailbroken but just a totally different operating system) I think (I might be wrong... I should know for sure but I awkwardly don't) you aren't even allowed to use Google Play Services at all?
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Viable alternatives were long gone. I really miss the days of Symbian and Meego, phones that are hackable yet intuitive to use (I.e. Nokia N900, N9).
Realistically now we have Tizen and Jolla OS, which had backings from Samsung but nobody gave two damn about it.
I bet even if any of these vanilla mobile OS gets big enough they’ll get bought by the 3 giants and suffocated to death just like how Microsoft sniped Nokia.
Samsung is one of the companies I trust the least with regards to security, privacy, and overall competence in software.
Why though? How are they worse than Google for example?
Were there any recent examples where they failed in those?
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Not really, and I'm not going to sway anyone deeply into the ecosystem.
My hope is that those of you that share my viewpoint will call your legislators and demand regulations or a break up. There are forces of good within the DOJ that are putting together an antitrust case against Apple, and the more of us that lend our voices, the louder and more compelling the argument.
The DOJ is really the last lever we have, and that's pretty good measure for the power Apple wields.
Other companies seem even less interested in fighting government surveillance so I don't see how weakening Apple will help anything.
Wouldn't you think Apple is doing something like this at the behest of DoJ?
Too bad Apple and the rest of big money already have our legislators in their pockets.