Comment by a_nop
2 years ago
People get along fine without accounts in FAANG. You don't even need an account to use many Google services.
2 years ago
People get along fine without accounts in FAANG. You don't even need an account to use many Google services.
Increasingly, even public agencies require/assume people to have a smartphone now, either an iPhone or an Android.
At that point, you literally cannot live as an adult in the society without FAANG dependence, even if it's a third party Android phone, at least not legally.
You can't download apps on your phone without logging into a FAANG account in the app store.
This is patently false.
I've been using GrapheneOS with F-droid and Aurora Store without logging into a Google account for years.
I've yet to run into a single thing I either couldn't use or couldn't work around.
Does that include banking and credit card apps? Most of my bank and card accounts require their own phone app to authorise transactions from time to time, and several accounts require their phone app to authenticate login to online banking, even if I'm opening it in a regular desktop browser on another computer. Three of those accounts don't have any other way of being managed than online, so their phone app (or tablet app) is mandatory to do anything with the account.
I had to buy a replacement phone in a hurry last year when my old phone's screen stopped working, just so I could login to make an urgent bank transfer. I would have preferred to take my time over what to buy, but so many financial things I use are blocked without a smartphone now.
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99.999% of businesses don't publish APKs or upload them to F-Droid. Expecting people to use third party distribution mechanisms like Aurora store is entirely unreasonable.
As for "working around" it, it's ridiculous to impose that expectation on the general population. Sure, you and I will always be able to find a way to hack around restrictions, but it's inaccessible to the overwhelming majority of the population.
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Such a HN comment lmao
The exception does not disprove the rule.
Most people use phones they bought at their local electronics store, with default Android OS and default settings.
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If you use aurora store you use google accounts. Someone else made them for you, but you're still using them.
Aurora store does not work anymore without a google account, at least for now. Google blocked their proxy accounts, I think. So curently there is no secure way to install apps from the play store without an account.
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Does Foobar national park publish their app to F-droid?
Does it work for Lyft / Uber?
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Who lives fine without a smartphone today? See your sibling comment for an example.
I do. I am beginning to feel the costs though. Even telling people that I don't have one is getting a bit awkward. Imagine the look of incomprehension.
A lot of people talk about 'needing' a smartphone for services/stuff I have never used, and probably would never use. I suppose I just kept living my life as I did before the 2010s, while everyone else changed. I was already in my 30s at that time, so not subject to the same social pressures a younger person would have felt, so perhaps it was easier.
When I tell people that, sorry, I don't have WhatsApp, they either look at me like I have a screw loose, or offer to help me install it (I am a middle-aged lady, so technical incompetence must be my excuse). I'd love to see the reaction to pulling out an old-school flip-phone, or providing an obvious land-line number!
That and my avoidance of Facebook didn't really matter until I had a kid and he started nursery school. I somehow got myself elected head of the Parents' Council, but it's been tough dealing with the mental block the slightly-younger generation has for email, and Signal is apparently a little too out there for non-techy 20/30-somethings of either gender.
I'm not as privacy-conscious as you, as I have a fairly recent iPhone; I'd probably be better described as social-media-skeptical, but your right to live a normal life without a smartphone is tied to my right to live a normal life without intrusive social media.
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I do in the UK (use a desktop for digital services), but I will need a phone next year after my current contract ends since employers like to have a chat via phone after applications.
I do.
What do you do when you need it? Banking or CC app for mandatory 2FA? gvmt Covid mandatory app to travel anywhere? QR code for restaurants? Places that require an app in general?
This is ofc locale-dependent, but if before the pandemic you could barely live without a smartphone, today is just impossible (at least in the 2 countries I visit often).
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Here, desktop for online services, flip phone when traveling, VOIP for most phone usage.