• @loki
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    3 years ago

    For privacy, anything from Apple, Google, or Microsoft is just deal-with-it topped off with sugar coated marketing. For most people that’s not much of a problem.

    But for journalists and privacy conscious people, Linux phones with open source hardware is the only chance for real privacy. Which, unfortunately, are not getting mainstream anytime soon

    • @ThreeHopsAhead
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      13 years ago

      I strongly disagree. That’s a problem for everyone. Everyone needs privacy, not just journalists.

      • @loki
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        3 years ago

        All I’m saying is threat model for journalists, in authoritarian states, are way higher than us. Their research can lead them to get jailed or even killed. Their requirement for privacy is not the same as everyone else.

        Everyone needs privacy but not everyone can pay premium for their privacy. Like in real life, privacy and convenience are a compromise. You can pay premium to live in walled communities or be a tenant in a busy apartment complex where most people know about you.

        Google, Google Maps, Facebook, Twitter are “free” because it harvests data. There are cheap Chinese smartphones because they can shove ads to its buyers.

        Not everyone can buy premium smartphones, are knowledgeable to prevent tracking, code, or churn up a instance in the cloud to host a Matrix server to talk with their family and friends. For them it’s a compromise of their privacy with the convenience of using a “free” product. Even in an hosted instance of an open-source software, you have to put your trust on the administrators.