Mastodawn

RE: https://social.lansky.name/@hn50/116378390202896203

If you were wondering whether the phone you paid hundreds of pounds for is yours, it’s not. It’s still Apple’s and they decide what you can do with it.

That isn’t a tool; it’s a shackle.

And no trillion-dollar corporation is your friend.

(I’m tapping this out on what will likely be my last iPhone. Hopefully the EU will get its act together so people without iPhones and Android phones can still do basic things like banking and paying for stuff with their phones by then.)

Benjamin 14h ago

@aral Let's hope they will, though currently I see little fuel for that hope.
German "i-Kfz" app intentionally does not work on non Google-blessed Androids, and from what I can tell neither will eidas.

@blindcoder @aral

It'd be nice if weird community based phones could support some of the government use cases, but it's probably easier to get support for regulations that no process should require a smartphone. There should always be an alternative.

Benjamin 5h ago

@alienghic @aral hence me recently asking for an alternative to an app for eIDAS, like a tan generator for online banking (which I actually still use). If the alternative becomes something like Persona, which forwards my biometrics and gov ID directly to OpenAI et al, I'm not sure if I'll still have the energy to de-Google my life.

Thanks EU, I guess.

@blindcoder @aral

I was assuming it'd take coordinated lobbying to get them to stop depending on USA spyware companies.

Why why do I have the ideas?

And be clear the issue is privacy invasive companies so they EU gpvernments don't leave the USA ecosystem and go to Israels spyware instead.

Benjamin 2h ago

@alienghic @aral I'm tired to be honest. Been participating in many things, from the "Killer-Chess" demonstrations over early pirate party activity to the biggest petition and demos in Germany, I'm tired.

I'm not saying that peaceful protest is dead, but I'm also not seeing it working where big money is involved.

@blindcoder @aral

Yeah these days they most ignore marches.

There needs to be new tactics which is why I think the global warming and Palestine rights groups are moving on to targeted disruption.

Time to switch to GrapheneOS, Aral, and reclaim some degree of privacy.

Aral Balkan 13h ago

@machine I have a drawerful of Linux phones gathering dust so, instead of contributing to landfill, I’m being careful about what I get next. (That and I’m not made of money.) :)

Aral Balkan 13h ago

@machine Cute dog, by the way :)

Thanks. She's a smelly angel! I have 5 spaniels. I swear they think I'm a dog.

I'm not made of money either so thankfully GrapheneOS is free. You don't need me to tell you that now more than ever it's essential to reclaim as much of our privacy as possible and we can only do that by using kit that's reasonably secure. Good luck 👍

@aral
Hi Aral,

I never been a friend of Apple or Google (but i sit on some shares because of their business models). I don't own an Apple Phone (Android instead, buts the same...) i really tried other OS to use, like Lineage, Volla, Graphene, Ubuntu Touch and so on. Every OS has its benefits but I really struggle to get Banking Apps or some special apps to work... Some are not "validated", when no Google or Apple OS is detected. This fact makes it unusable for me. Still now. Hope we getting free in some years with fully owned software on our devices. ♥️

Benjamin 11h ago

@cytro Every time I come across one of those apps I make sure to file a ticket with the vendor. Not accusing, spiteful or demanding, just file a ticket "App XYZ does not work on my phone model ABC" and then provide all the requested information until they eventually close the ticket with whatever reason.

It's important to get that into their system by as many affected users as possible, otherwise even people working there who want to support GrapheneOS won't be able to due to "lack of demand".

@blindcoder
You're right, you mean the App vendor, are you?

Benjamin 2h ago

@cytro yes, i do mean the app vendor. For the i-Kfz app that would be the Kraftfahrtbundesamt.

@blindcoder
Yes, okay copy that. But I think a government app has more advantages to take... I mean the new "Ausweisapp" needs google too, to verify. There are some protests about that issue.

Nicole Parsons 13h ago

https://www.businessinsider.com/saudi-arabia-crown-prince-visits-apple-google-2018-4

https://english.alarabiya.net/News/gulf/2018/04/07/Saudi-Crown-Prince-discusses-joint-projects-with-Apple-s-Tim-Cook-

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-06/google-thiel-stand-out-in-saudi-prince-s-silicon-valley-tour

When a corporation takes investment from #PrinceBonesaw , that corporation does business the way the Saudis do business.
Corruptly. Murderously.

https://www.npr.org/2019/02/12/693994447/apple-google-criticized-for-carrying-app-that-lets-saudi-men-track-their-wives

https://www.salon.com/2025/11/20/trump-absolves-mbs-of-khashoggi-killing-and-shames-all-of-us/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Jamal_Khashoggi

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jan/21/amazon-boss-jeff-bezoss-phone-hacked-by-saudi-crown-prince

https://www.status.news/p/jeff-bezos-jamal-khashoggi-saudi-arabia-ai-deal

https://www.nationalmemo.com/kushner-trump-saudi

Saudi Arabia's millennial crown prince got a rare tour inside Apple's new $5 billion campus

Saudi Arabia's millennial crown prince got to see the inside of Apple's new $5 billion campus.

Business Insider

@Npars01 @aral That article is from april 2018. Khashoggi was killed in oktober.

Aral Balkan 12h ago

@wroof @Npars01 And he was such an upstanding guy right until that point.

Nicole Parsons 10h ago

#PrinceBonesaw locked up 200 people in the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh, killed & tortured them using US intelligence he got from Kushner in 2017.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/19/saudi-accounts-emerge-of-ritz-carlton-night-of-the-beating

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/31/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-corruption-purge.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/mideast/how-saudi-royal-crushed-his-rivals-shakedown-ritz-carlton-n930396

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-senior-saudi-figures-tortured-and-beaten-purge

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/16/jared-kushner-trump-saudi-khashoggi-mbs

https://www.businessinsider.com/kushner-tells-trump-to-back-saudi-until-khashoggi-outrage-ends-report-2018-10

https://www.vickywardinvestigates.com/p/exclusive-the-real-reason-jared-kushner

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8966175/How-Saudi-princes-tortured-blackmailed-2017-purge.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/11/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-corruption-mohammed-bin-salman.html

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/timeline-the-rise-of-saudi-arabias-prince-mohammed-bin-salman/

https://www.fairobserver.com/politics/saudi-arabia-the-story-of-the-missing-and-the-executed/

https://menarights.org/en/articles/beaten-mbs-and-disappeared-case-sulaiman-al-dowaish

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_bin_Salman

'Night of the beating': details emerge of Riyadh Ritz-Carlton purge

Exclusive: three years on, some of the Saudi detainees reveal what they say took place

The Guardian

Entikan 13h ago

@aral So far I can make it, using just a dumb phone (Nokia 220) and a laptop. Haven't even needed firefox in some time. But yes, the "to use this service install the app" is a sickness we need to get rid of as a society.

HTPC NZ 12h ago

@aral wonder how many who were crossed with linux devs trying to do this are now going to give up their iToys... doubt majority are that principled and will bend the knee to their favourite corporation and make up some excuse to justify it.

Aral Balkan 12h ago

@htpcnz Two wrongs don’t make a right.

steev hise 8h ago

@aral here’s an idea. Just don’t do bank stuff with your phone. It’s a bad idea anyway.

Aral Balkan 4h ago

@detritus I’ll tell that to my bank the next time they want me to approve a transaction using the app on my phone.

@aral the biggest problem is banking. I have to authorize any online transaction with my bank app - which is a good thing! But my bank app only works on iOS and Google-certified Android - which is a problem with both ecosystems becoming more shitty

Aral Balkan 4h ago