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Ilandar

@Ilandar@aussie.zone

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Ilandar ,

People aren't going to move on. Some of you really live in a bubble when it comes to this stuff. Users complained about ads on Facebook, reddit, Twitter, YouTube and everything else and no matter how many times you guys declare those services dead the reality is that they are still the default for most. Even in the unlikely scenario that a large amount of users do permanently leave, they won't migrate to the privacy respecting service you want them to.

Ilandar ,

A minority are, yes. reddit is still massive and continuing to grow while Lemmy participation has fallen off noticeably and continues to decline.

Ilandar ,

I'm quite obviously comparing it to the height of the reddit migration, since that is the topic of the thread. MAUs peaked months ago and are trending down now.

Ilandar ,

If I am being completely honest, there are very few. Convenience is consistently the #1 trade-off when I make privacy-based decisions about which applications and services to use.

An exception I can think of are ad and tracker blockers like uBlock Origin, iodé, etc - I cannot imagine life without them Any time I borrow the phone or computer of someone who doesn't have an equivalent of these installed I am just blown away by how many ads they are confronted with while performing even the simplest tasks. And not just harmless ones, but ads that directly waste their time. I genuinely don't understand how people can live like that unless they just don't know there is an alternative.

I guess another one I can think of is the Aurora Store. The UI is so much cleaner than the Google Play Store's, important settings and features aren't hidden and it has some additional features like Exodus Report that I think are genuinely useful. It's so superior as an application that I actually prefer using it even on devices where the Play Store is installed and working.

Ilandar ,

Yeah people keep posting these articles and celebrating as if it's not still a very relevant social media platform. I am concerned it will take so long to "die" that there might actually be time for a revival.

Ilandar ,

Custom ROM support relies a lot on a phone either being unique in some nerdy kind of way or having widespread community interest (especially appeal to Indian consumers since many community developers are Indian). The Google Pixel and Fairphone lines consistently have great support due to the first reason, while cheaper Chinese brands often have decent support for the second reason. Nokia is in a bad position in both respects - its phones are neither interesting or particularly cheap/good value for money - so its support is generally pretty bad.

If you plan to just use a phone with the stock ROM then they are all equally bad when it comes to leakage to Google. However brands that try hard to force you into their heavily modified Android ecosystems like Samsung and Xiaomi are particularly bad for privacy since they have a ton of extra data collection built in that is either forced or suggested to you quite heavily (many features are locked behind additional privacy policies and account logins). You are better off going with something as light as possible in that case. Since you mentioned Motorola, I'll add that I have a razr 2023 and beyond a few optional apps that I can disable, it is pretty standard Android with no additional data collection or accounts required. Motorola phones can have dogshit software support, though. Like this one I have is less than a year old and it's already taking them 4 months to push an update.

Ilandar ,

I think the actual takeaway here is to not elevate people to the status of "genius" in the first place. Stop worshipping celebrities, they are only humans like the rest of us.

Ilandar ,

Marketing relies on the gullibility of the consumer. If you start from the position of "this person is just another human like me and I am better at some things than them" then celebrities suddenly aren't so magical and special anymore. It becomes a lot easier to see through the PR bullshit.

Android Microphone Snooping (lemmy.world)

So I had a verbal conversation with a coworker yesterday and now I'm getting fed very specific ads. No possible way it's accidental. I have most of the microphone access to apps limited, I have Google assistant turned off and no VPA setup in my home. I use a Oneplus 9 pro, does anyone have recommendations on how to further root...

Ilandar ,

404 Media has been investigating it. They have evidence of companies offering this service, both on their websites and through sources who say they've been pitched the product by company representatives. Many questions still remain but I'm not sure this issue can be dismissed as easily as it once was.

Ilandar ,

@czardestructo you should have a listen to this as well (or read the articles it's based on). What you are describing may not be as tinfoil as some people believe.

Ilandar ,

Just because one single company

It was more than one company. Please read the article or listen to the podcast. And no, I will not summarise them for you. Stop being lazy.

Ilandar ,

The podcast doesn't have 2 minute ads every time you skip. Get a better podcast app.

Ilandar ,

Wow I’m surprised so many people still use facebook.

30 seconds in a month counts as an active user, so it's not really surprising. A lot of small business, event and community information is still tied up in the Facebook ecosystem, forcing people to keep their accounts around for those occasional logins. We're not talking about 3 billion people using it for hours a day.

Why is graphene os only available on google pixels?

I want to mainly use it for privacy over its "security". I don't know what makes everyone fine with running it on fucking google pixels. Is there some kind of "low security" version or something for other phones? I'm so tired of certain organizations infiltrating privacy communities and making people believe in improving...

Ilandar ,

Some alternatives are DivestOS, iodéOS or LineageOS for microG (or standard LineageOS). They are honestly not really comparable to GrapheneOS and target a different crowd but they offer varying levels of privacy improvement over standard Android and support a wide range of devices.

Ilandar ,

Buy a second drive and boot into it for Windows gaming. Do everything else on Linux. Personally I have found this to be the least frustrating, best performing solution with the added benefit of segregating gaming from work/study and vice versa.

Ilandar ,

A lot of people just add "reddit" to their search query. It does work pretty well, but I realise not every Lemmy user will be willing to do that.

Ilandar ,

For sure, it is certainly a better option than SEO listicles though. If people push bad products there is always the potential for community push back.

Ilandar ,

For what it's worth they are aware that some of their readers do not like the email subscription model. They acknowledge it isn't a perfect solution but they also don't have many alternatives currently as a small, independent media company trying to survive and grow.

Ilandar ,

I don't get why millennials and older generations mock zoomers for these trends. What's wrong with enjoying old technology and childhood nostalgia? People are so needlessly petty when it comes to younger generations and their interests.

Ilandar ,

Yeah it's particularly weird from millennials because it wasn't that long ago our "avocado toast" generation was absolutely copping it from boomers.

Ilandar ,

I don't mind hearing about these trends in younger generations but it depends how they're covered. Like the dumphone/flip phone one is a very positive news story and I think quite interesting to reflect on.

Ilandar ,

There is no "budget option" if you value repairability, nor has there ever been. The best you can do is buy a secondhand ThinkPad or other workstation laptop. If you don't like that option, make more money.

Ilandar ,

Framework.

But if you are really opposed to that option for whatever reason, you can maybe take a look at iFixit's repair scores.

Ilandar ,

Are you under the impression that PCs and laptops are different? Because they're not. The word you are actually looking for is "desktop", but OP didn't use that word.

Ilandar ,

Half the comments in the thread are about Framework - a laptop manufacturer. Are you illiterate?

Ilandar ,

No, just people that understand the definition of "PC".

Ilandar ,

The problem is that there isn't a singular replacement. People use Twitter for that feeling of being up to date with everything happening in the world. Until one of the alternatives can deliver that on a larger scale, Twitter will retain a considerable userbase.

Ilandar ,

I don’t really understand how its market share is so low now.

Everyone has a Google account, Chrome comes preinstalled on many web-enabled devices, people don't realise how bad Chrome is compared to alternatives, people don't understand they can search with Google on any web browser, etc. Most people are not particularly tech literate and don't really understand what they are doing. They just use the most popular/advertised product and assume it is the best choice for them. Even in Lemmy privacy communities, where you'd expect users to be more tech literate, I've come across many people who don't even know that browser export/import is a standard feature everywhere, or that other browsers have their own versions of cross device sync. They think they're locked into Chrome and moving to Firefox would mean completely starting again from nothing.

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