Anything by Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp). Facebook literally got people killed by volunteering their location data to a tyrannical government in a third world country. Don’t think they won’t do that to Americans.
Android (the mobile OS) kind of is. The only reason Google bought the hobby project to put Linux on smartphones was because they could collect more data with it than they could with Gmail. You can get a Pixel device and install GrapheneOS on it, but not even 1% of Android users are turning off telemetry (which only anonymises it), let alone installing custom firmware that doesn’t have it. I’m not saying iOS isn’t — because it’s not open source, we don’t know — but I am saying Android definitely is. And I don’t just mean Pixels — to use the Android brand, Google requires certain things of OEMs like Samsung, from having Gmail and/or Chrome on the main home screen, to having Google Play Services, which does the data collecting, installed. (I’m pretty sure the Play Store actually requires it. Forks that don’t use the Android branding, like Amazon’s Fire OS, don’t have this restriction, but Amazon probably has plenty of other crap in theirs.)
Now, I never said Android was a honeypot, and it may not be. But Google was just sued for antitrust, and they made a deal to keep Chrome and Android under their banner. We don’t know what the terms of that deal are. I would consider both of them to be compromised by bad actors (potentially they always were since Google was selling the data). Don’t think so much about who you call (though that can be valuable) but like, your Maps data, anything you put in Health (like if you’re female, like if you miss two or more periods but not eight or nine and then start back up again, I’m sure the GOP would love to know that — for the dense fellas, it could mean she got pregnant and then terminated it, or the pregnancy failed somehow). Tim Cook’s advice of “get your mom an iPhone” doesn’t sound so far fetched now. Your sister, too. Heck, specifically regarding Health, Samsung put out an update last year, maybe the year before — that is, before the current administration — saying if you keep using Health, they can sell your information to whoever they want. Either agree and keep using it, or disagree and they delete your data. At this point, no stock Android phone can be trusted to keep your information private. It’s different if you use GrapheneOS, but that requires buying a Pixel, putting money in Google’s pocket. The Pixel 10 is what, about as powerful as an iPhone 11? A 12 maybe? And it costs the same as an iPhone 16. You decide. Personally I don’t think it looks like a very good deal.
Anything by Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp). Facebook literally got people killed by volunteering their location data to a tyrannical government in a third world country. Don’t think they won’t do that to Americans.
Android (the mobile OS) kind of is. The only reason Google bought the hobby project to put Linux on smartphones was because they could collect more data with it than they could with Gmail. You can get a Pixel device and install GrapheneOS on it, but not even 1% of Android users are turning off telemetry (which only anonymises it), let alone installing custom firmware that doesn’t have it. I’m not saying iOS isn’t — because it’s not open source, we don’t know — but I am saying Android definitely is. And I don’t just mean Pixels — to use the Android brand, Google requires certain things of OEMs like Samsung, from having Gmail and/or Chrome on the main home screen, to having Google Play Services, which does the data collecting, installed. (I’m pretty sure the Play Store actually requires it. Forks that don’t use the Android branding, like Amazon’s Fire OS, don’t have this restriction, but Amazon probably has plenty of other crap in theirs.)
Now, I never said Android was a honeypot, and it may not be. But Google was just sued for antitrust, and they made a deal to keep Chrome and Android under their banner. We don’t know what the terms of that deal are. I would consider both of them to be compromised by bad actors (potentially they always were since Google was selling the data). Don’t think so much about who you call (though that can be valuable) but like, your Maps data, anything you put in Health (like if you’re female, like if you miss two or more periods but not eight or nine and then start back up again, I’m sure the GOP would love to know that — for the dense fellas, it could mean she got pregnant and then terminated it, or the pregnancy failed somehow). Tim Cook’s advice of “get your mom an iPhone” doesn’t sound so far fetched now. Your sister, too. Heck, specifically regarding Health, Samsung put out an update last year, maybe the year before — that is, before the current administration — saying if you keep using Health, they can sell your information to whoever they want. Either agree and keep using it, or disagree and they delete your data. At this point, no stock Android phone can be trusted to keep your information private. It’s different if you use GrapheneOS, but that requires buying a Pixel, putting money in Google’s pocket. The Pixel 10 is what, about as powerful as an iPhone 11? A 12 maybe? And it costs the same as an iPhone 16. You decide. Personally I don’t think it looks like a very good deal.
We know WhatsApp and others fail to include a libre software license text file. We do not control them. They are not honeypots. They are scams!