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Let's talk dumb phones

I have had similar thought, so I’m following.

A dedicated GPS device seems like an obvious solution.
 
The whole smart phone thing is a real rabbit hole. You really have to ask yourself what you want to accomplish as far as dumbing one down and start from there. There is a lot to consider. From an attention standpoint, especially for younger people who never knew a world without them, they can be a real problem. They are designed to be as addictive as possible. In an overall well being sense, they are probably as healthy as chain smoking.

Constant real time tracking, building profiles on you and your behavior to better sell you things that you don't need, and apps specifically designed to keep you engaged as long as possible are bad things in my book, and can be used to your detriment. When talking about these smart phones, a conversation can veer into tinfoil hat territory pretty quickly, but the bad thing is, a lot of the issues are real. Look at dynamic pricing. Some retailers are going to a system that bases the price you pay for an item based off a your profile. You walk into a store. The store's system identifies your phone and links it to you. The store uses facial recognition to also identify you. Based off things like your zip code, the price you pay for an item will be different from the price the person standing right next to you might pay. Stores such as Lowes, Kroger, and Walmart already use facial recognition to identify and track customers and customer behavior, linking it all to customer apps you have on the phone, and then selling that data to third party data brokers.

Another example is insurance companies. Have you seen the ads for the "snapshot" driver discount where you plug a tracking device into your car so you can get a discount on car insurance. It GPS tracks you everywhere you go. It collects data on how fast you drive, if you come to complete stops at stop lights, etc, etc. Years ago, I had insurance licenses in several states. This is when I found out about MIB. Health insurance companies got together years ago and formed something known as MIB (Medical Information Bureau). Not Men in Black, lol. The purpose of the MIB is to collect and share a person's medical history among all participating members. If you had health insurance in Maine, had ABC company, had a procedure, and then moved to California, got XYZ insurance, XYZ knew all about you from Maine, whether you told them or not. If you look at the terms of service of many innocuous apps, it says they can share the info on you to "trusted partners". Do you really think if you are tracking your heart rate, activity, diet, real time GPS locations, sleep patterns etc, that it isn't being scooped up, stored, and bought by something similar in the health insurance, and property casualty market? If you drive your car to a strip mall with a liquor store and a vape shop three times a week does that get reported? Even if you weren't goin gto the Maybe. Did you drive over 25 in that school zone? Did they see that? Does your zip code say "charge me 15% more" than the guy behind me in line with the sae item in his cart? Maybe. Your data represents a perpetual cash cow for companies. Do you think they are leaving that cash on the table if it is there to take?
 
mschultz373 said:
Anyone have experience running SF/OnX on graphene OS?
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Not yet, but my understanding is that within Graphene you can set up compartmentalized sections (trying to think of the term) with more or less security. In one of these accounts or sections on the phone you could download the apps directly from the Google play store and run them in that isolated area. That would be your least secure area of the phone, since it would have Google on it and the idea of Graphene is to be De-Googled. I do know that apps like Onx use Webgl and that poses some sort of security risk as far as tracking and telemetry goes. For instance my primary web browsers block Webgl for that reason so Onx does not work for me on my laptop at the moment. I'm looking for a work around without having to have a suspect web browser installed on my machine.
 
sureshotscott said:
Onx installs and appears to open fine on GrapheneOS. My account is inactive so that's as far as I'm going.

SF?
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What web browser are you using in Graphene, if you don't mind me asking. I ask becasue these apps are largely web dependent. I have a couple of browsers that don't play well at all with my Onx becasue they don't allow Webgl (the 3D rendering software) Are you using a VPN?
 
GoS has it's own stock browser Vanadium. Yes I VPN.

Screenshot-from-2026-02-19-08-32-36.png



Not saying you, but it's possible to chase privacy down rabbitholes that are overkill. It's reasonable to defend against the "big tech" advertising machines and malware. Defending against nation states is a whole different kettle of fish.
 
sureshotscott said:
GoS has it's own stock browser Vanadium. Yes I VPN.

Screenshot-from-2026-02-19-08-32-36.png



Not saying you, but it's possible to chase privacy down rabbitholes that are overkill. It's reasonable to defend against the "big tech" advertising machines and malware. Defending against nation states is a whole different kettle of fish.
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Yes, absolutely. I try to define the problem and fix it. Mainly that is staying off the radar of big tech companies and malware, as you said. Nation state actors are a whole other ballgame, although much of what they start with is data sourced directly from big tech. Little brother vs Big Brother. Good to know about Vanadium in Graphene. It's been a few months since I thoroughly researched all this so I am a little hazy on details. I plan to get busy soon setting up a Pixel with Graphene.
 
I worry that near term advances in AI agents could result in most devices and accounts being hacked if not hardened or secured. Compound this if strides in quantum computing coincide in near term. Could get messy in a short timeframe

I wouldn’t want ClawdBot stealing my sweet rut funnels!!! (/s)
 
BTaylor said:
Am I the only one that doesnt have a freakin clue what they^^^ are talkin about.
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In layman's terms, big tech is trying to do to us what some hunters are trying to do to bucks. Some hunters use tech to track bucks, profile and predict their behavior, photograph them, manipulate them, control them. None of this is in the best interests of the buck. To the hunter, the payoff is to kill the buck. To big tech, the payoff of mass surveillance is stealing your data in order to essentially turn you into their own personal ATM from cradle to grave without any concern for your rights or best interests, all the while keeping tabs on you 24/7/365. Companies like Google and Facebook make about $700 per year spying on you, stealing your data and selling it to advertisers.

A smart phone is the greatest mass surveillance device ever created. All this is an attempt to side step and avoid this mass surveillance.
 
NMSbowhunter said:
In layman's terms, big tech is trying to do to us what some hunters are trying to do to bucks. Some hunters use tech to track bucks, profile and predict their behavior, photograph them, manipulate them, control them. None of this is in the best interests of the buck. To the hunter, the payoff is to kill the buck. To big tech, the payoff of mass surveillance is stealing your data in order to essentially turn you into their own personal ATM from cradle to grave without any concern for your rights or best interests, all the while keeping tabs on you 24/7/365. Companies like Google and Facebook make about $700 per year spying on you, stealing your data and selling it to advertisers.

A smart phone is the greatest mass surveillance device ever created. All this is an attempt to side step and avoid this mass surveillance.
Click to expand...
They can spy on me all they want, the wife has the checkbook.
 
mschultz373 said:
I worry that near term advances in AI agents could result in most devices and accounts being hacked if not hardened or secured. Compound this if strides in quantum computing coincide in near term. Could get messy in a short timeframe

I wouldn’t want ClawdBot stealing my sweet rut funnels!!! (/s)
Click to expand...
I don't know much about this kind of stuff. But I will say that I am not sure how much I buy into the quantum computing.
 
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