how corporations use smartphones to rule the world

[vulonkaaz's iconvulonkaaz]

It was in the corporations' best interest to push smartphones, I believe they see computers as a mistake as they give people too much control and they're trying the best they can to fix this mistake

This is what my personal experience with all those devices led me to believe, let me elaborate

Part 1: Software updates (and planned obsolescence)

One of the most fundamental difference between computers OSes and smartphones is that on PC you get one release for every single computers out there (well every x86_64 at least, which they all are), this is not the case on smartphones, on those devices one build can only work on one single specific device, you cannot run a version of android made for the latest xiaomi on the latest google pixel it will just not work

The most visible consequence of this for the end user (aka the "consumer" as corporations like to call them) is in system updates, on Windows, Microsoft just release an update and you install it, on smartphones, your vendor has to get the update from google, do weird hackery wizard magic to incorporate the update into his own blend that only work on one specific device before you can actually have the update. This basically mean any device that's deemed too old by the vendor will just not receive any updates at all (which includes security updates which might be very important)

On top of that you get a new major version of Android EVERY SINGLE YEAR which is absolutely ridiculous, doing research for that thread I learnt that we were now on Android 16 everything is just moving too fast for no reason at all. Compare that to Windows per example, I have been running windows 10 since at least ten years ago and only now is that system becoming "obsolete" (which just mean it won't be receiving any updates from microsoft but it's probably gonna stay usable for recent software for at least 10 other years)

My friend got a Samsung S9+ which is an absolute powerhouse but it cannot run the Burger King app anymore cause the device is "too old"

Part 2: The App culture

A lot of things require an app nowadays

I won't elaborate that part too much as that problem has yet to affect me too much (I don't buy connected lightbulbs per example) and the few things that do affect me overlap with Part 3

Part 3: My journey with Lineage OS against the European Union (wait what?)

What does the EU have to do with anything ?? I know it seems unreal and the story's quite ridiculous

A month or so ago I installed Lineage OS on my phone, since I have a Fairphone the process was quite straightforward and honestly Lineage is leagues above Fairphone's own ROM and also actually more stable

PSD2 is the new regulation that European banks have to follow, one of the main point is authentication, to be considered secure it must involve 2 of 3 things: something the user is (biometry), something the user have (a physical object that can act like a key), something the user knows (a password basically)

What does it have to do with anything ? For online banking most of the time, the smartphone act as the hardware key, and the smartphone in question must be verified by Google Play Integrity, which to this day I haven't managed to bypass

Basically of the 3 bank accounts I have, there's only one of them that I can still use (it nags me any time I launch the app to get me to enable "secure" authentication which I of course cannot do but otherwise everything work flawlessly, I just use SMS verification to validate payments) for the other two accounts the only way I can manage them is using another tablet I have

Apart from banks, I cannot use any of my government's digital ID app because them too have to be verified by Play Integrity (notice how I don't live in the USA yet my own country want me to rely on a technology that's 100% controlled by the USA, for some reason I am the only one viewing this as a national security concern)

Part 4: Why free software phones cannot exist

One of the main reason why free software phones don't exist is what I said in part 1, it is basically impossible to make an OS that just work on every single phone which mean free OSes do exist but are typically limited to a few devices, if you take a look at the compatibility list of every non-Android OSes (like postmarket OS per example) you'll see that it is an absolute mess

to install a custom ROM you have to unlock the bootloader which some devices might not want to even let you do at all, when they do let you unlock it they'll remind you every time they can that it is "unsafe"

There is one part of the phone that can never be free and open source which is the modem, even devices such as the Pinephone and the Librem 5 got a non-free modem, I think it's because of licensing and radio regulation (don't quote me on this I haven't done a lot of research about it)

Conclusion

That was a long thread (probably very badly written cause I'm not used to writing this much)

Basically with a computer you are free to use it however you want, you can run whatever OS you want, it is possible to use it using only free and open source software as opposed to a phone which will always at least have a proprietary modem, and every other part of the system is usually insanely hard to swap out

Phones are the perfect mass surveillance devices, even if you go full schizo mode and install the most privacy focused operating system your service provider can still track you wherever you go know exactly where you are because it is just how mobile networks work

Google have root access on people's phone but getting root access on your own phone is either really hard or impossible depending on which device you have, it already happened that Google installed newer spywares disguised as security features without telling anyone

They tried (and basically succeeded) to force the app culture everything requires an app including banking which they actually managed to make mandatory in some parts of the world thanks to ""security features"", so even if you wanna get away they made sure it is as hard as possible for you to survive without the phone

Do whatever you want with those informations I guess

Related articles/videos

- custom ROMs in 2025 (or how Google became the rulers of the world) (a thread I wrote on another forum detailing my journey on Lineage OS)
- Google and Android (new) spyware install. Relevant to every android user. (another thread on the same forum speaking about that one time google stealthily installed a spyware scanning every photo you send by SMS)
- (fr) Ça y est, je suis un fracturé du numérique (a blog article about a french guy who literally couldn't change the address of his business because he had an ungoogled phone)
- Richard Stallman - Don't use Mobile Phones.
- On Cell Phones and Cell Phone Applications

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not sure if I should have made this topic it seem very off topic on a gaming forum, there seemed to be a bit of interest on my profile status post so i decided to make the thread anyway

 

[fake-kun]

People need apps to do banking? I always use my PC for that and other government-related things, and it works fine.

 

[hitsugi]

Honestly I think you're cooking, even if everyone already knows phones are terrible. Hell I'm even typing this on my Samsung phone that I only use for music (idk why the Switch has no browser other than that DNS trick).

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I basically agree with everything you say, man.

My first smartphone from 2014 works flawlessly, yet it has been rendered completely useless (outside of emulators) because not even goddamn Google Play would launch on there anymore. It just refuses to do so. Hell, even my flashlight app (!!!) stopped working for no reason at all, despite the camera app it so throughly depends on still kicking it like normal.

And yes, I'm pretty pissed about app culture and how badly they all age. I was literally locked out of hugely important information a few years back because my phone was deemed "too old" to install the required application that allowed me unrestricted travel. What a fucking mess... And yet, because I can't afford a computer, my every RGT post and interaction has been written on a low-end phone.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

I disagree on the prospect of them thinking computers are a mistake. If that were the case, they’d probably try to gimp the influence, which would screw them over in the long run because computers are so tightly connected to everyday life now while smartphones will struggle to press small buttons or with a lot of websites in general

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

not sure if I should have made this topic it seem very off topic on a gaming forum,

No, absolutely speak your mind. RGT is far more than polygons and pixels, and I'm glad you wrote this.

 

[Clippy]

Time to go back to walkie-talkies and/or Morse code. I'm beginning to think that my borderline illiteracy when it comes to smartphones might be a good thing.

 

[Kamako]

All devices connected to the internet (and even some that are not) have backdoors built into them, allowing remote access to files, device control override etc. This hasn't been news in well over 25 years.

Hell, back in WWII they used to monitor the post. Why would it be any different now?

 

[vulonkaaz's iconvulonkaaz]

I disagree on the prospect of them thinking computers are a mistake. If that were the case, they’d probably try to gimp the influence, which would screw them over in the long run because computers are so tightly connected to everyday life now while smartphones will struggle to press small buttons or with a lot of websites in general

what I meant by the computers being a mistake is that, in the eyes of corporations, they might be a mistake which means they are actually good for us

the whole point of my essay was to say that basically computer good phone bad but computer too good for people so corp doesn't like and try to replace it

(idk how to write anymore)

No, absolutely speak your mind. RGT is far more than polygons and pixels, and I'm glad you wrote this.

i guess since I am from places of the Internet that are way more chaotic than this one and that forum got a no politics rule i never know what I can and cannot speak about (i mean everything could be considered politics nowadays)

Time to go back to walkie-talkies and/or Morse code. I'm beginning to think that my borderline illiteracy when it comes to smartphones might be a good thing.

i tried to get into shortwave radio only lurking now there's a bit of fun chatter around 6.6 MHz in LSB mode

walkie-talkies seem fun but they are absolutely unencrypted as they are not really meant for secure personal communication

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

what I meant by the computers being a mistake is that, in the eyes of corporations, they might be a mistake which means they are actually good for us

the whole point of my essay was to say that basically computer good phone bad but computer too good for people so corp doesn't like and try to replace it

(idk how to write anymore)

Ah ok, makes sense. My bad

 

[vulonkaaz's iconvulonkaaz]

And yet, because I can't afford a computer, my every RGT post and interaction has been written on a low-end phone.

how expensive would a fifteen years old thinkpad be in argentina ?

heard electronics was insanely expensive in south america but where I live you could get old laptops basically for free

 

[Antilocal123]

Good article but wasn't this already known lol

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

how expensive would a fifteen years old thinkpad be in argentina ?

heard electronics was insanely expensive in south america but where I live you could get old laptops basically for free

Let's just say that they are all well beyond my budget.

Last time I checked, a new laptop would run me around a million pesos, and I just don't trust old ones.

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

We should go back to smoke-signals and telegrams. Communication peaked there

 

[Sumea]

Untouched by custom rom smartphones are the most common computing platform, nothing we can do about it at this point. The world is so built around assumption of a smartphone it isn't funny and I had one or another for long time.

The EU banking stuff is absolutely funky since it used to function without that stuff. Google absolutely killed the open from open source when the roms that people you can trust more cannot make a full OS. Nothing we can do. Companies have rules most stuff they see fit anyway. Decide where money goes and rest walk behind with you. Those of us who remember wild west internet days remember them fondly for many reasons indeed, but it is all gutted out. Social media, messaging and everything.
I just do not get what actual benefit and what actual value than "trust me bro." does having massive data about people. What good is it? Advertising? Aiming advertising? What value advertising has?
Aiming recommendations at people, hooking them up on something, to show them advertising? What value does advertising have?
I am sure there is some sinister value extracts out of data extraction and trading but most common value extract comes down to advertising which feels silly. You'd think internet advertising even ones in apps, youtube videos and so on have the same value as spam e-mail. None of the system makes sense but if companies decide they have to do it they keep pumping money back and forth and just saying it makes more money, and it thus does. Whole big money game has no sense to it.

 

[Prism_Red]

We should go back to smoke-signals and telegrams. Communication peaked there

We should go back to writing hieroglyphics, look how much civilization thrives since then.

In all seriousness, apart from the first point, I pin all the blame to Internet of Things.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

We should go back to talking in person ;D

 

[Antilocal123]

We should go back to talking in person ;D

RGT Users can't do that ur asking too much of them

 

[vulonkaaz's iconvulonkaaz]

Good article but wasn't this already known lol

most people know on a surface level that phones are tracking devices and that doom scrooling is bad but they usually never take action against it

a normie wouldn't know about all the hassle you have to go through to unlock your own phone, most of them wouldn't think about it at all

almost no one knows that EU regulation basically forces citizen to use foreign tracking devices to do banking

I just don't trust old ones.

a 15 years old professional laptop is probably more reliable than a low end smartphone tho

I just do not get what actual benefit and what actual value than "trust me bro." does having massive data about people. What good is it? Advertising? Aiming advertising? What value advertising has?
Aiming recommendations at people, hooking them up on something, to show them advertising? What value does advertising have?

with all that data and the power to show whatever they want to whoever they probably have the power to influence the population in a very subtle almost invisible but powerful way, create memes from scratch, push whatever ideology they want, whichever politician they want, whatever conflict they want all across the world

not sure who's actually exploiting that data to do all that tho (not really interested in knowing tbh)

 

[Clippy]

create memes

Oh snap, I've been an unwitting instrument of the 14 Eyes all this time.

 

[ciro64 ciro64]

Computing is ruined forever.

 

[nathman]

I disagree on the prospect of them thinking computers are a mistake. If that were the case, they’d probably try to gimp the influence, which would screw them over in the long run because computers are so tightly connected to everyday life now while smartphones will struggle to press small buttons or with a lot of websites in general

I would say that they did gimp the influence, since a lot of people now simply have never used a desktop computer. You'd be surprised with how many youngins have only used a smartphone or tablet of some kind.

 

[RustySK]

The literal only reason I even have a smartphone is because my bank requires I use their app to manage my account these days. Which is, of course, a mandatory "service" I get billed for monthly.
Why should people ever be allowed to control their own data and device usage, right?

Just force them into whatever approach you want and call it "convenience" or "safety" or whatever. So long as you push that narrative hard enough and enough people just accept it instead of informing themselves nobody's gonna stop you.

 

[ThatsNotRich]

Maybe If a company knows what the majority are wanting to spend there money on then that company would move in that direction to sell the items that the majority are willing to buy. ?

I feel,
If data can be wirelessly sent to your phone from a company, why not pull from your ideas in your head?
It seems this works in pretty terrible ways, as you may have an idea that won't be put to any use, but if multiples of people are having this same idea of say an invention/concept they are wanting to create, the companies can pick up said ideas from brain patterns and patent them, if they are gonna change the world or make any financial sense.

Conspiracy that fam, Im assuming this technology already exists.

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

PSD2 is the new regulation that European banks have to follow, one of the main point is authentication, to be considered secure it must involve 2 of 3 things: something the user is (biometry), something the user have (a physical object that can act like a key), something the user knows (a password basically)

I've used LineageOS for years now, with my banking app and the phone's biometrics. My advice would be to pick a fairphone or whatever with working biometrics and put your money in a bank that doesnt force spyware on you.

Same thing with eID. No problem to report there neither.