A bill that would allow police in France to spy on suspects by remotely activating cameras, microphone including GPS of their phones has been passed.

cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/news/t/147237

A bill that would allow police in France to spy on suspects by remotely activating cameras, microphone including GPS of their phones has been passed.

  • sugar_in_your_teaEnglish
    21·
    1 year ago

    I’m planning on picking one up sometime this year. I’m a developer, so I might just get suckered into helping out. My phone is getting old, and looking at the landscape, it’s mostly a choice between:

    • Apple - not a fan
    • Pixel - not a fan of Google. Also, reliability?
    • Fairphone - kinda expensive
    • Samsung - I’ve had one? It was okay I guess. I’m worried about long term updates.
    • Chinese crap - apparently my phone (Moto) is Chinese crap now

    So I’m leaning toward:

    • Pixel w/ Graphene OS or similar
    • Fairphone - not sure what protections they have, or the state of alternate roms, but they have no incentive to spy
    • Linux phone - PinePhone Pro most likely, but UBPorts seems to have more options

    I really don’t need much:

    • MMS - that’s how my family communicates periodically; just need group texts, no need for multimedia
    • all day battery, and user replaceable battery
    • ok camera - not going to be taking many pictures, but it needs to handle text reasonably well (I’ll take pictures of model numbers, product packaging, etc to match at the store or look up online)
    • some Android apps for work - mostly just Okta for MFA, but Slack, Teams, and Meet would be nice
    • wake from suspend needs to be reliable
    • not huge screen - my phone is 6.4", and it feels a little big; I want something a little smaller

    That’s about it. I don’t need banking apps, wallets, social media, etc. I think the PinePhone Pro will be good enough, if I can help finish the MMS work and if calls and texts reliably wake the phone.

    • darcyEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      i just installed grapheneos on a pixel 5 and it has been great, no downside imo except the limited model support . i dont personally think linux phones are ready yet sadly, too slow and incompatible.

      • sugar_in_your_teaEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        I checked app support, and Graphene should probably be fine. Maybe I’ll pick one up as a stepping stone to going with a full Linux phone.

        I think the main appeal to me with a Linux phone is super long term software support, and unfortunately Graphene doesn’t seem willing to commit to any real longevity there. I’ll probably get both and hack on the Linux phone until it works well enough to be a daily driver.

        • darcyEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          that sounds like a great idea my friend