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Comment by beatgammit | Hacker News Reader

I don't want privacy controls, I want complete control.

I'm stoked about the Librem 5 project, and I hope it succeeds enough to not disappear in a couple years. I just bought a phone, but I'll likely buy the next rev if the first one works out. I don't need much from my phone, and as long as I can make/receive calls/texts, browse the web, and can get consistent security patches from the community (e.g. some Linux distro supports the platform outside of Purism), I'm happy.

Android and iOS already support privacy controls (and root to an extent), but you're usually at the mercy of the manufacturer for updates and have to trust them to not remotely access your phone. And many manufacturers just stop sending updates once their new model is out, which is unacceptable for most people for laptops and desktops, so I don't know why it's tolerated on phones and tablets...

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If you are paranoid about your location data and security patches you should consider lineageOS and microg [1]. Awesome projects. You can have your location data stored in your phone and not rely on google.

[1] https://lineage.microg.org/

This is just not enough. I want to control the baseband and I want hardware switches on microphones, location and cameras.

Also there is F-Droid (only open source apps for Android) and the Yalp Store (alternative to Google Play with faked account so you don't have to own one).

Hacking my device like with jailbreak (iOS) or rooting (android) is not the way I want to have to go to feel secure and it's nothing I want to have to do before I think I can use my phone.

Perhaps the Librem 5, Necuno or Fairphone 3 will be suffice. We have a currated list of fair devices on the Fairphone Community forums [1].

[1] https://forum.fairphone.com/t/list-of-fairly-fair-electronic...

I understand and agree with your ideas on controlling the device, but I should also point out that the network that you're on is a major vulnerability, and there's little you can do to control that data yourself.

Government regulation on telecom companies is the only way to ensure that there's even a line that they're required to toe.

I definitely agree with you. Nonetheless lineageos/microg are a step in the right direction. No change will happen overnight. I hope more projects like this will pop out in the future.

Yes, except this talk [1] still applies

[1] https://media.ccc.de/v/35c3-9941-how_facebook_tracks_you_on_...

Exactly. We (tinfoil hat's) don't want to go with less.

Google/Apple have enough power etc. and I hope Librem5 will be here to show that it is possible to create a descent smartphone with a REAL linux (no, not android) under the hood.

Freedom is only real if you own & control it - not if someone tells you that you're free to go now (to rise the shares probably) ;-)

> I hope Librem5 will be here to show that it is possible to create a descent (sic) smartphone with a REAL linux (no, not android) under the hood.

That was already proven possible with Ubuntu's smartphone adventure. What we need is a sustainable effort. We've managed on the desktop, hopefully the smartphone is possible too.

Of course there is the problem of all those proprietary IOS and Android only apps…

> You can still preorder the phone today at the reduced early adopter pricing of $599.

Whoa!

LineageOS on a used android phone might be the better solution here.

Complete control is easy. End to end encryption. Don’t let them see what you’re doing.

MAIDSAFE network!

What does this actually mean? No, you're not going to end-to-end encrypt your ... gyroscope data. Those words don't make sense in that order, unless you're sending your gyroscope data to somebody else for some reason- in which case your problem is with them.

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