Comment by cedricgle | Hacker News Reader

Comment by cedricgle | Hacker News Reader

I would like to see the employer reaction if someone has a Librem phone or any non Android/iOS mobile.

Yet it's +800$ for this short satisfaction.

They'd just force you to buy one (if evil) / issue a cheap one from company (if friendly).

Up to a couple of years ago I didn't have a (modern) smartphone, I had a Symbian Samsung and a LG Cookie. Had to upgrade because the canteen payment scrapped their "prepay credit" payment mechanism based on ID and would just take a live-generated-in-browser QR code instead. There was basically no cost to still support the old system but people like me are so few that it doesn't matter.

See also: covid contact tracing apps.

If the employer provides a work phone for that purpose which may be turned off unless the employee is working, I have less of a problem with it.

It's the offloading of cost and the (potential) encroachment into the employees private life that seems most problematic.

Aside from this it's the usual paranoia that some employers always had more then enough of. The company may or may not benefit from this kind of tracking and ultimately only legislative action / worker representation (unions) can limit the extent.

> issue a cheap one from company (if friendly).

That'd be ideal. Use it at work, and leave it in the desk drawer overnight.

You could turn off location... but I would keep my job by getting a 2nd phone just the app and hiding my 2nd phone in the janitors closet. Maybe I would get paid 24 hours a day!

in some places you might be accused of cheating the SYSTEM and get paid for 0 hours a day

You can get this sort of satisfaction for much less money. Try a Volla phone [1] or a KaiOS based phone [2]. That's always funny when some services assume that just having an iOS or Android App (and no equivalent web-page) is enough to cater to everyone.

Especially in the corona-virus crisis it will prove interesting whether some mandated "contact tracing" or "vaccination pass" style Apps are going to effectively turn into an Android/iOS Smartphone requirement for everyday life.

In Germany it's e.g. already impossible to use the DHL parcel receival stations without Android/iOS. Loss of some ticket options for public transport also seems to be on the horizon. Also forget about car- and bike-sharing.

Also some banks try to force you to install their own proprietary TFA app for online payment (even if you just use your credit card in an online shop).

[1] https://volla.online/en/index.html

[2] https://sites.google.com/view/bananahackers/devices/nokia-81...

Is the DHL app really necessary or can you fallback to SMS? Got an Android, so no problem for me, but I'm wondering...

It wasn't necessary as of some months ago. I don't have a smart phone and at first they would send a SMS with TAN, but now they switched to sending an email with the TAN.

There may be some grandfathering of old accounts: accounts that have email notification enabled, can still access the Packstation using mTAN transmitted by email. However, once the email notification is disabled, there seems to be no way to re-enable it (and maybe it is disabled per default for new accounts) [1]

[1] https://www.giga.de/tipp/dhl-mtan-anfordern-ohne-handy-das-s...

Interesting. Will have a look in my account, it's a pretty old one, maybe I still got that option.

Too late. I already mentioned it some time ago [1]. Basically not only I can't use non-Android, non-Apple operating systems here, but the programs mandated by the different banks (and even government agencies) are checking for "rooted/compromised devices" and other fancy-speak like that which obviously trip frequently on non-sanctioned-by-Google devices.

i.e. you need a real, Google android device. Stuff such as the Jolla Android emulator just doesn't work with these programs.

At first, I could not pay my parking tickets, and I didn't complain much since I don't have that many parking tickets. Then it started with e.g. mandatory usage of the COVID-app-of-the-day before entering restaurants, but again I didn't complain much since I don't really want to go into restaurants with the virus still flying. Now the banks require it and they are ignoring my repeated requests to go back to simpler paper/card OTP variants. How long until it is mandatory to file taxes?

The framework for making open source operating systems irrelevant is being laid before my own eyes and I can't do anything about it.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25766703

Couldn't the Pine phone do the same for $150?

https://pine64.com/product/pinephone-beta-edition-linux-smar...

Try a cheap old Nokia. Not everyone has a smartphone.

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