Hello again. I’m just a picky-skeptical guy who likes to comb every single part of this privacy focused phone so I can have a piece of mind when I forked $599 for the privilege of being “secure”.
i.MX 8M family chipsets apparently run IoT. Why? Why do you need IoT? Why do I need my freaking fridge to know what the f**** I’m storing in my fridge? This question applies here; why does my privacy focused phone require a chipset that is capable of connecting, or rather, getting leeched on by another IoT device from the government that will inevitably hack my phone and access any and all content?
Will the guys at Purism disable/delete/remove this “feature” from the phone like they do with the AMT/ME from Intel? Or are we going to give this a pass like everything else we let pass thus far? Like the insane Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars document which is clearly a declaration from the enemy, even if the consequences are dire?
Unrelated note: for folks who have no idea what I meant regarding the above documentation, please look into it. It’s from the same banksters you know and love referring to themselves as red-shield. Be sure you got your VPN up and running before you do.
Please note that I’m not doing this to be a burden, but rather I’ve been betrayed countless times by trusting company after company to the point where I now wish to comb literally everything before I spend a dime of trust again. For instance I used to use Firefox a lot before they went the Facebook rout of selling your data. It’s a terrifying earth.
On another unrelated note, I recommend Waterfox, a modified version of Firefox that doesn’t do the crap Firefox does.
Sorry, I don’t mean to be rude, but: you really have no idea what you’re talking about.
There is no inherent “badness” in IoT, nor is it a very specific technological feature.
It’s not even a specific hardware-feature in NXPs i.MX 8(M), the i.MX 8M doesn’t do anything any other current ARM SoC wouldn’t.
In fact nothing this processor does is specifically designed for IoT.
And even if it were; again, there is nothing inherently problematic about IoT.
You really have to do your homework first before you go off on a wild goose-chase.
There is good reason to worry about privacy, but apparently the frontier into ill-informed FUD is too easily trodden.
I’m not a backer, and I don’t necessarily think going with the i.MX was the best idea from a technology standpoint; however, it very clearly is the very best choice for freedom Purism could have made.
And spreading FUD certainly does not help.
That’s good. I agreed with everything you said except for the “There isn’t any inherant badness for IoT.”
IoT in this case is a tool to facilate that “badness”.
I don’t want a device that’s capable of connecting to another device without permission. Or connected to wifi when it doesn’t need to; a fridge doesn’t need wifi for example That’s what the whole purpose of what IoT is all about in the long run, and from the video I posted above, the guy was really pushing it and explaining how that is all good. You’re right about one other thing: I have no idea how the IoT hardware is rated/identified or classified, but because I know it’s another one of those snake-oil type of deals, I’m quite alerted to the notion the guys who made the chip are marketing how it’s “IoT ready”.
To be frank, I’d be esctatic if I’m wrong.
I’m happy you came to answer me, as I am quite paranoid, that much is clear.
But please for the love of God, note that IoT devices and the concept of my toaster or Car having wifi where they ALL communicate to each other, is a bad idea.
How do you poison someone? You give them 80% water and 20% poison.
Just like IoT devices, the concept is 80% positive, and 20% poison. But the 20% poison is the sublime irony by which we enslave ourselves to our masters. I hope the poison metaphor makes sense.
the only 100% viable solution to eliminate “poison” completely in the outside things is that “whoever wants to be my follower should sell all his material possesions and distribute that value to the poor then follow me” of Jesus but today that itself implies some form of connection to the digital in the first place in order to be able to sell those “wordly possesions”. so there is that and there is the alternative - see no EVIL trust everything and everyone and don’t give a f**k whatever the % of poison is in anything.
and that is only about the outside world … what about the inside world from each of us ? from where does code come from ? does it not come from inside ? so there you have it - if you are more preocupied about the inside you will be less paranoid about the outside. is it the whole treatment ? no but at least it reduces the bleading …
IOT is not snake oil either. The iMX8 is just a processor, it could be used to make a calculator, run industrial systems, vehicle ecu, steer a bomb, IOT device, or be used in a computer or phone like what Purism is doing. Being a processor, it can be used for thousands of different applications and it is up to the engineers, company, and programmers to implement what they see fit.
So if you made a processor that could be used in those devices, you would want your prospective customers to know that your processor was capable of operating it those conditions. IOT might not be something you or I am interested in, but it doesn’t mean it is snake oil either.
That doesn’t mean that Purism is purchasing it for IOT purposes, but NXP is making sure that industrial customers know it is capable of it.
IOT is a popular marketing buzzword and semiconductor manufacturers love stuffing their datasheets and marketing materials with on-trend suggestions about what you might use their products for.
Here is a humble NPN power amplifier suffering the indignity of being marketed for Internet of Things and Smart Metering applications. Meanwhile, an ultra-low current consumption linear battery charger IC is apparently ideal for “fitness portable Internet of Things”, though I’m pretty sure you could use it in a non-Internet-of-Things fitness tracker if you really wanted to.
NXP also say the i.MX 8M is targeted for use in voice control and voice assistants, but that doesn’t mean the Librem 5 will be listening to everything you say on the off-chance you say “Alexa” or “Hey Siri”.