You’ll often hear hackers say that they “owned” (or sometimes “pwned”) a computer. They don’t mean that they have the computer in their physical possession, what they mean is that they have compromised the computer and have such deep remote control that they can do whatever they want to it. When hackers own a computer they can prevent software from running, install whatever software they choose, and remotely control the hardware–even against the actual owner’s wishes and usually without their knowledge.
Hackers intuitively understand something many computer users don’t– ownership is not about possession, it’s about control . If your company gives you a computer, or even if you bring your own, but they remotely control how you use it and can override your wishes, it’s their computer, not yours. By this definition, most phones today are owned by the vendor, not the user, and as I said in The General Purpose Computer in Your Pocket:
One of the neatest tricks Big Tech ever pulled was convincing people that phones weren’t general-purpose computers and should have different rules than laptops or desktops. These rules conveniently give the vendor more control so that you don’t own a smartphone so much as you rent it. Now that the public has accepted these new rules for phones, vendors are starting to apply the same rules to laptops and desktops.
The Illusion of Control
The illusion that Apple users have control over their computers was briefly disturbed this week when Apple released their new MacOS version “Big Sur” to the world. Users started noticing that around the same time that the update was released, that they had problems launching local applications, applications stuttered and macOS itself was unresponsive at times–even if the user hadn’t updated to Big Sur. It seemed like a pretty odd coincidence that a new OS release would somehow cause local applications–even non-Apple applications–to stall.
Maybe they don’t care because of the same affect a drug has on a junkie. The addict knows it’s bad, know’s it “lock’s” the addict into the drug’s fold, and aware that it “restricts” their lifestyle. The two kinds of addicts know it’s a lot of money in exchange for very little in return for a very short time and
“regardless of the” thousands of dollars spent on it “simply don’t care”.
But, to address your intention, first, please, you are using stuff that a regular, ordinary person hasn’t a clue, or cares about learning all the geeky 'wares and apps to make a phone more private.
Android + Google need I say more about total lack of trust? Maybe we need to have a NPO, unattached to telecoms and any corporation, to create a Privacy rating system for phones - but that would just drive up the prices. Hades!
I know, some here have already been assimilated unto Google. But I’m, sayin, I can’t, and won’t trust Google or Microsoft. It’s not OK to scan, analyze, and profile people based on their Gmail contents … in Europe. But we’re still free game elsewhere. I can’t see any software making Android, private. Or any of the others for that matter, except L5. IMO.
I remain, opinionated as ever, (while it’s still legal)
~s~
I thought that outage was only with some with no access. I’ve not had any problems, but a neighbour did. I could access it, she couldn’t. She checked some online outage-tester or the like, and it showed YouTub out in many areas, but not everywhere. I guess I was one of the lucky ones that could get to YT and let Google know I wasn’t working. Is that kind of profile info available for extortion yet? Nah, they wouldn’t do that, unless they were repubs. (*see below)
Maybe it was something you two said? Did you besmirch Google or any of their cronies?
About your comment. I’ve seen similar gibes in other places. For example, "he was drunk and drove off the end of the dock. Must have been a [insert opposing political party here - *see above] Party member. Maybe it’s because I see so much of it in political arenas I often haunt, that I want to find a name that describes that kind of textual poke at anything. It’s a recent form of double-reversing propaganda or Hill & Knowlton type of strategies. Kewl! It deserves a name. Obviously, it’s in protest using sly humour but the style is subliminal-ism at it’s finest.
I only took a wild ass guess (WAG) at youtube because it was a coincidence.
Conspiracy theorists like to tie two unrelated events, although someone may have run off with it as truth.
It is the old formula, tragedy plus time equals humor. Witness the jokes: Hindenberg disaster, Titanic, Amelia Earhart, etc. (Youtube was not so much a tragedy, so the time span can be much shorter.)
This is too bad, their hardware is usually really nice with the exception that often not very user friendly to repair.
With the purported performance around their new M1 chip makes it even worse. Still curious to see how it fares performance wise next to Intel and AMD’s x86 platforms and how well they manage to the shift from x86 to arm64.
Maybe should rename Big Sur to Big Brother
A way to disable these types of things would be nice, but wouldn’t expect it anytime soon.
Yeah I know . Used to have an iphone6+ , ipad pro, a mac pro and a watch. Update burned the mac pro and I sold everything except for the watch which the face broke away. Then I read about the L5 and the rest is history.
MacRumors is Appleaholics website subsidised by Apple and provides their daily fix.
Now I have a NUC and a panasonic toughbook running Mint20 and I love it.
Anyway, the key thing that Apple is missing is not that they are doing OCSP but that they don’t give the user control over it. No control to prevent it being done. No control to ignore failure if OCSP gives failure.
Is that a right call? Well, Apple would argue that “user doesn’t understand this ‘stuff’ so we will make the decision on behalf of the user” - and that kind of patronizing attitude is what you sign up for when you buy Apple - but of course there is a grain of truth in that argument.
The clear downside is that this functionality is also the foundation for abuse e.g. anti-competitive behavior e.g. corporate thuggery - over and above the privacy issue.
If you want control then Apple is not the platform for you. Which is basically what the original blog post was saying.
I still have an iPhone 8 plus and a MacBook Pro and I’m awaiting my Librem 14 to ship soon hopefully.
I will be brand new to Linux and this laptop will be my first experience with it, and eventually I would end up with a L5 as well.
And I’ve just begun the process of looking into how to jailbreak my phone and what that will mean for me. And later, at least a Linux dual boot on the MacBook Pro.
I’m learning more and more about how the Apple and Google sandboxes, big tech in general, and big media, are spying on and controlling the population with false information.
Pardon my highly irregular visitations. With privacy issues like this, and the price issues ($6500 Apple Laptop that can handle Blender 3D Software vs $3500 to $4500 System76 Desktop to run the same software), I am thinking of moving away from Apple.
I have noticed that there is new settings for advertisements in system preferences, including disabling “personalized ads”; so much for privacy…death by a thousand cuts much?
I have used a VM to test the Pop!_OS from System76 and have found all the replacement software I need, including some that I thought were only available on iPhone and Android phone, available for desktop. Like the “Authy” token app.
I was able to install the “snapcraft” app store into Pop!_OS via terminal with no issues, that is how I found out about the desktop version of “Authy” above, and also other useful apps.
As far as being “owned” goes, I already knew what that was from a hacker perspective, using the same line of reasoning as “pwned” you also mention. I do not like either concept, as it is very disruptive. I will use the VM of Pop!_OS to learn what I need to so I am prepared for the switch when I can save up for the System76 Desktop I plan to buy.
Until I can figure out how to get the EPSON Eco-Tank printer to work with Pop!_OS, I will have to figure out a “paperless office” workflow that works best for me. I have a local friend who uses linux exclusively and has been a great bit of help with this.
Not sure what you mean by windows device. Anything can run windows? Who make their own linux hardware? The Chinese. Who puts in a modem? Purism. System 76 doesn’t build their own hardware do they? Pop they build. Anything can run Linux?
Did you besmirch Google or any of their cronies?
