Phone Bad
This is a rewrite of my article Modern Phones Suck which I consider to be the worst thing I've written on this website. All I do is complain and there is little if any value to be gained from it. I considered just delisting it but instead I decided to rewrite it.
In the original article, I mostly just stuck to hardware and software complaints but this time, I will discuss more. I'm also sure plenty of the tech and privacy literate of readers already know most of what I will discuss but I have had to explain this stuff many times before.
Privacy
Phones are able to track everywhere you go and send this information to the company that makes the phone or software. Since the location data is in their hands now, they can do whatever they want with it from sell that data to giving it to law enforcement. Phone location data is often used in criminal cases and has lead to people being falsely suspected of crimes just for being within proximity of a crime when it took place. I'm not gonna argue over legality and what is just but the fact stands that this location data is being collected from phones and will be shared.
Phones also keep track of many things you do on the device and send that information to the companies. For example, Apple tracks every single action you make in many of its first-party apps. I even discovered this myself before it became a big thing in privacy news when I went through my own Apple account data and found that almost every little thing I did in the App Store was tracked and logged. Every click, every search, the date and time I did stuff; it was an uneasy feeling discovering this. I don't know for sure if Google does this on Android phones but I'm sure they either do or if not, are surely capable of doing so. And again, this information is sent to these companies to do whatever they want with.
Awhile ago, Apple announced that they developed a way to scan people's phones for child porn. It fell through after backlash but the fact remains that phones are at least capable of scanning your device or can be capable with a software update. Google has already been proven multiple times to scan account content. Even if this kind of surveillance was used only for its claimed purpose, it being used across all supported devices just assumes that everyone is a potential perpetrator. It would be like a company sending people to rummage through everyone's home to make sure they aren't hurting kids. And that's the best case scenario if this were to be rolled out. The potential surveillance is much greater. What about phones in places with little or no laws governing corporation-controlled surveillance or even in places where there are strict effective laws against corporation-controlled surveillance but lobbying has eroded their effectiveness if not existence? In such a scenario, device scanning of content could be used for many insidious things. Imagine your phone's content being scanned to serve you advertisements. Imagine it being scanned so companies can collect information to do with what they please. Imagine a company is compelled by the government to use this surveillance to prosecute people for unjust reasons or in my opinion, at all would be horrible. Yes, this is hypothetical but phones are at least capable of doing this should the companies desire.
Societal Effect
It's something you'd expect to hear from an old person who can't get in touch with the times but dear god, phones have degraded society. Everywhere you go, everyone is on their phone. Not even just when idle or waiting for something. They're walking while looking at their phone, they drive looking at their phone, they blast their vapid social media crap for all to hear with no respect for those around them. Children are raised on the phone and grow up to be addicted to it and do the same crap as everyone else because of their phone. The phone controls these people.
So many things now also want you to install an app or worse require an app. Some countries have government stuff that requires an app. Stores and services push you to use their app. For example, months ago, I had to order items and get service from a store and they wanted me to use their app and implied I had to to get the stuff done. I was able to just use a browser instead but that may not always be an option. Also from just this one visit, I saw multiple times the store workers hounding other customers to just use the app when it was probably for stuff they should've just been able to do at the store like my stuff should've been.
Hardware
The physical devices themselves suck. First let's start with the thing I'm still and will forever remain mad over: removal of the headphone jack. Apple started this trend to sell their Bluetooth crap and convinced people that wired audio was outdated. Other companies then copied Apple and now the majority of phones no longer have a headphone jack and require an adapter to use wired audio which doesn't always work. The removal was done purely as a marketing operation to sell first-party Bluetooth headphones and make these headphones a fashion piece to further advertise them. To this day I only use wired audio and I still refuse to use wireless.
Screens are too long and even the UIs acknowledge this. Phones used to be designed so that people could move their fingers anywhere on the screen easily, even big phones. Now phones are so long, many UI elements have been moved to the bottom since people can't reach UI elements at the top of the screen anymore. I used to also think the whole swiping as a home button thing was bad but while I no longer think it sucks since using a phone that is like that, I still often have problems with the swiping whether it be registering the wrong action or doing a device swiping action when I'm just trying to do something at the bottom of the screen. I still think home buttons are better.
Phone cameras have become absurd marketing gimmicks. Companies keep adding cameras, making them bigger, and adjusting their layout to distinguish from older models. If you really care about the camera, get a dedicated one. Phone makers also still haven't solved the problem of the notch/peephole for the ego camera and light sensor taking up screen space yet.
Software
Garbage. Restrictive, bloated, spyware garbage. Let's start with Apple. iOS is an absurdly restrictive operating system that treats you like a little baby that can't be trusted to do your own computing. Where do I even begin? You can't change the operating system, you can't install software from any source but Apple, and you can barely customize anything. You are beholden to Apple.
The App Store is utter garbage. Everything is monetized to hell and you can't so much as find a simple QR scanner that isn't riddled with ads. Can't find an app that isn't utter overly monetized junk? Too bad, the App Store is the only place you can get apps from.
Some things on iOS make it hard if not impossible to use without the app. Even if there is a website, going there will just result in the website harassing you trying to convince you to download the app. The majority of websites are also broken or horribly designed on mobile despite even desktop UIs being based on mobile UIs nowadays and ironically, websites with no regard for mobile use often have the best mobile experiences.
Only using Apple devices will make you technologically illiterate. Everything is dumbed down and restrictive. I'm sure Apple devices are a major reason kids nowadays are more technologically illiterate compared to older generations.
iCloud also sucks and I don't trust it at all. Apple wants you to be reliant on iCloud with your data and put everything in its "ecosystem". Logging into your Apple account on an iPhone will also enable backups without your consent even when you had them disabled before logging out and when trying to disable them, it tries to scare you into keeping them enabled by telling you your local photos will be deleted if you disable backups as seen below. It also turns on Find My without your consent.
I can't really speak for standard Android since I use a de-Googled custom ROM and therefore don't have to deal with the bullshit that the majority of Android users face. I do know however that many Android phone manufacturers make their phones restrictive making it hard if not nearly impossible to install a different operating system or at least making it so the bootloader can't be re-locked if installed with a different operating system making the device less secure. A lot of these Android phones are also installed with bloat and garbage by the manufacturer and you may be unable to remove it.
Apple's Propaganda
Apple's marketing is bullshit. They are not privacy respecting and they are not as secure as people claim. I've already discussed the privacy facade that applies to Apple but let's discuss security. People have this idea that Apple devices are these top-of-the-line secure devices to the point that I've literally met people that think they're unhackable. They aren't. You can find many instances of Apple devices being hacked. Just search up 'iPhone Pegasus malware' for the most known examples of this. There's also jailbreaking which is technically hacking the device too. There's also the fact that most data that is a part of iCloud was accessible to Apple with end-to-end encryption to prevent this being available not until 2023 and only for newer devices and only if you manually turn it on. Lack of this encryption has lead to multiple instances of stolen data. I have also learned that apparently Apple has a poor relationship with security researchers compared to other major tech companies due to its bad bug bounty program. This has resulted in vulnerabilities going unfixed or even being sold to other parties instead so they can exploit them. This potentially lessens the security of Apple devices.
Hope
While the vast majority of phones are harmful garbage, there is still hope at least for now. For Android phones, there are custom ROMs for various needs to replace the regular Google-infested stock Android or manufacturer operating systems. These custom ROMs let you have actual control over your device and remove most if not all spyware. Android also lets you download software from pretty much wherever you want and you can find app repositories that fit your needs and aren't filled with commercialised junk. There's also the existence of Linux phones but I don't know too much about those and from what I've heard, aren't as secure as Android ROMs with a focus on security. There is no hope for Apple; don't use their crap.
Sources/Examples
Privacy, paragraph 1: Court Document pertaining to falsely suspected man explaining how Google geofencing works. Wayback Archive
Privacy, paragraph 1: Section Of Court Document with explanations of how geofence warrants of Google work and states Google collects location data even when the feature is turned off. Wayback Archive
Privacy, paragraph 3: Wayback Archive and Archive.today Archive of Apple explaining how they would have scanned people's devices. Content of original link has been edited to remove references to this.
Privacy, paragraph 3: Wayback Archive and Archive.today Archive of initial news story about how someone was falsely accused of having child porn due to Google scanning. Original link is paywalled.
Apple's Propaganda: Wikipedia Article about The Fappening, which was the result of compromised iCloud accounts and the most well known Apple security blunder. I don't know what the original news source is for this if there is one. Wayback Archive and Archive.today Archive
Apple's Propaganda: News Article of someone's Apple and other accounts getting compromised and explains how easy it was due to ease of social engineering which greatly lessens security. Wayback Archive and Archive.today Archive
Apple's Propaganda: Video Interview section with a software developer discussing a bad experience with Apple's bug bounty program. Odysee Peertube
Apple's Propaganda: Article by a software engineer about their poor experience with Apple's bug bounty program. Wayback Archive and Archive.today Archive
Apple's propaganda: Article and Update of someone's bad experiences with Apple's product security team. Wayback Archive and Archive.today Archive of 1st article and Wayback Archive and Archive.today Archive of 2nd article.
Written 2024-4-6 Published 2024-5-1