Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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Unlocking Samsung bootloader worth it? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 weeks ago by velvetbutterfly@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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Is it worth unlocking the bootloader on my phone? It's a Samsung with One UI 7.0 (I've been avoiding upgrading to 8.0 since they don't let you unlock it after that). I just want to avoid having Google Services and AI installed. I use my phone to take photos of my art / send it to friends on signal and hate the idea of it being scanned by AI. I use a camera and gallery from fdroid but somehow the default photos app still has access (I know because it makes GIFs of pictures I took even though I marked permissions as "not allowed"). I also would love to get rid of the default apps I don't use. While I can unlock the bootloader (for now), I can't install a custom ROM because there are none compatible with my phone, so will I just be forced into using 8.0 at some point anyway? :( ATP I'm pretty much ready to give up smartphones and get a digital camera for anything I don't feel comfortable feeding to tech companies.

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[–] DFX4509B@lemmy.wtf 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

You'll brick some functionality if you try, along the same lines as ScoffingLizard recommended, get a Linux phone of some kind or barring that, at least seek out an unlockable phone that's supported by LineageOS.

And generally dedicated cameras outperform phone cams both due to having a larger sensor in the case of SLRs or mirrorless ILCs, but also due to having swappable glass with actual optical zoom and manual control as an option.

[–] ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 weeks ago

I tried so hard with a Samsung for a year and just gave up. It was a huge headache. I feel much more in control now. I'll never buy anything from Samsung again as long as I live. Bunch of unethical dicks.