Re: [Discuss] Phone maker settles charges it let partner collect customers' text messages

[Greg Rundlett (freephile)]

[snip]
>
> What alternatives do you like best or find most promising for phones?
>

I haven't really followed all the developments in the phone world (Where's
the Ubuntu phone now? Answ. It's a community project.)

But I did recently hear about the librem5 phone that can run PureOS (Debian
based) and any Linux distro. https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/

Of course that violates your 'buy new stuff' requirement, but maybe I'll
get one after my Google Pixel phone dies.
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Re: [Discuss] Phone maker settles charges it let partner collect customers' text messages

[Mike Small]

"Greg Rundlett (freephile)"  writes:

> On Tue, May 1, 2018 at 9:57 AM, Bill Horne  wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
> Phone maker settles charges it let partner collect customers' text
>> messages
>>
>> BLU phones sent a massive amount of data to firmware and data-mining
>> provider.
>>
>> https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/04/phone-maker-
>> settles-charges-it-let-partner-collect-customers-text-messages/
...
> Generals, and organizations like "Consumer Reports" should join the FSF and
> EFF be issuing statements about the need for consumers to seek out
> completely free software alternatives that respect privacy
> because “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” – Louis Brandeis

What alternatives do you like best or find most promising for phones?
These are the efforts I've been following off and on:

1. LineageOS (successor to CyanogenMod)
   - doesn't support my model yet. An Android clone. Perhaps the most
   reasonable first point of entry for an alternative phone OS?
   
2. Replicant - similar to above but more conscientious about everything
   being free software. Kind of the Trisquel of Phone OSes.

Options 1. and 2. are inferior options in my opinion. I'd prefer not to
have Android at all, neither it's one language development model nor its
massive monolith build approach.

3. Debian: https://wiki.debian.org/Mobile
4. PostMarketOS:  https://www.postmarketos.org/

Something like 3. or 4. seems like the holy grail to me.  You'd have a
proper GNU/Linux distro on the thing and be able to run the usual Unix
software without dealing with Bionic's incompleteness or other
stangeness about the middleware/userland parts of Android. But I'm
guessing Debian on any old phone is a long way off and may never reach
some models.

There are companies working on some nice things, but in principle I'm
against buying dedicated free software hardware while I have working
hardware already. It's nice that there are people working on such things
and people willing to put their money down supporting that work, but one
important part of what I want from a truly free phone OS would be that
it allow mopping up all the old e-junk and putting it to good use (or at
least support or be close to supporting what I have already), as
GNU/Linux and the BSDs do so well with PCs and some other odd old junk.

For now I'm making do on my Android phone with termux (a debian based
chroot that doesn't require rooting) and gradually learning about it and
Android's limitations by trying to install all the dependencies of the
Perl module WWW::YouTube::Download using cpan (stuck for now on
Net::SSLeay). It's fun and interesting but also makes me wish I had the
real thing on there.

-- 
Mike Small
sma...@sdf.org
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Re: [Discuss] Phone maker settles charges it let partner collect customers' text messages

[Eric Chadbourne]

Non-competing trademarks are common.

Hi Bill!

Just because you think they are watching you doesn't mean they aren't.

- Eric "where's my anxiety meds" Chadbourne


‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐

On May 1, 2018 9:57 AM, Bill Horne <b...@horne.net> wrote:

> ​​
> 
> To the powers-that-be:
> 
> We must take action! The "BLU" trademark has been sullied! Who's in
> 
> charge of sending the DMCA notice?
> 
> Bill "Wait, my meds just kicked in" Horne
> 
> Phone maker settles charges it let partner collect customers' text
> 
> messages
> 
> BLU phones sent a massive amount of data to firmware and data-mining
> 
> provider.
> 
> https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/04/phone-maker-settles-charges-it-let-partner-collect-customers-text-messages/
> 
> Discuss mailing list
> 
> Discuss@blu.org
> 
> http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss


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Re: [Discuss] Phone maker settles charges it let partner collect customers' text messages

[Greg Rundlett (freephile)]

On Tue, May 1, 2018 at 9:57 AM, Bill Horne  wrote:

[snip]

Phone maker settles charges it let partner collect customers' text
> messages
>
> BLU phones sent a massive amount of data to firmware and data-mining
> provider.
>
> https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/04/phone-maker-
> settles-charges-it-let-partner-collect-customers-text-messages/
>
>
It's just appalling that companies can get caught red-handed violating the
law to such an extreme but nonetheless remain in business. ADUPS Technology
Co. LTD (the firmware provider and data-collector) should be out of
business or at least some executives in jail. There should be an
investigation into which BLU executives besides the President were
complicit in the data mining. And Amazon should be flagged with a scarlet
letter as an e-commerce site that should not be trusted for making public
statements that completely contradict their actions to protect consumers.

Lastly, viz. ""This is in line with every other smartphone device
manufacturer in the world" "There is nothing out of the ordinary that is
being collected" FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, State's Atty
Generals, and organizations like "Consumer Reports" should join the FSF and
EFF be issuing statements about the need for consumers to seek out
completely free software alternatives that respect privacy
because “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” – Louis Brandeis

Or how about *backing* the development of such alternatives with public
funds instead of backing massive corporations and bureaucracies with those
funds?

Greg Rundlett
https://eQuality-Tech.com 
https://freephile.org
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[Discuss] Phone maker settles charges it let partner collect customers' text messages

[Bill Horne]

To the powers-that-be: 

We must take action! The "BLU" trademark has been sullied! Who's in
charge of sending the DMCA notice? 

Bill "Wait, my meds just kicked in" Horne

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Phone maker settles charges it let partner collect customers' text
messages

BLU phones sent a massive amount of data to firmware and data-mining
provider.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/04/phone-maker-settles-charges-it-let-partner-collect-customers-text-messages/

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