Adobe has killed Flash

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah but that ad model still works, so just use it for internet. The main reason newspapers are dying are not because of the ad model, but because most people just get their news online.

I really do need to learn more about how to root my phone and the inner workers of Android. One thing I want to do one day is get rid of all the built in tracking crap. Basically, degoogle it. I want it to be just a base OS that has no Google stuff. The OS is made by Google though so I presume getting rid of all that stuff is not easy.

I really wish there was a Linux equivalant for phones. An alt OS so to speak. The biggest thing would be removing the passive tracking like the microphone and location stuff. I don't actually DO a lot on my phone as far as internet usage but it can still spy on me via the microphone, camera, GPS etc. I doubt turning off location services stops that, it turns it off for active use but the passive spy stuff probably still uses it.

Even with my light phone usage for internet stuff it's scary to see how well the tracking works when I find myself using a computer or VM or other system that does not have an ad blocker. I see ads that are frighteningly relevant. Makes me wonder what ELSE they know about me. Like can they see what's on my screen, hear my conversations, see me, etc. Heck forget phones, I wonder if they can do all that stuff with regular computers, like use your speakers as a mic etc. Browsers need to be built to not allow such code to actually run. That is really the jist of it.

 

[bigboxes]

Yeah but that ad model still works, so just use it for internet. The main reason newspapers are dying are not because of the ad model, but because most people just get their news online.

I really do need to learn more about how to root my phone and the inner workers of Android. One thing I want to do one day is get rid of all the built in tracking crap. Basically, degoogle it. I want it to be just a base OS that has no Google stuff. The OS is made by Google though so I presume getting rid of all that stuff is not easy.

I really wish there was a Linux equivalant for phones. An alt OS so to speak. The biggest thing would be removing the passive tracking like the microphone and location stuff. I don't actually DO a lot on my phone as far as internet usage but it can still spy on me via the microphone, camera, GPS etc. I doubt turning off location services stops that, it turns it off for active use but the passive spy stuff probably still uses it.

Even with my light phone usage for internet stuff it's scary to see how well the tracking works when I find myself using a computer or VM or other system that does not have an ad blocker. I see ads that are frighteningly relevant. Makes me wonder what ELSE they know about me. Like can they see what's on my screen, hear my conversations, see me, etc. Heck forget phones, I wonder if they can do all that stuff with regular computers, like use your speakers as a mic etc. Browsers need to be built to not allow such code to actually run. That is really the jist of it.

It's not hard. Just not what you agreed to when you got the phone. So, all OTA updates will be stopped. You need to learn how to back everything up so that you can restore it whenever you upgrade the OS manually. It's a PITA and something you have to love to do. Can't recommend it, but you're a geek and may love wasting your time on it.

 

[Bardock]

I have a gps app on my phone to track my snowboarding. I use an old phone with no sim card. GPS still works flawlessly....

 

[PeterRoss]

Money is on information tracking every time. Nowadays, knowledge is everything and gathering intel in various legal or illegal ways is the way people are going nowadays because we are still struggling to establish proper formal digital rights. In any case, we are off topic here massively, I would recommend switching this to a new topic Adobe is dying after all.

 

[HutchinsonJC]

The biggest thing would be removing the passive tracking like the microphone and location stuff.

It's so easy to look at stuff like this and think it's crazy talk. That said, my cousin found out he was going (read: had not left yet) to another country, and then proceeded to see ads for things/places to hit up in that country in FB, and here he had never typed that country into anything on his phone.

I've also had many occasions where a friend and I are talking about someone or a group of someones and here I don't know who they are talking about so I ask "who?" or "what's <so-and-so's> last name?" Next thing I know they are at the top of my suggested friend list on FB.

Huge part of me on these wants to just go... "eh.... strange coincidence /shrug" but sometimes you wonder haha

 

[Red Squirrel]

It's so easy to look at stuff like this and think it's crazy talk. That said, my cousin found out he was going to another country, and then proceeded to see ads for things/places to hit up in that country in FB, and here he had never typed that country into anything on his phone.

I've also had many occasions where a friend and I are talking about someone or a group of someones and here I don't know who they are talking about so I ask "who?" or "what's <so-and-so's> last name?" Next thing I know they are at the top of my suggested friend list on FB.

Huge part of me on these wants to just go... "eh.... strange coincidence /shrug" but sometimes you wonder haha

Yeah I see stuff like this a LOT, at first I thought it was a coincidence, but it happens way too much. Basically something related to a conversation IRL shows up as an ad. I think they also track your financial transactions (credit card or debit card, maybe even cash somehow?) as I often see ads related to stuff I recently bought.

 

[PeterRoss]

Indeed, pretty much the same way when I visit other countries, I get content on their site and for the next couple weeks, I see weird ads. And my provider the same way sends me a message "Have a nice trip" When I connect to a mobile network in a different country, in the end, it comes down to how much information can you track.

 

[Bardock]

And how much you can sell to advertisers and law enforcement. It's a race to the bottom. Forget about flash doing this only, Windows 10 does it and every laptop computer has to have camera, microphone, Intel vPro, and a host of gotcha spy tech built in. Do you know what's in your router firmware? Same type backdoors, welcome NSA come on in and take a look.

It's not a great time for privacy and I'll never let Alexa or any of that in my home, that's a bridge too far for me.

I want a laptop without cam and mic which I can remove but the firmware telemitry I can't. There is a company called libreroot that sold laptops that had been freed but they were sued into submission.

Aldous Huxley's writing was a warning not a manual. I can't think or talk about this much it's really upsetting and I don't want to be on a site that logs ip voicing my opinion on privacy because some lemming will always say "if you're not doing anything illegal you have nothing to hide". If anyone here has that point of view, it's already over for you.

The internet is in big trouble not just flash but all of it. I block that tracking with a host file and firewall rules so my FB is ads for politics I don't care about and stuff I bought.

I'm not saying what I say to be prevocative it's the truth. Listen to Snowden. It's not by accident it's by design.