Cybersecurity - Memes

I got a Sonos speaker for Christmas a couple years ago.

As soon as I realized I needed an account for it to simply play music, I went to return it. The guy in the store told me that there were no speaker brands that did not require an account these days, and that I shouldn't be so petty. He said "but you also have a Google account, right?", "Why is a Sonos account such a problem?".

I told him indeed, I already need a Google account for my phone to work, a Spotify account for listening to my music, and now a Sonos account for my speaker that plays that music , and I thought that was ridiculous.

My previous speaker was a Sony, and while that did have an app to configure it, it didn't require setting up an account with any personal data, which I think is fucked up for a device whose main purpose is just to produce sound. I left the speaker in the store and got my money back.

I did some research and found Teufel devices, speakers from Germany that work fine with an app that doesn't require an account. Now all my speakers and soundbars around the house are Teufel, and I'm very happy with them. I think also Yamaha has (or at least had) accountless speakers. So win/win - buying European and keeping my privacy a little more in check.

I did the same for my smart scale. I don't want my weight in the cloud somewhere, or on the servers of some Chinese or U.S. company somewhere. An app on my phone can store daily weight and other health data just fine.

So when I wanted a smart scale, I also did some research. It turns out there's an open source app called openscale that does exactly that: just store the data locally on my phone, and it supports a bunch of devices.

I got myself a Beurer scale (coincidentally also a German brand) because I read you can skip the whole account setup. Then used openscale to register my weigh ins. It works, I'm sure the cloud apps of larger brands have a nicer user interface, but they come at the cost of my privacy, which I simply refuse to sell out for a piece of hardware whose main purpose is to show me what I weigh.

I think people should be more conscious about their data. I don't use apple pay or Google wallet, my bank already knows most of what I pay, where and when. Why would I want to share that with these big corporations? I will gladly trade in a little convenience for a lot of privacy.

This speaks directly to GoPro. Fuck them and their bullshit.

You can't even properly use their hardware without using their crippled app. And if you aren't paying for their subscription to use the app they force you to use, be prepared to be harassed endlessly about subscribing.

They even cripple new hardware with the inability to stabilize video unless you have their shitty app do it.

Could you imagine headphones that only play music through an app that requires a subscription? That's the level of enshittification we're going to start seeing.

This is why I like marine devices. By necessity, they have to operate offline. There's no cellular service in the middle of the ocean. I have a Xantrex LiFePo BMS and a Victron solar charge controller on my boat, and neither requires a cloud account to use the app.

I keep saying framework laptop guys should come out with Linux phone that runs postMarketOS or Mobian. It's can't be that crazy of an idea considering Pine64 and Purism could literally push out their own phones. Obviously given the state of things right now, sure maybe not going to happen... but I will keep preaching this.

I can accept optional apps. If it's mandatory I will return the device. My oven can connect to the wifi but has never been connected.

I remember when I got a Kobo Glo ereader a decade ago, I was soo excited to have an ereader that wasn't tied to Amazon.

So I booted it up, and it immediately wanted me to not only register, but to download a program on my computer, and do it from there.

I refused and got pissed.

I started googling and found a guide to hack it.

You had to manually modify the Sqlite database and create a user there.

After doing that, it just worked.

The feeling of relief and accomplishment was fantastic!

I got the same camera. I did not want to side load an android app just to use it, but I legit thought "three tries only, this can't be serious". Sure enough if you exhaust the trials you cannot use the device. None of the reviews or vids I read and saw mentioned this, or glossed over it. I returned that bitch. Told DJI the reason was I cannot use the camera and I don't have an iPhone and I also don't want to side load an app on my android phone. They accepted thankfully.

Most of the time it's not the hardware that needs to be open-sourced (i.e. CAD, Gerber PCB files, etc.) It's mostly just that the hardware should use standard, open protocols. It would be nice to have the full PCB design so you could rewire things if something breaks. But, most of the time, it's good enough if the device uses standard HTTP or standard Bluetooth, rather than something proprietary.

I made the mistake of getting a hwawei (can't be bothered to spell it properly, sorry) smartwatch.

They play store app doesn't work properly, so I need to install their own appstore (that they made because of sanctions) and get the app there.

I lost it a while ago, but I learned to never buy another.

Who else heard "gargle my balls" upon seeing that pic of Louis Rossman?

For those not familiar, check out his YT channel, his work with futo.org (https://wiki.futo.org/index.php/Introduction_to_a_Self_Managed_Life:_a_13_hour_%26_28_minute_presentation_by_FUTO_software), and his Consumer Action Taskforce wiki (https://wiki.rossmanngroup.com/wiki/Main_Page). Here is a person with an electronics repair business trying his hardest to make sure nobody ever needs his services.

If they don't need me to register the app, do they still get personal data, i.e. who I am? Does the phone rat me out?

I tried to get Rogers internet a few months back, I actually answered the door for one of them annoying salespeople, and they gave me a price straight up that was $1 more a month than I was currently paying, so yeah I signed up

Oh cool I need an app on my smartphone with an internet connection in order to set up my home internet connection? Oh and this thing doesn't even let you manage DNS? Oh and there's no web portal to manage settings, literally everything has to be done through the app?

yep I fucked right off out of that, never trying Rogers again. ever

I hope RISCV helps with the liberation of hardware firmware. It looks promising.

What you need is design with purpose. Why is there an app vs physical controls. Because everyone's doing it, or to collect data to sell, or because it offers real value to the user?

If it doesn't benefit users, don't be surprised when you get flamed and lose sales.

i would let this man fix my broken app connected cockring