That last is why I have (so far, successfully, but it's getting harder and harder) resisted getting a smartphone and dealing with all the apps. It's not clear how much longer I'll be able to sustain this.
But I've heard nothing to suggest that a smartphone (especially the Big Two) aren't just an unremitting data privacy nightmare.
@cavyherd @LoganFive There are some deGoogled Android distros out there.
From what I understand, they won't support many or most of the Mainstream™ "apps" that I'm fighting the use of.
And it's Yet Another Fucking Device to spend $$$ to buy, keep track of, update, charge up, spend more $$$ for the plan.... And I'm not sure how much that even would address the privacy issue when the primary function of apps, as far as I can tell, is data scraping.
No. Just fucking no. I'm growing to deeply hate the tech I already •have• bought into.
@cavyherd @LoganFive Installing apps in the absence of the Play Store requires a bit more work, but you have the option of running privacy-respecting alternatives to the data scraping apps, especially if you also add in hosting the server component on your own hardware. You don't have to miss out on everything modern tech has to offer as a cost of avoiding data harvesting.
God that sounds like a lot of work....