There are plenty of devices running older versions of Android which are not under Big G's control and won't be subjected to this authoritarianism. Coincidentally they are also likely to be easily rootable, so you can still have full freedom.

Just don't "upgrade" and ignore all the propaganda telling you bad things about that. Keep building apps that work on older, less-hostile devices and spread the word to oppose this very deliberate planned obsolescence.

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jcarrano 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

True, but there are apps, as reported in other threads in this forum, that will not run on rooted phones. E.g. banking and government apps. Most people will not go around with a rooted phone, much less with two phones.

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Hizonner 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

> Coincidentally they are also likely to be easily rootable, so you can still have full freedom.

Also easily remotely ownable, so you can be spied on without even having to install any software at all. And any that aren't now will be a couple of years after they fall out of support. Which, by the way, is very hard for the community to step in and do, since they're full of undocumented proprietary binary blobs.

> Just don't "upgrade" and ignore all the propaganda telling you bad things about that.

... and when your fully owned device finally breaks completely?

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userbinator 2 days ago | parent [-]

You've fallen for the propaganda. "remotely ownable" is only true if you do things like visit sites with JS enabled by default, which is what has been the case with true PCs for a long time.

There's a whole community keeping these devices alive, I trust them far more than Big G.

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chowells 2 days ago | parent [-]

The... propaganda? PoC exploits demonstrating full device takeover by sending an image file are propaganda? What would a real security vulnerability that's not propaganda look like?

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-4863

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userbinator 2 days ago | parent [-]

libwebp, a Google-originated format... how convenient.

via a crafted HTML page

Don't forget that the majority if not all exploits will use something like JS to obfuscate their existence and frustrate analysis.

Also remember the famous sayings "Those who give up freedom for security deserve neither" and "Live free or die". Accepting the insecurity, because freedom cannot exist without it, is also important.

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davidcbc 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

That's a common misquote

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety"

The extra words are important

	▲	rightbyte 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		"a little temporary" is key. Also the background context of arguing for taxing the rich instead of making them aristocrats.

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chowells 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

No, really. I asked a specific question. What would a vulnerability that's not propaganda look like? Please explain how to distinguish between propaganda and non-popaganda vulnerabilities. I need to be able to distinguish between them for myself.