To start I want to say thank you to everyone reading this because it means your already a step ahead of the rest of them,the sheople, that go around following what “everyone else” is doing. Just putting one foot in front of the other over and over …and over again; not stopping to question any of it. Just go along with it and keep going along with it because thats what we’ve always done. At least thats what the powers that be (PTB) want you to do and think. But All one of us came here because we stopped and said wait a minute, something isn’t right here; and one way or the other found /e/.
What a breath of fresh air. I’m so glad to be a part of something that will be at the backbone of the revolution. And the funny thing about it, which these people who like to be herded around like cattle have a difficult time wrapping their head around, is that the premise of /e/ is simple. My data is my data!!! Simple as that. Thats it. Not your’s not anybody elses but mine. I don’t care how much money you have or how good any app is, it’s mine and I’m not going to let you knowingly sell what is rightfully mine and exploit me and countless others everywhere, for the sake of making a profit.
This business platform of this monopolistic company is simple. They sell our data to others and that is how they make money. And most people with a smartphone don’t think twice about it when they purchase an android phone and agree to all of the above. I remeber that pivotal step in my life, I was 31, and a friend decided I finally needed to get up with the times and finally got me my first android. So when I went to the store to get my new device set up I was confused when they asked me what my gmail was, I remember getting a few chuckles from behind the counter; I had never heard of gmail, and thought it extremely odd that I had to sign up for a gmail account so I could register it on my device, to get service. I remember thinking to myself this doesn’t seem to smart, but agreed to all the terms and conditions so that I could stay connected.
We’ve come a long way since the first angry birds, and pandora used to not have commercials and it was free, since the days when there were four buttons on the bottom of the phone for navigation, now only 3. A long way from when each message showed up seperately, and weren’t seperated into conversations, from 2 megapixels to 23, dual lens, and an entirely seperate “selfie camera” with more pixels than my first android. When did humanity become so vain. People have more pictures on there gallery of themselves than they have of others.
Anyways, my point is that with all this technolgy that the PTB have made sure to make us think we need, and our androids being smarter and able to do things we never would have thought possible when ringing in the millenium to prince’s 1999, a little worried about “Y2K” , we would have more time to do other things. Maybe catch up with an old friend, maybe go on a hike, or just have a conversation with a stranger. But this doesnt happen anymore. My gmail has stayed with me over the years, all of that information, contacts I emailed once seems to follow me around , but I can’t get anyone to answer their phone, I do get an auto text back from their androiid saying they are busy, driving or in a meeting or from the person I called saying whats up. Anyways I’m going a little of subject. My point is that my android is a part of me, without it I feel sad, I like to check for notifications, I like for it to have automatic responses for text messages, for emails, and even phone calls. And when I get home from eating dinner it asks me how dinner was at wherever I was and to leave a review, also how long it took me to get home, reminds me that I have an appointment the next morning, which it gathered from reading my email, and installed on my calender, and wakes me up the next morning and tells me what time I have to leave to get to my appointment on time, also telling me places to stop along the way for gas or coffee and I havent even told it to do anything. It has all been done automatically. And sometimes my android talks to me and says she cant find that information. When you say “ok google” and your phone comes on how do you think it heard you. It mustve been listening right.
To what, and all those permissions and then the hidden permissions some of the apps on android have are downright invasive, and then you tell me its not my plce to say what is done with it. NO! NO! NO!. That ain’t right!!
I started noticing that I was getting pop up ads about stuff I had searched. Then I noticed the same thing within apps themselves, or while listening to pandora; I started noticing that I was getting ads based on my location and what kind of things I had purchased on ebay and amazon. Not just ads on my android, but on my PC, on my tablet, in my mailbox. in my apps, on the browser, on my media streaming devices at home, and in my car. I got really skeptical when I was talking about needing some new fishing rods amongst friends face to face; and I kid you not the next time I opened Android on my phone, there was and ad from sportsmans warehouse for rods and reels on sale now.
So I got to thinking this android was watching, listening , cataloguing everything I did, yet I kept it within reach 24/7. I couldnt help it. Not only this they knew what I was watching, listening, eating, buying, throwing away, and when and how and how often I did everything, and people were connecting these sleep monitering heart rate moniteting devices and syncing them all together. Another avenue they were controlling me with was they were censoring what I watched and the information I sought out . Not direct censorship, but censorship nonetheless. When you filter the top results of the internet tot he highest bidder and if the results went against their narrative, you might be able to find these results buried deep into the search pages. That is a form of censorship. Who are they to tell me what is relative to my search and what isn’t. They did this on you tube as well. Blocking some videos and not even showing videos in the results page when I wrote word for word the description of the video. Has any of you, just for giggles, searched the exact same thing using the /e/browser and compared it with googles results. The difference is night and day.
I was beginning to think that all was for not, that we were all doomed. Especially when mozilla sold out and stopped their mobile OS. Until I googled alternative mobile operating systems. It took some digging and on about the 5th page i ran into an article about a man named Gael Duval who was working on another mobile operating system that kept my information mine; he said he would be a the 3rd competitive OS in the future. Thank you, thank you, thank you, from the bottom of android hell.
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That’s creepy! But not new. Facebook has also a feature: If someone installed the app, it is listening while watching TV. According to the sound of the commercial the algorithm can find out which channel/ad there is on the TV.
Also, we never agreed to anything, but G is collecting the names and location of all our home wifi networks a phone is passing by. Android/Google even tracks you if there is no sim in the phone: https://www.invidio.us/watch?v=0s8ZG6HuLrU
And the list goes on and on…
@Eeloed So totally right. Welcome, and you’ve found the right place. Truly, /e/ is a breath of fresh air…
Yes, and it’s our job to educate our (brainwashed ?? 
)
friends… 
Be careful using words like sheople (or the more usual sheeple.) You don’t win people round by insulting them.
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Totally true, but all of us here know all too well what we’re talking about 
Ofc don’t use insults, only gentleness 
Nicely said and phrased.
It is like the movie The Matrix. Free up yourself … and choose the red pill.
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Thank you for pointing that out Vaughan; I overlooked the people I wanted to reach and if you’re already here you’ve already gotten it. I do need to remember gentleness is always the better approach.
https://www.vice.com/en_nz/article/wjbzzy/your-phone-is-listening-and-its-not-paranoia
Background story regarding those fishing rods…