People are concerned because they know that Donald Trump is an aspiring dictator. He doesn't want to install this app because he thinks it will serve some useful purpose, he wants to install it because he thinks the country and everyone in it is his property.
If he's allowed to get away with this, at some point before he's overthrown, he's going to force you, personally, to install this app. When you object that this is crazy, his remaining true believers will make up some nonsense reason why we shouldn't be worried.
Is it a work phone because Trump has a principled belief that only work phones should have to install this app? Or is it a work phone because Trump hasn't yet subverted the required executives to get Apple to agree to roll it out on everyone's phone?
"get them to agree" is one way to put it. If they want this our government can just show up with guns and force it to happen. The government already collects data from corporations (including apple according to snowden's leaks), sometimes taking over parts of a company's offices, installing hardware on the company's network, and filling those rooms with government employees in order to do it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A
Reminds me of the story of a parliament full of apparatchiks clapping their dictator, with no one daring to stop, because it would mean a lack of loyalty, for which they'd be dragged out and shot...
>> A button within the app allows users to “text President Trump,” which autofills a text bubble reading “Greatest President Ever.”
Have you ever watched any part of any of his cabinet meetings? They are just 3 hours of people telling him how great he is in the most cringiest ways possible, each person trying to one-up the last with the ass kissing. So this autofill doesn't seem weird at all to me.
(I'm not saying its normal, I'm saying its expected).
> It feels like something you might see from the government in a banana republic/authoritarian dictatorship.
It's not even the authoritarian dictatorship that scares me as much as it is how many regular people with nothing to gain and everything to lose happily and fully support it.
Long-time de-Googled Pixel user here: while it's not for most of the people I know, for whom the barrier to install LineageOS / GrapheneOS / etc on their Android pocket computer is as yet too high, advertisement-company Google's nonsense can be uninstalled.
It helps that I use my less-smart phone much less than back when these things were a novelty. Nice to be able to call and text, snap photos, take notes, visit some websites with JavaScript turned off, set alarms, and learn stuff with Anki, all with one high-tech slab that fits in my pocket.
I also appreciate F-Droid and the contributions of so many people making useful software.
Still, I'd trade computers and all the pollution from the underlying infrastructure for lower population density and the ability to regularly eat fish from local waterways without getting poisoned.
The 4th amendment doesn't apply to property of your employer. They can do pretty much whatever they want in terms of configuration, tracking, and auto-loading software on it.
It does when your employer is the US Government. Decades of overt corporate authoritarianism seems to have made some people forget about the very idea of individual rights.
The usual long period between elections and inauguration is going to create a massive window for data exfiltration and the only people empowered to police it and any evidence that it occurrred are the people most likely to be stealing the data.
People are only now concerned because they see the control that was always there, Now being exerted over their government work issued phones.
People are concerned because they know that Donald Trump is an aspiring dictator. He doesn't want to install this app because he thinks it will serve some useful purpose, he wants to install it because he thinks the country and everyone in it is his property.
If he's allowed to get away with this, at some point before he's overthrown, he's going to force you, personally, to install this app. When you object that this is crazy, his remaining true believers will make up some nonsense reason why we shouldn't be worried.
It's a work phone, I don't see the issue.
Is it a work phone because Trump has a principled belief that only work phones should have to install this app? Or is it a work phone because Trump hasn't yet subverted the required executives to get Apple to agree to roll it out on everyone's phone?
"get them to agree" is one way to put it. If they want this our government can just show up with guns and force it to happen. The government already collects data from corporations (including apple according to snowden's leaks), sometimes taking over parts of a company's offices, installing hardware on the company's network, and filling those rooms with government employees in order to do it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A
> I don't see the issue.
What is your goal in telling us this? Are you proud of sticking your head in the sand, or something?
Feds use profile management? Is that news?
The weirdness of the WH app is notable enough but standard organization practices aren't.
It’s a purely political app, not an official US government.
So yes, it’s weird and illegal for the republicans to force all government employees to have a propaganda app on their work phones.
This just feels like the weirdest part to me:
> A button within the app allows users to “text President Trump,” which autofills a text bubble reading “Greatest President Ever.”
It feels like something you might see from the government in a banana republic/authoritarian dictatorship.
Reminds me of the story of a parliament full of apparatchiks clapping their dictator, with no one daring to stop, because it would mean a lack of loyalty, for which they'd be dragged out and shot...
> This just feels like the weirdest part to me:
>> A button within the app allows users to “text President Trump,” which autofills a text bubble reading “Greatest President Ever.”
Have you ever watched any part of any of his cabinet meetings? They are just 3 hours of people telling him how great he is in the most cringiest ways possible, each person trying to one-up the last with the ass kissing. So this autofill doesn't seem weird at all to me.
(I'm not saying its normal, I'm saying its expected).
> It feels like something you might see from the government in a banana republic/authoritarian dictatorship.
Well.. I mean, yeah. That's about where we are.
It's not even the authoritarian dictatorship that scares me as much as it is how many regular people with nothing to gain and everything to lose happily and fully support it.
That's because the Trump administration IS a banana republic/authoritarian dictatorship, at least in spirit.
Like, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, puts people in prison for a 100 years for going to a protest like a duck, it might be a duck!
"Google app auto-downloads to Google phones, can't be uninstalled" has been the norm since day 1 and before.
What is newsworthy here? The fact that yet one more third-party (the White House) does it too?
Long-time de-Googled Pixel user here: while it's not for most of the people I know, for whom the barrier to install LineageOS / GrapheneOS / etc on their Android pocket computer is as yet too high, advertisement-company Google's nonsense can be uninstalled. It helps that I use my less-smart phone much less than back when these things were a novelty. Nice to be able to call and text, snap photos, take notes, visit some websites with JavaScript turned off, set alarms, and learn stuff with Anki, all with one high-tech slab that fits in my pocket. I also appreciate F-Droid and the contributions of so many people making useful software. Still, I'd trade computers and all the pollution from the underlying infrastructure for lower population density and the ability to regularly eat fish from local waterways without getting poisoned.
4th amendment probably
The 4th amendment doesn't apply to property of your employer. They can do pretty much whatever they want in terms of configuration, tracking, and auto-loading software on it.
It does when your employer is the US Government. Decades of overt corporate authoritarianism seems to have made some people forget about the very idea of individual rights.
Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42991887
Android devices have started installing hidden app that scans your images (mastodon.sdf.org)
another data heist brewing.
The usual long period between elections and inauguration is going to create a massive window for data exfiltration and the only people empowered to police it and any evidence that it occurrred are the people most likely to be stealing the data.
any android now can get pseudo-root via Shizuku
and I am betting Shizuku can disable that
however I am sure that will trigger firing so probably not worth it
1000 days, hang in there, this is nothing, imagine what's going down winter holidays 2028