As you may have seen, #Apple is about to start scanning files on #iPhones for illegal material (not just in #iCloud but on your phone). At the same time, univ. researchers who developed a similar scanning system are warning against its use:

https://www.macrumors.com/2021/08/20/university-researchers-csam-dangerous

Tl:dr - it's way, way too easy to swap out what is being scanned for, this particular slope is far too slippery. Once you search for one thing, it's trivial to scan for pretty much anything else.

So, what's the alternative?

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Google Android is even worse for privacy, as it's controlled by Google whose entire business model is built around invading privacy.

However, there are many projects right here on the Fediverse attempting to create more privacy-friendly alternatives. It would be great if we could support them.

Here's a short thread going through some of the ones you can follow:

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➡️ @PINE64 & @pine64tilvids - Creators of the PinePhone, a low price Linux smartphone that lets you install whichever distro you prefer

➡️ @e_mydata - Develops a downloadable de-googlised version of Android, and sells de-googlised Android smartphones

➡️ @fdroidorg - FOSS alternative to Google Play, privacy-friendly app store for Android phones

➡️ @microg - Developing free open source alternatives to Google's proprietary Android services, allows freer versions of Android to be made

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