Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

(With respect and apologies to the late, great Jimmie Rodgers)

I had a friend named Developer Jess
Who used to code for iOS
He thought he was the smartest guy in town
But I found out last Monday
His app got locked out Sunday
Compete with Apple and they'll take you down

He has to jailbreak now, he has to jailbreak now
I told him once or twice
That those app store rules aren't fair or nice
He has to jailbreak now

I really enjoyed chatting with @saronyitbarek and @joshpuetz for the #DevNews podcast this week. We talked about phone security, Freedom Phone, app store duopoly, and why I think modern phones are more like a nursing home than a walled garden. https://dev.to/devteam/activision-blizzard-discrimination-and-harassment-suit-the-incredible-gail-com-more-on-devnews-53j0

USB-C negotiation is like meeting a friend you don't know too well, and you awkwardly try to figure out whether to hug, shake hands, or fist bump, and just end up waving at each other.

@PINE64 Ugh, so sorry to hear that. If hardware wasn't already hard enough right now, the current state of shipping makes it a nightmare.

@yaelwrites Welcome back!

Razor update: this Stahly is now my favorite razor even over my vintage Fat Boy and my unbranded German travel razor. Consistently smooth shaves every time.

Imagine if you could file a digital restraining order against tech companies. If a creepy person follows you any time you leave your house, looks through your mail, and watches you from the street whenever you're at home, you can legally make them stop. Why not companies?

"The Federal Trade Commission unanimously voted Wednesday to pursue policies that will make it easier for people to repair their own things." https://www.vice.com/en/article/k78xbn/ftc-formally-adopts-right-to-repair-platform

@karmanyaahm My favorite is the classic "what metadata can tell you" example of: woman gets call from her doctor, then immediately calls her mother, then calls an abortion clinic.

@ajmartinez Yeah, "It turns out this anonymized phone identifier at your home all night every night and during the work week it's at your place of work all day. I wonder if it's you."

@tfb One problem is that even if you explicitly disable location services, iPhones and Android still phone home. When the OS is built around data collection, it's hard to turn it off. https://puri.sm/posts/snitching-on-phones-that-snitch-on-you/

"Anonymized" location data, isn't. Catholic priest resigns after legally-obtained Grindr app data from a broker correlated location data with his and relatives' homes, his place of work, and gay bars. #privacy https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/07/catholic-priest-quits-after-anonymized-data-revealed-alleged-use-of-grindr/

I dislike when companies capitalize on incidents, so I usually publish my thoughts months later to avoid even the appearance. But folks asked us how @purism products fare against a Pegasus-like attack so I wrote about our overall spyware defense. https://puri.sm/posts/defending-against-spyware-like-pegasus/

If you want to support an musician, buy their album and go to their shows. If you want to support a writer, buy their book. Speaking from personal experience, subscription services that let you use content w/o buying it (like streaming), rips off creators. https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/21/07/18/1922249/music-streaming-inquiry-finds-pitiful-returns-for-performers

@jfred For instance, my initial knee-jerk response years ago was to be against biometric auth as a sole unlock factor for phones, but I realized that for many folks PIN or pattern unlock wasn't something they'd actually use. Without biometrics they would opt for no unlock auth at all.

@jfred Thanks for elaborating on how it's used in this particular case. In person attacks do seem plausible when you are talking about auth for a local login service. But just like you mention, a *lot* depends on individuals and their particular threats. That's why all the nuance and particulars can't be distilled on social media down to "don't do this" or "always do this."