6 ms·

I would like for it to be illegal for apps to ask for address-book permission and similar. Your name, phone number, address, email and other details, perfectly

I would like for it to be illegal for apps to ask for address-book permission and similar. Your name, phone number, address, email and other details, perfectly packaged together, should not be free for any random contact to give out. The social contract was for only that contact to have the information. Privacy becomes impossible otherwise. We need resistance to systems/services/initiatives that enable and encourage people to leak each other's data to third parties.

mirimir 7y ago
That's just one reason why I don't use smartphones.
- hans1729 7y ago
  That doesn't stop others from saving your number/email (probably bundled under the same contact) next to your name - so long as you have a number. That, and the classic security/usability-tradeoff, render your implied suggestion somewhat obsolete, no? Sorry if I'm missing something.
  - mirimir 7y ago
    True. But at least I'm not tracked so readily. Also, I don't care so much about my meatspace name and email. There's absolutely nothing interesting about me in meatspace. I'm not sure what I'd do if I actually needed a smartphone. Maybe I'd go with a PinePhone, with cellular and WiFi turned off, and external routers. Hopefully someone will come out with small routers. But on the other hand, maybe that would attract too much attention. So perhaps a basic smartphone would be better.
    - dstryr 7y ago
      Small routers exist. Take for example this battery powered GL-MiFi [1] LTE router. Comes embededded with OpenWRT so your LTE connection can utilize Wireguard, Shadowsocks, OpenVPN, etc. Would pair well with something like the PinePhone. [1] https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-mifi/ https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-mifi/
      - boring_twenties 7y ago
        Hm. That looks cool as fuck. Do you happen to know if it needs to be specially provisioned with e.g. AT&T, or can one simply take the LTE sim card out of their phone and stick it into one of these?
  - kxrm 7y ago
    You presume that telecom companies are not selling your information and haven't been for decades? I can assure you that in the US AT&T sells it's customer information. They were doing this to land line customers 20 years ago or more.
    - hans1729 7y ago
      That wasn't the point of this thread (at all, mind me). Op said that ones contacts shouldn't be allowed to share informations about you via perms on their address-book, as this was never part of the social contract you made with them when giving them your number. Someone then argued "thats why I don't have smartphone", to which I responded that not having a smartphone doesn't affect the aforementioned conflict. So unless I'm missing something here, you just went entirely off topic. Regardless: I'm european, so I'm somewhat confident that my ISP doesn't sell my data due to GDPR; Americas lack of consumer protection isn't really my business, nor should it be deemed 'the standard', as it isn't just that.
      - kxrm 7y ago
        Quite right, forgive me. I meant to comment to the non-smartphone user. Having a phone at all (at least in the US) means your details are shared.
      - mirimir 7y ago
        OK, mea culpa. It was basically an emotional response to the idea. I suppose that at least, not having a smartphone, I'm not sharing stuff about others. Except for the number, which is already ~widely known. But I wasn't thinking that when I wrote the comment.

mirimir 7y ago

That's just one reason why I don't use smartphones.

hans1729 7y ago
That doesn't stop others from saving your number/email (probably bundled under the same contact) next to your name - so long as you have a number. That, and the classic security/usability-tradeoff, render your implied suggestion somewhat obsolete, no? Sorry if I'm missing something.
- mirimir 7y ago
  True. But at least I'm not tracked so readily. Also, I don't care so much about my meatspace name and email. There's absolutely nothing interesting about me in meatspace. I'm not sure what I'd do if I actually needed a smartphone. Maybe I'd go with a PinePhone, with cellular and WiFi turned off, and external routers. Hopefully someone will come out with small routers. But on the other hand, maybe that would attract too much attention. So perhaps a basic smartphone would be better.
  - dstryr 7y ago
    Small routers exist. Take for example this battery powered GL-MiFi [1] LTE router. Comes embededded with OpenWRT so your LTE connection can utilize Wireguard, Shadowsocks, OpenVPN, etc. Would pair well with something like the PinePhone. [1] https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-mifi/ https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-mifi/
    - boring_twenties 7y ago
      Hm. That looks cool as fuck. Do you happen to know if it needs to be specially provisioned with e.g. AT&T, or can one simply take the LTE sim card out of their phone and stick it into one of these?
- kxrm 7y ago
  You presume that telecom companies are not selling your information and haven't been for decades? I can assure you that in the US AT&T sells it's customer information. They were doing this to land line customers 20 years ago or more.
  - hans1729 7y ago
    That wasn't the point of this thread (at all, mind me). Op said that ones contacts shouldn't be allowed to share informations about you via perms on their address-book, as this was never part of the social contract you made with them when giving them your number. Someone then argued "thats why I don't have smartphone", to which I responded that not having a smartphone doesn't affect the aforementioned conflict. So unless I'm missing something here, you just went entirely off topic. Regardless: I'm european, so I'm somewhat confident that my ISP doesn't sell my data due to GDPR; Americas lack of consumer protection isn't really my business, nor should it be deemed 'the standard', as it isn't just that.
    - kxrm 7y ago
      Quite right, forgive me. I meant to comment to the non-smartphone user. Having a phone at all (at least in the US) means your details are shared.
    - mirimir 7y ago
      OK, mea culpa. It was basically an emotional response to the idea. I suppose that at least, not having a smartphone, I'm not sharing stuff about others. Except for the number, which is already ~widely known. But I wasn't thinking that when I wrote the comment.