• doctortofu@reddthat.com
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        1 year ago

        Nooooo, but it’s all for your security and convenience, see? They know better than you when to turn your device on or off, don’t you worry your pretty little head about it one bit! Plus, I bet it also protects the children and prevents terrorism too! Why would you turn your device off, are you like a terrorist pedophile or something? /s

  • LWD@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    That’s great.

    I like a phone that’s able to just run little Bluetooth beacons when it’s powered off. Especially ones that can’t be disabled except by disassembling it.

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      I’ll take it. I’d rather not lose my phone above it pinging the Bluetooth while powered off, and they sell Faraday cage boxes for pretty cheap if I have reason to not want any signal coming or going to my cell phone, which I would trust more than any phone pre android 15 with, if I want to be paranoid about it. So even now I don’t trust that my phone being off means it couldn’t be located. None of the hardware in my phone is open source.

      • LWD@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I don’t like how privacy is becoming more of a binary. If the choices really become “either let the phone turn into a beacon or stuff it in a Faraday bag” then that’s one hell of a choice isn’t it?

        And hypothetically, if phones were always capable of doing this to some degree and we just weren’t informed somehow, then they’re finally rolling that functionality out because it’s become culturally normalized. Which frightens me more, frankly.

        • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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          1 year ago

          Bro, how many years you been seeing movies and TV shows where they stomping on phones and pulling batteries an trashing them “so they aren’t tracked”. They do it in the movies because that public perception has been there for ages. True or not.

      • Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I would want the Faraday cage to have a beacon on it, so that I could find my phone even if I lost it while it was in its Faraday cage. Logical.

      • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 year ago

        I wouldn’t trust my current phone even with a custom rom. Some stuff could be at the hardware level. You want to know your phone can’t be found for sure, buy a little Faraday cage box for like $15 online and then test it to make sure it works.

    • sunstoned@lemmus.org
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      11 months ago

      I wish pinephone pro’s weren’t booty. Hardware switches to cut power to everything from the WiFi module to the camera sounds pretty hot in light of this.

  • alphafalcon@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    That feature is right on the border between real neat tech and deeply unsettling.

    “Hey, my phone uses its last few electrons to turn into a bluetooth beacon to stay findable” sounds like sci-fi “reserve power emergency mode”

    “I can’t turn off the locator chip in a device that holds half my life and memories” is just dystopian.

    I’m wondering if there would be a way to keep it useful while minimizing impact for people who stay off the grid. A hardware switch would probably be a good start but they won’t fly with current all-touch designs.

    • Bitrot@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 year ago

      It will be seen how they implement it, but since Google is creating their own version of the Find My network, it will likely be tied to activating that. If it’s anything like the way the iPhone does it, disabling Find My would turn it off, they might (should) also provide the option to turn it off when powering down your phone.

    • smeg@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      minimizing impact for people who stay off the grid

      People who stay off the grid don’t have smartphones!

      As much as we enthusiasts like to try and have our cake and eat it too, the only way to really be completely private/secure/anonymous is to be completely disconnected. Threat models and compromises and all that.

  • bier@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 year ago

    Great we finaly get the features that the NSA has been saying is “classified” Big step for open spying for everyone

  • iturnedintoanewt@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    How about letting damn alarms to run even when the phone is turned off? We lost this ancient feature moving away from dumb phones.

    • ky56@aussie.zone
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      1 year ago

      You know what’s funny. I was investigating the hardware datasheets for the PinePhone and looking at the RTC module and just like PC RTC chips there is an option to trigger an interrupt/power on when a certain time is met. That means that there appears to be no reason this couldn’t be a current feature on probably all modern smartphones. Just lack of software support.

      • iturnedintoanewt@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        That’s good to know! Maybe the open source community can work something out. Google certainly won’t bother with what’s in essence the most purely offline functionality. It’s not in their interest to have phones offline (case in point, the update mentioned here).

    • qdJzXuisAndVQb2@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      But how otherwise to convince people to always leave their surveillance devices phones switched on?! I had a oneplus 3t that would wake itself for alarms, shame it broke eventually.

  • mctoasterson@reddthat.com
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    1 year ago

    More of Google copying Apples worst features. Apple iPhones that are “off” simply become Airtags. This is functionality that works for big tech and not the end user. We need to push back on this shit.

      • mctoasterson@reddthat.com
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        1 year ago

        Patronize alternative products and services. The growth of GrapheneOS, Calyx, and other alternative phone operating systems is significant and shows there is a market. Hopefully privacy respecting hardware can follow.

    • goatmeal@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      Apparently they’d have to go out of their way to support it (Bluetooth has to be configured and enabled) so it will not be implemented

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    1 year ago

    The feature could launch with the Pixel 9 and expand to older phones — just don’t hold your breath for Pixel Fold support

    Trying to force the graphene crowd to the near $2000 option, eh Goog?

    Hopefully software will take care of it.