
Why is there no privacy respecting solution for age verification? Like the government giving you some sort of token that says you’re over 18 and that’s it?
This is what happens when your phone is no longer YOUR phone
It’s literally a government mandate, they can’t not do it without leaving the market
And of all the big names, I trust Apple the most to not give my shit to The Man
Open source software like GrapheneOS is the only software you should ever trust to not be government spyware.
I’ve been on GrapheneOS for years now, and I still don’t trust anyone ‘not to be government spyware’. I believe they are not bending to governments right now, but the way this is going, it wouldn’t surprise me if they end up being coerced to introduce backdoor at some point. I’m not saying that the GOS team would willingly do something like that, I am saying that, in this time we’re living in, this is not outside the realm of possibility.
Im preparing to, if necessary, move my personal life entirely out of the reach of the internet eventually, because at the speed these legislation and laws are being passed, anything connected will be a straight shot into our deepest thoughts.
Meanwhile, I’ll remain on GrapheneOS, CachyOS and ProxMox as long as they can be kept private.
if a phone is tied to a svc acct like a telco provider- age verification should be automatic as THAT provider cannot open an acct for a child.
The UK government is so god damn dumb.
Another reason sideloading is important.
Sideloading isn’t a real term - there is only loading a better OS than whatever spy-tech google is offering.
You can’t “sideload” hardware you own - you just install whatever software you like and prefer
I’ve been using the term side loading since the late 90s/early 2000s for installing software or files to a device via a transfer cable. And by the time Android came along, the early app development community was using the term to push the app to your device via ADB. And from there it’s expanded from transfer cable push to download and install from an unmanaged 3rd party source on a mobile computing device.
So the term has existed in some form throughout the tech/power user community before modern mobile computing. Now did Apple and Google usurp the term? Ehhh, possibly? I’ve yet to encounter somebody that uses sideloading to mean something negative, but I’m sure there is a group out there that does. I’m not convinced that group is large enough for me to stop using language I started using nearly 30 years ago to mean something specific. “Why use more, less precise, words when this single term says it already?”
Yea sorry but I think this misses the point entirely. No one is arguing etymology, nor does the word carry a negative connotation inherently
The issue is that using the term sideloading makes it seem like you’re doing something other than “installing software,” which is truly without editorialization what is happening. Referring to it as “sideloading” is seen widely as editorialization.
So fighting against this new understanding of the term is either pedantry for the sake of it, or you have some sort of stake in Google perhaps? Either way the worst case scenario is people use a word you don’t agree with - but the upside is someone might realize they’re being lied to when told they don’t own their hardware and the decisions associated
So fighting against this new understanding of the term is either pedantry for the sake of it, or you have some sort of stake in Google perhaps?
Great use of a bad reason fallacy with a touch of ad hominem in an attempt to discredit.
Your claim is that the term has been used to mean something negative. You present no evidence to back this up other than your feelings.
I don’t discredit that major corporations do evil shit.
However, I presented you with the experience I’ve had with the term dating back nearly 30 years where I, and the people I talked tech with, was sideloading files onto our PDA and Rio MP3 players.
The term started out as a technical distinction in the circles I ran in (Detroit area) back then.
Aside from your feelings on the term, I see no valid justification to stop using it when I’m trying to clearly communicate something. I work in tech (and no, it’s not Google or Apple. Fuck publicly traded companies) as a lead on the platform support group, and I need to be able to clearly communicate with my peers and reports. Sideload is a widely recognized term in the spaces I have worked in.
I’m not going to stop using a precise technical term because some internet strangers have unfounded negative feelings about the possible marketing connotations.
Present me with evidence that it actually means what you’re saying and maybe I’ll consider working on making the language change. Just like I’ve done with actually real problematic industry terms (master/slave, black/white lists. Etc).





