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Okay, if we accept that landlines are thing of the past and cellular service is the phone alternative then we pretty much accept the smartphone is involved. There do remain legitimate reasons to have one despite all of the privacy-destroying negatives.

So here is an alternative which would maintain the modern phone system, maintain the useful aspects (2-Factor Authentication apps, mobile banking deposits, etc...), yet stop the abuse of privacy and roadblock future (maybe near term) Orwellian abuses, digital vaccine passport apps coming first in mind.

Leave the smartphone on the desk at home. It becomes the new landline. Text messages and voicemail become the new answering machine.

Could we start a movement to this effect? Yes, there are so many conveniences afforded now such as navigation and whatnot but I clearly remember living just fine before cell phones existed.

What does Poal think?

Okay, if we accept that landlines are thing of the past and cellular service is the phone alternative then we pretty much accept the smartphone is involved. There do remain legitimate reasons to have one despite all of the privacy-destroying negatives. So here is an alternative which would maintain the modern phone system, maintain the useful aspects (2-Factor Authentication apps, mobile banking deposits, etc...), yet stop the abuse of privacy and roadblock future (maybe near term) Orwellian abuses, digital vaccine passport apps coming first in mind. Leave the smartphone on the desk at home. It becomes the new landline. Text messages and voicemail become the new answering machine. Could we start a movement to this effect? Yes, there are so many conveniences afforded now such as navigation and whatnot but I clearly remember living just fine before cell phones existed. What does Poal think?

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[–] • 1 pt

They’ll be able to track you by your car in the longterm, many ppl are already trackable by vehicle.

[–] • 0 pt

Had this conversation with a friend a few days ago. My wife's Tahoe has Wi-Fi so there's already data uplink for God knows what kind of instrumentation. It's got a mic in it to make OnStar work, so there is provision right there for audio monitoring. It also has voice command. The average person fails to grasp that the way all of those technologies recognize a command, like Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa, etc..., Is that they MUST listen all the time to everything.

So new tracking and reporting to requirements packed into this Biden infrastructure bill probably bring nothing new to the table.

Anyone have a '70 Mach One you'd like to part with real cheap?

[–] • 1 pt

65 mercury....88 toy pickup.

[–] • 0 pt

I wish I could give more than one upvote.

[–] • 1 pt

They're putting cellular radios in a lot of cars now that collect "telemetry" even if you never activate it. The manufacturers claim it's so you can have a WiFi hotspot in your car, but read the fine print.