Should I throw my smartphone away and never buy a cellphone again?

I'm at a complete loss about what to do about my recent upgrade from a "dumbphone" to a "smartphone". The self-imposed surveillence capabilities of these devices is something I have followed for years prior to purchase. I do not have any social media account because of the total lack of privacy. I am aware there are other iprivacy issues beyond FB/G+ though...

I have had my new Windows 8 phone for a couple of days now, and there is little holding me back to just return it. Windows forces the user to sync contacts, calendar events, and documents to the cloud. There is no way to disable this. I find this "feature" a significant, disgusting, and evil invasion to my privacy. The only way to avoid this automatic syncing of private data to Microsoft's cloud is to not register a Microsoft account to the phone. This prevents any app downloads, free or paid. So basically one would have a $500 worthless and nearly crippled smartphone.

I am so close to just taking the phone back. And not get another phone. The whole NSA/police cellphone tracking, without warrants, is extrememly unsettling and creepy. Even brick and morter stores are starting to track shoppers with smartphones.

I hate cellphones, smartphones, ad companies, the major tech companies, and all the government spying on citizens.

Should I return the phone? Anyone here not using a cellphone? How would not having a phone impact my life?

 

For Android: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=348416

 

The term "dumbphone" is unfortunate. I have a regular cellphone and there is nothing "dumb" about it at all! It tells me if a call is from one of my contacts; I can set a 1-key push to dial contacts. Etc.

Only you can answer that.

I discarded my land line phone years ago and use just a cellphone. I would miss the convenience of having a phone with me always. I can run errands knowing that an expected call won't be missed.

A "smartphone" doesn't interest me because I have no need to be "always connected."

It boils down to what your personal needs are!


----
rich

 

Up to you. I simply gave up on the privacy for my phone. Maybe 2 years from now I will try some custom ROM. I still just like having the convenience of being always connected when Im out of the house and my current job requires me to use certain apps that I wouldn't be otherwise able to via a custom ROM. So it is a trade off.

 

There's no problem as long as none of your private lives leaks through your smartphone aka tracking device. We be normal

 

I would return it. A smart phone is supposed to be a good experience, not a problem.
I bought a $50 digital entry level "smart phone" from Tracfone. I don't make a ton of calls so I buy a 1 year 450 minute deal for $107. This particular phone gets you triple minutes for life, so that gives me a total of 1350 minutes. If I get low before the year is up I can buy additional minutes which are good for 3 months or I can sign up to have minutes added on a regular basis. Nobody is tracking me and I have most of the features of a "smart phone".

 

It´s up to you. You can always return to a "dumbphone" (personally i love my almost thirteen years old Nokia 3310), and buy a tablet for others things you might want...

 

Yeah but now you got 2 items to carry instead of one.

 

3310, in fact 3330, my second mobile phone and the first to use it on the internet. I was in high school. Man how the time past.

You remember me about those who complain about laptops being so heavy compared with tablets.

 

Me too, but that is not a good enough reason to give up on mobile phones or on technology in general. You should try to learn about the whole spying phenomenon and try to avoid it or impede it as much as possible, but without actually hiding yourself in a mountain or giving up technology.

 

FWIW, a quick search turned up this (https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...-between/388a68bf-ef23-4d10-9c4d-06f5326eb00c) which mentions "reset the phone, adjust primary account options" and "use a secondary account, adjust account options" approaches.

If you do care about privacy/security, there are various other things to watch out for especially when using a mobile device... location services you can't adequately control, device identifiers and advertising ID mechanisms you can't completely block apps from accessing, platform and/or app based phone home components that you can't disable, inadequate control over radios (WiFi, Bluetooth, ...) such that you can't prevent your phone from periodically sending out probes/inquiries/etc (that allow others to track you as you move around town, in malls, etc), whether app permissions are sufficiently fine grained to control apps the way you want, and so forth. Make sure you thoroughly research things before you find yourself locked into a phone for awhile.

Windows Phone 8 Privacy resources
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/how-to/wp8/basics/privacy-resources

Those two features you mention can be implemented entirely on the handset and without revealing contact name, etc information to another party. Whether they are or not is the question. We're approaching a "mandatory data theft, surveillance, cloud service enslavement" type world now.

 

I have a cellphone for emergencies mostly sitting in my car, pay by the minutes I use which comes to about 20 dollars a year. If I want to talk to friends or the boss, I wait till I am home and pick up that old fashion land line phone or talk in person.
I miss the pay phones.

 

Strong words. I agree with EVERYTHING youve said.... so... don't you think you've answered your own question?

If you want your privacy then if it was me I would throw your smartphone away/take it back if you can, and while you're at it, be VERY suspicious of anything else with the word "smart" in it. I have successfully thwarted recent efforts from the PTB (powers that be) to install a smart meter (yet another spy device). In my country we've not long gone digital. We have decided they can keep their digital TVs which is primarily a conditioning tool with all the tripe, and propaganda and lies.

Agree, the only thing is I'd change "approaching" for "in".

I have an ancient pay 20$ per year phone and only use it for emergencies or on the occasional time I NEED to be contacted. The thing is, I could easily ditch it if I felt it crossed the line. What did people do 50 odd years ago. You can get covers so they can't be tracked or you can take the battery out.

With all this "wonderful" tech on us these days, oh yes they sure dazzle us with features and fun, but at what cost really? They call this progress, when in reality that "progress" has a dark nasty side.

 

Why is everybody so passive about freedom?

 

They've never had to fight for it.

 

sure they are - the cell company and likely the govt is compiling location data on you whenever your phone pings the cell tower. maybe your provider even sells the data on you for a few cents to other companies that will correlate this data with your web surfing and add to the profile they already have on you etc etc.

 

Excellent answer!

 

It's not like we have a shortage of reasons and there's plenty who've known about the hideous loss of freedoms long before whistleblowers like Snowden. Perhaps the passivity is because people are too lazy to stop being lazy. And why are they lazy? Coz theyre conditioned to being lazy (one way or another). Ripe candidates for more conditioning. In other words a downward spiral.

 

They don't know what it is.

 

That tends to happen when you ignore something for long enough.