The last few days have really shown me how the process of flying, staying at a hotel, starting new employment, etc., has become so inseparable from proprietary smartphone-based spyware that it almost doesn't even seem worth it.
I'm on a work trip and initially I was pleased that American Airlines let me board the plane without their app - I was able to generate a code and get a paper boarding pass. However, the TSA now takes a photo of you and uses AI to determine if you are the person in your ID photo, which is just dystopian. Technically, a sign told me, I was able to opt out of this. However, I didn't even see this sign until after the TSA agent took my picture.
Then, once at my new employer's main office, I was instructed to install a proprietary two-factor authentication app I must use simply to log in to my work computer. I run a custom OS on my smartphone and there was no guarantee it would work. It does, but hell, what if I didn't even have a smartphone? What then?
It seems the answer is that without a smartphone, I would be simply barred from employment, public transit, concerts, and well... society.
That's not even to mention the fact that I can't use Uber or Lyft on my phone and these two companies have completely destroyed all other forms of taxis.
What a mess.
I got rid of my smartphone several years ago and haven't looked back. Whenever possible, I use SMS-based 2FA on my dumbphone (a LightPhone II). When an authenticator app is required, I just use KeePassXC on my GNU/Linux desktop computer. This is an open source password manager that also has the ability to generate the time-based passcodes associated with proprietary 2FA programs like Google or Microsoft Authenticator. Give it a try and see if it meets your needs. Good luck and happy hacking!
things like this
are the reason why
i have begun to detest tech
even despite altruistic uses
i don't think the benefits
outweigh the consequences
anymore
lately i feel like
the computing revolution
was a huge mistake
for humanity
Well, if i would not have played Shadowrun in the 90s i would be surprised... there was the idea of a SIN, a System Identification Number, without this you simply didn't exist for the state, the corporations and everyone else. It seems, the SIN has arrived, in form of the smartphone and the ID we have on the networks of the various proprietary providers like google...
Perhaps the only defense is complete non-compliance...
There was an even more egregious example I encountered on my way home from this trip. The server at the airport TGI Friday's I ate lunch at simply refused to take any form of payment directly. I had to scan a QR code printed on the table.
I share the two-factor app problem. Currently, I use the 2FA app on an old Samsung Galaxy S8 I keep in my desk drawer, which contains nothing but the 2FA app and Samsung/Google bloatware. It works as long as both devices have an Internet connection.
The problem with this, of course, is that now I have two smartphones, when I want to exist in a state where I require zero smartphones. It didn't solve the problem of needing the 2FA app or a smartphone, just the problem of me not wanting the 2FA app to be on my daily driver phone.
"You don't exist without a smartphone" is definitely a pervasive problem. So is "it's not a violation of your rights if we do it with an app."
It might be a warning sign in the future. In the future, way to talk In real life thrown out of the window. Not to mind, that AI bots remove the last glimpses of human communication. All it takes now is the government to follow suit. Then we will have at best, a Farenhight 451 situation. At worst we will have a 1984, situation.
Let’s hope we can change it for the better.