this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2025
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First of all: writing this from my iPhone. I’ve been on various android phones, including flashed to Sailfish and alternative ROMs, and I kinda hate being on an iPhone now. But - it works.
Look at the incentives of Google and Apple. Google sells ads. That’s it. Any operation at Google other than that is just a small side hustle. Apple sells hardware and 30% commission on apps/media. Apple’s incentives to fuck over the privacy of individuals is far smaller than Google’s incentives. That’s it.
Let’s go through the list:
Apple are anti-consumer assholes with a clear objective of creating lock-in under the guise of ”privacy” and ”security”, and they really want to force people into buying more hardware. Agreed. But they are the only major phone vendor that doesn’t have incentives to actively screw you over.
Is a flashed ROM ”better” for ”privacy”? Probably. Should you get your mother an iPhone? Yes.
From the security standpoint and the patching standpoint, you are 100% straight on accurate.
Unfortunately, Apple Microsoft and Google all sell ads. They are also all working on training AI with your data.
The upside is, as far as ad companies go, they're not just handing over the data that "bleachedbluejeans23@apple.com likes red squirrels to be vendors" They sell client code where the client pulls the ads directly from apple's platform.
They're all collecting dossiers on you. They have all identified you and their systems with whatever emails, payment cards, what have you that you use on their systems. And they have a database with all of your intimate desires and wishes and wants and how much money you make.
When Google started doing this, they threw up the don't be evil banner. You can't just give all this information to a company and then trust them not to use it forever.
So where can my mother buy this excellent non-tracking phone?
She can’t. No one sells it.
Of course everyone is collecting a shitton of data. Out of the two (realistic) alternatives we have today, Apple has, by far, a better track record. Still bad, but they have far fewer incentives to be shitty than Google. Googles only incentive is to be shitty and sell ads. Pick your poison.
There's always a flip phone, they're coming back I hear.
Google had a better track record till then didn't.
Apple and google are in the same market, selling the same stuff, both selling ads. Google's hardware being somewhat cheaper hardly makes their ads a more significant incentive.
Both Tim and Pinchai paid Donald Trump money to attend his inauguration and lick his ass on a daily basis. They both have one very big incentive to invade their user's privacy: American fascism.
Yes. It would be nice if the Americans got their shit together.
Meanwhile, what phone should my mother buy in a store?
Someone else already said it. Old style flip phone. Can text and make calls; can't serve ads or collect any more data than your contact list.
Yeah, but my mom can’t do banking on a flip phone.
This is the issue. Everything sucks. Don’t complain that people make a determination to take the least fucky normal option instead of flashing privacy ROM of the week onto an old Nokia N95. Be happy they thought about privacy it at all.
You can’t participate in normal society without a smartphone. There are two options for normal people. Pick the least shitty one.
You don't need a phone to do banking.
Don't be facetious. Granny has a landline for calling - this is about a phone as we mean it today; a smartphone if you insist. Or how else is granny going to operate Netflix or whatever other service is only convenient on phones where they are?
You don't need a phone for any of that.
Do you actually not know of any services that are only convenient with a smartphone or are you just being annoying?
Don't fall for Apple PR, they sell you out like everyone else does: https://ads.apple.com/
Of course they do.
But they have recurring revenue streams other than just ads, unlike the Android vendors. Meaning - they probably won’t fuck me over as hard as Google.
Edit: also, note that the ads they sell via your link are on their own platform, i.e. within their own ecosystem. The revenue here is most likely peanuts compared to the AppStore commissions.
Alternatively, get your mother an android phone and chuck /e/OS on it and tell her it's an iPhone. She won't know.
Try it. I dare you. And I want you to succeed.
People have been saying this about linux for the past two decades. Gamers are only now looking at moving over to Linux, after Valve invested a shitton of money into compatibility and usability, fixing the edge cases. And that’s the small subset of people who actively care about their computer. Normal people moving to Linux won’t happen the next few years.
Preserving usability while locking down a system is a really fucking hard problem, especially when you need to do it for normal people and not only us nerds. And you really need the normal people there in order to inject funding.
Ever used /e/OS? I've managed to fool iPhone users into thinking I've got a custom iPhone build lol. No I'm not kidding.
Linux Phone with waydroid is the way
Probably excellent. Can my mother buy it over the shelf, in a store?
If not, what’s the best alternative currently available over the shelf, in a physical brick and mortar store, for my mother?
Mothers use iPhones anyways. For now iPhone might be okay but someday it will start to suck so hard that you can't stand using it, just like what's happening to Windows. That's why we need to consider start using Linux phones so your mother can ditch iPhone for it.