ChatGPT and iPhone - privacy alternatives

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Hey folks,

So in the news, Elon Musk has said that if Apple go ahead with a controversial technology merger with IPhone and ChatGPT, then he’ll ban all Apple devices from all his premises and facilities due to privacy concerns. I tend to agree with him.

I’ve always loved Apple products due to the phones offering better privacy for users - I mean I have a lot of problems with my ASD that I’m constantly working through - and I like my struggle to be private for the most part, that’s why I like iPhone.

My question is, if the chatGPT and iPhone merger go ahead, what would be my best bet for a smart phone that has excellent security and privacy? Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Hey all, maybe I’m the only one that cares about such things, but in case anyone sees this in the future and wonders the same thing: I’ve accidentally answered my own question

The Australian “Silicon Chip” magazine, (and electronics magazine) June 2024 issue - has a full article on smartphone privacy, and what to do about it including how to rootkit a Google phone or the best privacy phones to buy. It’s very good.

It'd be nice if an open source alternative to Android and iOS existed.

There are a few. There are some linux-based OS for phones and some open source ones which are based on Android but without the google services.

Of course they're all a pita to install and don't offer such a seamless ux as Android/iOS.

I used to use LineageOS on my old phones/tablets when the manufacturers stopped releasing updates.

If you really think your internet usage or iPhone usage has been private up until now you are mistaken. If you walk down the streets of New York someone saw you. If you drove your car you have been photographed and face recognition can be used. If you use a browser someone knows where you went and what you did. Did you buy something? The vendor sold the customer information which they own.

So: if you want privacy go off grid. Air gap your home network. Stay away from windows. Teach yourself linux and encryption. Build a bunker in your basement. Grow your own food indoors with artificial light, steal electricity from your neighbors to hide your electrical consumption. Or move to a remote location where you can generate your own power with wind and solar and hydro (but then the satellites will see what you are doing). Watch Terminator 2 and imitate the young woman protagonist.

Or simply acclimate your self to the new normal. If someone REALLY wants to know what you are doing they will know. So only do things you are ok with people knowing. Assume privacy is a myth. Assume you are part of a global village where everyone knows what everyone else is up to, where power really is not equally distributed because that is how things really are and have been for a while.

I was working in internet security when Snowden first blew the whistle. Sent me down a paranoid spiral for... years. Ah who am I kidding, it never fully ended...

The problem is, you can do everything 100% perfectly and it will make no difference.
You could go get a pixel phone, rip out android, and replace it with grapheneOS for example. I did this. The experience is not great and you need to be dedicated. But then everyone around you is still using apple/android devices which are giving away voice, visual, and gps data. And even if they were not, you can't fully trust graphene, nor the hardware itself. There are a million other factors... Nobody is 100% private online.

As far as ChatGPT... well if you want a cloud service, you have no privacy. Period. It is running on someone else's computer, passing through who-knows-how-many other points between you and the server.

I host my own on my PC, which I guess I could turn into a server so I could access it from my phone... But after typing a long excited answer about how to do that, I realize that is definitely not what you meant.

For privacy reasons, some people remove the SIM card from their cell phones and use them as internet phones whenever and wherever they have wifi.

When someone tells me that they are pro-privacy, I usually don't take them seriously if they can't be bothered to encrypt and digitally sign e-mail messages. It's not difficult. Especially today. There are a number of free and paid e-mail providers that make PGP easy. These include ProtonMail, Mailfence, and Vivaldi.

If you really want privacy, you probably need to scrub yourself from the Internet. Start using aliases whenever possible. And different e-mail addresses for different senders.

Make it hard for anyone to connect anything you say or do on the Internet to you.

And avoid Facebook. I have a Facebook account under an alias with a different age than mine and a different hometown for the purpose of checking out the lunch special at nearby restaurants and I'm shocked by how many of my relatives they suggest for "Page Suggestions".