If your company uses an app officially, the legal department must have analyzed the Terms of Service. It must address GDPR compliance in the text. (I’m [somewhat remotely] involved with those tasks at my workplace.) Maybe it’s a lie, but it’s in the contract so they must be careful. I expect that big companies (e.g. Microsoft) are compliant, so the spying interfaces are only available to customers outside the EU.
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I’d agree with that. If an employer wants to provide me with a work device with service paid for by them for me to use on the clock while I’m being paid, that’s fine. If the boss wants to watch me do my job he’s paying me to do, that’s his choice. I can leave it at work or safely stored in my freezer when I’m off the job. But I wouldn’t let a company demand that I provide my own tools and then install their own stuff on it, using my data, my storage, my personal privacy. If it came to that, I’d show up with the flip phone.
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It’s getting harder to find a physical Bank of America branch in the USA, too . . . It’s a bit ironic, since they were the bank that introduced the concept of local branches in this country rather than forcing customers to travel to the center of town to their impressive edifice like their competitors.
Yes, it’s getting to be like that everywhere. My mother faces the issue in Northern Alberta, Canada at the moment. My aim is to eventually have no banking at all. Hoard cash. Under my pillow 
When cash disapears, I guess I’ll become a thief.
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I have thoughts of installing instagram on my sailfishos but there is just no way to contain this evil beast. Once installed, it will attempt to corrupt and steal as much information as possible.
Nice webpages en guides! Good work!
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One thing that still surprises me about FOSS users is their inability to take action. If your bank doesn’t support your rights toward freedom of choice and privacy, move your online banking to one that does. You don’t necessarily have to close the account if you are getting a good interest rate on your savings or some other incentive, just open a new account with a FOSS friendly bank and transfer money across from it as and when required.
I’m an old skool techie and some times the old ways are simpler and easier and by voting with your feet (as it used to be called), you are supporting businesses and developers that support the FOSS community. If your bank or anyone else for that matter is telling you that you have to visit the big G spyware store to get their app just tell them where to get off!
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Unfortunately, I also tend to believe the same.
And even if you take care to purchase license as anonymously as possible, then use a brand new, clean and anonymous e-mail for Jolla account, the fact that you will insert your registered SIM card in that tray is enough to bind the device with your real ID.
Anonymity, in general, is really hard to achieve, requires time, patience, knowledge, and a lot of effort and care. Oh, and full restraint on anything that has to do with social media, which is impossible for the vast majority of mobile phone users.
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The problem, at least as I see it, is that 99,9% of tech users believe that their digital life is perfectly safe as-is, in the hands of Big Tech “secure” environment, and don’t care about FOSS (and in many cases don’t even know wtf FOSS is).
E.g., even if all of us SFOS users move to a FOSS friendly bank (mine still is), we are not enough to cause some rumble and force any change to the banking field.
The same is happening to Greece as well. They keep 1 physical bank branch out of 10, concentrating customer files to this 1 branch, while at the same time firing employees, making your physical interaction with the bank almost impossible, while at the same time advertising how easy your life is with the new improved e-banking system powered by AI.
Nowadays, it is difficult even to talk to a physical person/employee on the phone. Waiting time (if you manage to exit the infinite recorded message menu) could be 20+ minutes.
I wouldn’t go as far as saying 99.9%. I have several phones not all SFOS I admit. Current Daily driver fleet is….. SFOS Sony XA2, Droidian Sony Xperia 1 and an iode Xperia 10 iv along with a very busy SD Card. So I consider myself a FOSS user irrespective of as to whether I’m packing native linux or android custom ROM. They all have their strong points and weaker points it has to be said, but the one mission they all have in common is to gather more users irrespective of which flavour linux takes your preference. Personally I would like to see the FOSS community as a whole work together in a more pro-active way to bring in more businesses and developers to produce the ‘missing’ FOSS app’s the community is so desperate for.
Surely when you look at the FOSS community as a whole there must be some great business opportunities just waiting to be had for those that get in first.