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Whenever people ask about ways to make their smartphones more private or which is the most privacy-respecting phone to get, there's always a few people confidently asserting "all smartphones are spy tools, get a dumbphone with no apps if you want to be private". Which is ridiculous advice for a few reasons

  • Dumbphones usually run either proprietary operating systems or outdated forks of Android. They're almost never encrypted. They rarely get security updates. They're a lot more vulnerable than even a regular Android phone

  • With dumbphones, you're usually limited to regular phone calls or SMS/MMS messaging. These are ancient communication standards with zero built-in privacy. Your ISP can read any text message you send and view metadata logs of any phone calls you make. In lots of places (like Australia where I live) ISPs are actually required to keep logs of your messages and phone calls

With even a regular Android phone you at least have access to encrypted messaging apps like Signal or Session so your conversations aren't fair game for anyone who wants to read them. Of course there are better options. iOS (not perfect but better than most bloatware-filled Android devices) and a pixel with GrapheneOS (probably the best imo) are much better options; but virtually anything out there is going to be better for privacy than a dumbphone

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[-] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 21 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

If you're willing to live with a dumb phone, you're willing to live with a Linux phone (Or an open ROM without Google apps). AFAIK they can call and text just fine without installing anything else so any Linux apps you like are just a bonus.

[-] DupaCycki@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Good point. Linux phones, even in their current state, might be a good middle ground for people with low needs.

Although there's two things I'd mostly be worried about.

  1. Battery life. Smartphones, including Linux ones, aren't exactly known for amazing battery life. A dumb phone would likely last several times longer on a single charge.
  2. Physical durability. Even after all those years of structural improvements, smartphones remain fairly fragile. Usually I use high durability cases with my smartphones (ideally Otterbox Defender), though I don't think anything similar is even available for any Linux phones. And of course, we all know dumb phones are generally durable enough.
[-] Zerush@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I remember the need to reload my old Nokia brick sometimes and that it had a better reception strengh than my current smartphone, apart of the bulletproof finish.

this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2025
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Privacy

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