yes. also your friends, not only mom.

(/s aside, most people of younger generations don't care as well, not only elderly less tech literate folks)

Unless you can convince them to get out of the 'surveillance for free stuff' market then they're fucked, not everyone.

You can choose to use free and open source software and sped time learning and putting together a system that benefits you. Or you can just sign up for Google, let them do all of the work in exchange for spying on you with every device that you buy and put in your house.

And them being in the USA as well

We're a decade too early for open source vr.

That's not a VR headset, You bought an expensive Facebook paperweight.

Yyyyyyupp

"Oh no, this device is rooted! :(" Yes because I know what I am doing, now show me my account balance you stupid piece of ahit banking app.

I don't disagree with owning your hardware. I'm saying that a regulatory body can pose rules on where critical software can run. Part of this is data exposure: A banking app running in a tampered environment makes some malwares possible, which is the side you want an "I know what I'm doing"-button for. But it also creates risk for the bank. In letting you look into network-traffic and memory-dumps, you may discover ways to manipulate an unrooted instance or the backend server. This is security through obscurity and I'd much rather have everything open-source, but it's what we're dealing with.

On the other hand, the bank promises to cover damages, whenever they do mess up. You could give them an easy excuse by taking on that responsibility. But regulations don't allow that, much like they don't allow you to do your own high-voltage, high-current electricity. And frown upon you breaking load-bearing walls in a housing complex to have a more open kitchen. There is a line where "let me do what I want" becomes anarchy.

Now bringing DRM into this, misses the point. There is telemetry in these apps. But there is no piracy or copyright infringement to be had. The bank doesn't fear you giving yourself a million dollars by changing your balance in memory. It's all about responsibility in case something goes south. They would love to shift it all onto you, but they're not allowed to do that. Attestation was never about protecting you, it's about protecting them from being blamed.

There is a bunch of parties making guarantees and complying with rulesets. Domino-ing all of them would make you extremely vulnerable. Which is why I opted for "tamper-proof containers running in a unproven host", rather than signing an unlimited waiver.

If you keep feeding the monster, you know what will happen.

Imagine I said that I would come into your house and install a new TV and entertainment system, re-build your bathroom, fix your maintenance issues, clean your floors, wash your dishes, etc. That'd save you a lot of time.

Now, I'll even do it for free! But, you have to let me install a door that only I have a key to so you can't stop me from entering your house and also to install cameras and microphones covering every square foot of your house and you consent to being recorded.

That's the deal people are making with their digital lives.

Yeah, it was inconvenient to have to learn how to setup the software so I could have 'cloud storage' using my home server. It's annoying that I have to deal with IP Cameras and ZoneMinder. But, because I do the work myself, I don't have to let Google/Meta/FBI/Amazon have access to listening devices in my home (Oh, sorry Alexa, I didn't know you were listening), footage from my security system or the contents of my personal files.

As of now, I find very few apps beneficial, convenient or time savers - maybe I'm a weirdo luddite. Most apps seem to be for pastimes anyway so saving time seems odd - I prefer to take time to savour my pastimes. I think mp3 player app, and organic maps are the real ones that I actually find useful.

But refusing GPS/microG and therefore Microsoft Authenticate will become a problem for me quite soon I think. For now a phonecall still works, but I think it's only a matter of time. Once that goes I might have to quit my job, and will struggle to find one in my field that doesn't require it, so I guess I'll have to look for less skilled work or retrain, and I'm far too old for that shit. That's where it'll get constraining, when the tentacles of bundling enwrap and bind many other aspects of real society.

I really hope the EU keeps on at MS for bundling and other market power abuse, it seems so obvious that they've effectively ignored the fines from the old Internet Exploder case, and ramped up their misbehaviour regardless.

Of course the twats where I live are easily radicalised against EU regulations (or any regulations really) , so I'm probably still fucked. But at least someone needs to stand up for consumer rights and competition and keep kicking MS in the balls every time they pull their dick out to fuck consumers. Ideally kick them harder and harder too, 'punitive damages' are more than justified due to them being a repeat offender.