Hello,
it was just a quick summary of the worries of different people. I think we all know about that many people feel there privacy violated by google, we know that the European union formulated a accusation because of the strong suspicion that google manipulates his search result. As user you can’t prevent that google joins the data off all its services, including AddSense and Analytics witch tracks nearly every move you do in the internet, to create profiles of your own.
I didn’t want to discuss and weighting these and all the other points that worry users, I just wanted to say, that you have to take them serious and yes I wanted to satirize goolgles very own “don’t be evil” slogan witch they won’t follow since years for many users.
I think it’s to easy if you say “don’t use android” if you don’t like googole, because there is no real alternative at the moment, especially if you are not a techie, and dooming “normal” people to be uncritical can’t be the solution.
And that’s one of the huge problems with the google Apps and it is only not posible because google dictates this rules. Fairphone as a manufacturer that tries to brake contracts where one (employer) dictates the rules and another (employee) has no chance to deny them, shouldn’t befall in similar (if not that dramatic) situations with levity. And if they do, they should allow there customers to uncage them self by uninstalling selected google Apps.
I’m with you if you say that the idea of conflict free minerals is more essential for the environment, but it is not more essential for the idea of Fairphone itself. The personal decition I made almost 18 years ago to renounce having an own car and do my daily business by riding a bike, is also much more impotent than the one of buying me a Fairphone, but both sending the same message of my foolish idea to harm the world less than the average European citizen do.
And so installing a rooted Android send the Fairphone Message of trying to do it the “ethical” better way like the conflict free materials do.
Offering a rooted Android just as an option sends a wrong signal for me. It says “Its ok when you deny me the control of my own device if there is somehow a way to get it back”. But denying the access is a perkiness itself and it is simply not fair to follow this.
I know, you belief in security advantages of unrootet systems, I can’t see them. The only thing that becomes secured is that every App can do what it wants without asking what the user wants. For me root is the only way to do something for your security besides don’t using the Smartphone.
There is one single Situation I can imagine where a unrooted OS is needed. This is if a company gives a employee a mobile phone and does not want the user to manipulate it. But I think in that case simply Fairphone isn’t the right choice. In that situation you should use a phone with a deeply integrated advanced solution for exactly this situation, like a Blackberry.
At every other situation a rooted phone is as secure as an unrooted.
Concluding I want to say that Fairphone is not just a Telephone it is a political thing. So it’s challenge is not just to let you make calls and run Apps it also has to reveal something. That is why I believe that it is important to don’t just follow the status quo. If google says “you have to install all Apps or none” than it is a good thing when Faifones answer is “none” and they offer an easy way (like the widget) for its users to install them manually. And if some Apps say (on there own initiative) they won’t run on rooted devices, then Fairphone can try to offer a way to make them run on rooted devices or accept that they are not compatible with this device (like no App on the playstore is compatible to every device). But on my opinion it can’t be an option to say “ok then we do it like everybody else”. Fairphone has to try to change thinks and this is not just a question of hardware it must also affect the software.
Fairphone is not an average phone and I hope it never tryes to be.
regards,
Shiny