It is so difficult to find modern electronics without telemetry and ads. Smartphones, laptops, TVs, home routers, security cameras, cars, game consoles, e-readers, projectors, 3D printers, fitness trackers, speakers, and even some printers. Why can’t customers be free from this data collection and advertising? It’s not that we don’t care about it. There simply aren’t many alternatives, and the few that do exist are either more expensive or offer fewer features. Seriously, we need a list of products we can buy and use directly without worrying about telemetry or advertising.
The following list is updated at https://lemmy.ml/post/52706206. Please note that this list may contain errors.
- PC: Anything Linux
- Laptop: Framework Laptop, System76, MNT, Purism Laptops, Starlabs Laptops, TUXEDO Computers, NovaCustom, Slimbook, Pinebook by PINE64
- Smartphone: Jolla Phone, Purism, NovaCustom Smartphones, Fairphone with /e/OS, PinePhone by PINE64
- Brax Phone and its Criticism
- Google Pixel + GrapheneOS might be a better option
- Fairphone OS collects information such as the IMEI, serial number, OS version, device model/brand, operator information, and network/cell information…
- Tablets: StarLite by Starlabs, PineTab by PINE64
- Smartwatch: Pinetime, Bangle.js, ZSWatch, Pebble
- GadgerBridge is a free and open source Android application that allows you to pair and manage various gadgets such as smart watches, bands, headphones, and more without the need for the vendor application.
- HealthyPi Move is not available yet
- Wireless headphones: Fairbuds, PineBuds by PINE64
- Alternatives: IEMs (wired in-ear monitors) + wireless dongle
- Kiwi Ears Cadenza, Truthear Gate/Hexa/Pure, Moondrop Chu 2, Fiio BTR11, Snowsky Retro Nano…
- Alternatives: IEMs (wired in-ear monitors) + wireless dongle
- Wireless Speakers: ?
- E-ink devices: PineNote by PINE64
- Open Book Touch is not available yet
- https://www.crowdsupply.com/e-paper
- Alternatives: CrossPoint Reader Devices require a manual CrossPoint install after purchase.
- TVs: All modern TVs upload your screen, sound out the speaker, information about other device in the same WiFi, conversation collected with built-in microphones and video recordings with built-in camera 24/7.
- Projectors: Same as TV
- Game Console: Anything Linux
- MiSTer FPGA is an open-source FPGA-based retro gaming platform, not a single commercial console. There’s no official finished console to buy.
- VR:
- Steam Frame has telemetry but there is no better option
- Routers: OPNsense
- Alternatives: GL.iNET collects minimal telemetry, and you can install OpenWrt on it.
- MikroTik routers does seem to collect telemetry
- SmartHome: PineVoice and PineCam by PINE64
- Alternatives: Home Assistant + Zigbee / Z-Wave Devices Without WiFi
- Security cameras: ?
- Reolink cameras collects telemetry but can be used locally.
- Printers: All modern printers put invisible tracking codes in printed pages, which can identify the exact printer and date and time of printing.
- Openprinter is not available yet.
- 3D printers: Prusa 3D Printer, Sovol
- Cars: All modern car uploads location, speed, information on every device you have connected to your car, your contacts, in-car conversations with built-in microphones and video recordings with built-in camera 24/7
- It’s Official: Cars Are the Worst Product Category We Have Ever Reviewed for Privacy by Mozilla
- Slate is not available yet
- Anything else that doesn’t come with ads or telemetry built in?
Other suggestions:
That’s not true. People who give the slightest shit about it are in the minority. My supposedly tech savvy relative told me I am “overthinking” smart TVs by never wanting one connected to the internet. The next day after that conversation, the most recent LG scandal came to light. I sent them a link to the video. I saw that they were supposedly typing for a few seconds and then they never responded. I suspect they considered arguing with me about it being a problem and then realized it was going to be a tough argument to have. I doubt that made them think twice about getting more Internet connected devices though. They’ve personally overseen installing Alexas in multiple homes and they think I’m absurd for seeing those as bad for privacy.
When I got a new TV (late 2010’s 2017 or 19 pretty sure it was 19) the friend hekping me move it in and set it up got me to hook it up to the wifi, I said I did not need it because I have an AppleTV but she insisted. 2020 came around and I got back into pihole, what the hell was I supposed to do in that year? And I saw how much data it was blocking, so I went looking for “smartTV” lists and saw how much more it was blocking. I read stuff and decided to turn off all the “smart” features and just to take it off the network all together.
I wish it happened sooner but a few years later I fell down the rabbit hole of FOSS and ended up getting a bunch of raspberry pi’s, I dug out an old Mac mini and installed Debian on it to act as a media server because one of my pi 5’s was not doing enough for me. That pi is soon going to replace my AppleTV and just stream the transcoded stuff from my mini and arr stack to my TV that I made dumb.
This is why regulations exist. Expecting the average corpo to not do evil shit, or the average consumer to understand why this is important is never going to happen.
Once I get more politically active it will be an absolute nightmare to scrub my house.
Tasks to do.
-check my RCA tv, disable all RF connectivity.
-audit Nvidia Shield and decide if the frequency of telemetry is palatable, likely replace with a Pi5 streamer box. Not sure if that has eARC so maybe adjust my whole stereo setup.
-move Phillips hue bulbs off the first party hub to a ZigBee hub.
-remove Google home devices, set up echo dots or whatever they are named and finish setting up the home assistant stack for voice assistant, find cheap tablet for HA dashboard.
-audit Honeywell home, set temp via home assistant integration only.
-same with Emporia power devices, local integration only.
-degoogle phone.
-replace ubiquity WiFi AP with something else probably
-replace Synology NAS maybe.
-shut down Milestone VMS and windows server in favor of an open source VMS, audit POE CCTV cameras for telemetry.
-audit BAS-IP video doorbell. That should work SIP only, I could probably snag access to their internal code base through work connections, the founder is a really nice lady and the rest of her team is cool too.
-Remove Windows from gaming PC, Linux steam or wine compatible games only.
I’m sure there’s more. I probably shouldn’t list all the stuff I use like this but whatever, if I’m tipped over right now there’s not going to be any compromat/ opsec implications.
Just because your “tech savvy relativ” says you should not overthink does not mean the relativ does not care about it.
It just means your relativ does not assume that its privacy gets invaded by every device.
This are 2 different things.
With all due respect I know how they think and I’m not sure why you think you do? This is a “I’ve got nothing to hide” person
I am mostly referring to the first 2 sentences since the other text does not comment on anything that he actually said or did.
Just because someone is naive enough to think that a smart device does not spy on you or downplays what they know does not mean they do not care about privacy.
In order to say that the relative does not care about privacy, the relative would have to know the exact extent on what they collect and what they can do with it. You cannot assume that a normal person or even “tech savvy person” understands what is possible.
It is possible that what you said is applicable for your relative but in general this does not apply.
It’s interesting that instead of assuming I have any basis for saying what I did, you’re trying to educate me on how to interpret someone’s actions I have known my entire life. I can assure you I’ve tried to have this discussion with them several times. They dismiss every privacy concern brought up if it relates to tech companies. They care about privacy insofar as they think it’s wrong when the government violates it, but if they get a free service out of a deal, they dismiss the idea that the trade off could potentially not be worth it.
Tldr; your drive by guess at what may have been said does not override information you do not have.
I never said that you are wrong. You have misinterpreted that. I simply say that in general, that what you said about your relative is not enough to assume that the relative does not care about privacy.
I never have said anything else. More information was not given.
We are talking about a specific person that you quoted how I described them as if I might be making shit up. The fact that I said “my relative” is enough information for any reasonable person to know I probably have a long history with them. I never once said this applies to every person. I only mentioned they are tech saavy because they absolutely have the capability of understanding and being shocked by privacy invasions, they just decided long ago it wasn’t worth caring about. And I know this due to the dozens of interactions with them on the topic. Including essentially telling me I’m wasting my time caring of my TV spies on me. More history there is that I’ve told them about real cases of this happening years ago also and they dismissed that as not mattering then as well
Weird interaction.
No, thats just you beeing offended. Never once did that.
But with the quote at the start you implied that there a lots of ppl. It should be common sense that there is almost never a 100% complete agreement within such a broad undefined group.
There are lots of people like that. I’m done here.