How big is your Mobile?

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, well mine doesn’t manipulate my life, and I don’t allow it to intrude into my privacy.

Regards Nick.

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

the intrusion into our privacy.

The extent depends very much how you set it up and use it. Most people freely give their privacy away on social media which often comes back to bite you in various ways.

As for cost, you can pay what you like. I have a low mid range Android one. I think it was around £200. iPhones are overpriced and fashion items.

The other very useful feature is the camera which is usually very good on even the cheaper phones. Apart from conventional images it is very useful indeed for places where a conventional camera can’t reach such as checking for a leak at the tap connection behind the kitchen sink or inspecting other inaccessible spots. I still use a digital SLR for all my main photography but a phone is very handy if you suddenly need a photo and you don’t have it with you such as if somebody runs into your car etc.

It’s a sort of electronic Swiss Army Knife really. I find it very useful but it does what I want it to do rather than what Google (and others) would prefer me to do.

It’s virtually impossible to stay electronically invisible these days, I frequently find that when doing online modelling research that photos of my own boats plus articles come up in the search results having been scraped from this Forum and Mayhem etc.

Treat anything you do online as being in the public domain, whether it is via your phone or computer. This is where most people come unstuck.

Colin

 

[Nicholas Farr]

On Nicholas Farr Said:

Hi, well mine doesn’t manipulate my life, and I don’t allow it to intrude into my privacy.

Regards Nick.

I’m afraid you have no choice with both.  The very fact that you have one proves that it manipulates your life, you have simply chosen to allow it to do so.  As regards privacy everything you do on line with whatever device you use, be it a phone, I-Pad, laptop or desktop is traceable.  If anyone does not consider that intruding into your privacy then we obviously have a different point of view of what that looks like.

I consider targeted advertising as an intrusion into my privacy whereas I’m sure 99% of other users would see it differently.

I was once fortunate to be a part of a major IT security audit when I was working on cruise ships and my eyes were very widely opened to just what information can be obtained on every one of us by anyone who cares to do so.  Not using a smart phone certainly doesn’t protect you from that but it reduces the risk significantly.

I completely agree with Colin’s comment:  “Treat anything you do online as being in the public domain, whether it is via your phone or computer. This is where most people come unstuck.”

I may be the only one who considers that an intrusion but I’m OK with that.

[Richard Simpson]

On Richard Simpson Said:

On Colin Bishop Said:

Really, what’s not to like?

 

 

The cost, the manipulation of our lives and the intrusion into our privacy.

 

 

I don’t own a smart phone either, but it’s for practical reasons, not philosophy.   No signal where I live and my life-style isn’t mobile.

Recently I was obliged to catch a bus.  Things have changed!  Waiting at the stop with a young woman, she used her phone to track the bus in real time, and knew exactly when it was going to arrive.  You can’t jump on and off.  There is no conductor.  Everyone apart from me paid by phone, and the driver didn’t take cash. On the journey, most passengers were in deep commune with their screens.  If I’d been equipped I’d have logged into the forum, they were probably checking email, zooming, doing their shopping / homework, gaming, researching, watching a film, listening to music, or following a podcast.

Richard and I may not mind we’re missing out on all this, but most people find the value of their smart phone more than counter-balances the cost.  Richard and I aren’t typical, we are exceptions.

The idea that modern lives are manipulated more than in the past is dubious.  Humans are social animals and what we do has always depended on others.  Society is a rich mix of accidental consequences and conspiracy.  We respond to fashion, money, laws, etiquette, power, politics, resources, and events.  No man is an island.  Manipulation is as old as time, remember the second oldest profession is taxman.  The answer hasn’t changed either: due diligence.  Avoid taking a narrow view – read both Daily Mail AND Guardian, don’t take either on trust.

I agree with Richard that privacy is a serious problem.  Smart Phone technology feeds “Big Data” and machine learning technologies. Unwise to ignore them because they extract knowledge and information from our data on an industrial scale, and it can be abused.  As ignorance has never saved us from bad consequences, don’t imagine “they won’t notice little me”.    Privacy is important, think lions scanning the herd for weaklings and stragglers!  Therefore I advise a high-level of internet hygiene.  Avoid dodgy web services, keep security up-to-date, and only share personal data when essential.

Beware the belief that everything was better in the old days, it wasn’t!  Because something is always wrong, everything tends to change.  Failing to change with it is dangerous.  Like it or not we cannot live in a rose-tinted past!

Dave

 

 

 

 

 

[HOWARDTParticipant @howardt]

Mine was a Compaq desktop, 20Mb HDD, 640kb, Dos 3.1, 5 1/2  floppy drive, 12 inch VGA green CRT and 19 inch Cambridge colour monitor at 1024×768.  I think the colour monitor and dedicated graphics card were about £4000.

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