Android devices

I get automated calls and texts.

Don't care which party they come from.

I don't like spam calls, texts or emails.

current "You claim that my "agreeing" to Google's TOS allows them to track me and "look up my as" if they want to. My point is that, if our government gave a fuck about people verses corporations they could could put an end to this brazen horseshit immediately, exactly the way that the EU has done. Don't think so? Then tell me why any asshole solicitor or politician can call our landlines despite a "do not call registry" and yet the same is not true of cell phones...yet. Because, so far, Americans have not lost the spine to insist that their politicians keep it that way.

Stealing and selling your information under the fig leaf of an implicit acceptance of TOS that no one who actually has a life reads, ever, is just part of the business plan of these companies. Just like offering "free" $800 cell phones along with a multi year contract that makes it possible for the working poor to pay for them without, hopefully, defaulting."

I don't know anything about anything that the EU has done in terms of regulating tech companies in regards to their TOS or the type of information and data they can collect. I don't live there and there are other issues that have a higher priority in my life. If they've managed to "put and end to it" and all the major tech companies are still doing business over there, then great. Yeah, let's look at doing the same thing here if it's working over there. Seems like something you should write your Congressman/woman about.

As for the do not call lists, they have been proven to be completely ineffective and unenforceable because the vast majority of those calls are coming from scammers using spoofed numbers who likely acquired your contact info through a data breach. Maybe it was your bank or eBay or Netflix or one (or more) of any of the dozens upon dozens of online businesses who have your name and phone number on file that suffered a data breach.

Political candidates are entirely different. If you're a registered voter, then your phone number is probably on the call list for every candidate for office in your town/country/district/state. Typically though your number is only provided to the candidates from the same party you registered with. So if you're a republican, you may get calls from republican candidates. Not sure about your state, but in PA, independent/unaffiliated voters don't get calls from candidates. Side note: I'm an unaffiliated voter.

I don't disagree that TOS are too long and probably too difficult to comprehend for the average schmuck. But I also think if you're not going to bother reading the TOS and agree to it anyway, that's a you problem. Gotta be some personal accountability somewhere.

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I’m an OS guy. Still rocking the iPhone 5. Just waiting for it to be so obsolete that none of the tracking programs work on it.

"Literally nothing you posted other than my abbreviated screen name makes any sense at all. Does your county require a TOS or something? What does socialism have to do with TOS? How does the EU fit into any of this? Can I get a translator or something to break this down for me?"

OK "Cplof" I'll take a shot at "breaking this down" for you.

You claim that my "agreeing" to Google's TOS allows them to track me and "look up my as" if they want to. My point is that, if our government gave a fuck about people verses corporations they could could put an end to this brazen horseshit immediately, exactly the way that the EU has done. Don't think so? Then tell me why any asshole solicitor or politician can call our landlines despite a "do not call registry" and yet the same is not true of cell phones...yet. Because, so far, Americans have not lost the spine to insist that their politicians keep it that way.

Stealing and selling your information under the fig leaf of an implicit acceptance of TOS that no one who actually has a life reads, ever, is just part of the business plan of these companies. Just like offering "free" $800 cell phones along with a multi year contract that makes it possible for the working poor to pay for them without, hopefully, defaulting.

<---- can't wait to get the Note20.

I guess it's relevant enough if you've commented on it three times to say it's not relevant. :-)

It was in response to TBR talking about phone buyers looking at payment vs list price. Car buyers do the same.

Not looking for an argument at all, but it seemed like you were trying to lump car payment buyers and cell phone payment buyers together and I didn't think that was a relevant comparison. If you meant that as a stand alone comment rather than an integral part of the conversation, that's fine, but that's not how it came across to me. :-)

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"Like I said....apples and oranges."

Lol...Not sure why you're looking for an argument. All I said is we loved payment buyers in the car business.

Ford didn't offer zero interest on 2005 Mustangs because it was a hot new body style that everyone wanted. Car manufacturers use zero interest loans to sell the inventory that sits and it's only through their own finance companies.

And of course buying a used one cost less than buying a new one.

The phones have zero interest financing because they have a huge profit margin already built in.

My eyes and neck are not nearly as sore. My thumbs use to get stiff and crack. Now that I do most of my typing and posting on a laptop, my thumbs don't stiffen and pop on their own.

People are gonna be all fucked up in a few years.

Necks, backs, carpal tunnel, arthritic fingers and thumbs. These kids play video games, don't exercise or play sports. They don't do chores, or cut grass, shovel snow... We're talking about the SOFTEST GENERATION EVER.

8inch "I'm more productive and type faster on the laptop."
That's because you're old man. lol. And I'm right there with you. We grew up learning to type using a full keyboard. But younger people coming up today can whip those thumbs around their phone/tablet keyboards like there's no tomorrow. My kids (both early 20s) can type faster on their phones than I can on a traditional keyboard....and I can type in the 50-60 wpm range, so it's not like I'm using the poke and hope method either.

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I'm more productive and type faster on the laptop. The words flow better when typing on a laptop. Like back in the day when writing papers for school. When writing with a pen, it felt restricted, and I can type waaaaay faster than I write by pen. The words more free flowing and "free-styling" when on a laptop.

Less wear and tear on my thumb and forefinger to navigate on the Android. Easier to look at larger screen and the monitor is not as bright as a phone. And we're more likely to drop our phones and my the laptop falling from my coffee table.

I think that iPhones and Android phones have helped dumb-down the entire world.

People will pull out their phones during conversations, during meals, at work, in meetings, in church, at sporting events and concerts. We have gotten addicted to our phones.

Only thing worse than walking behind someone walking slow because of their phone, is someone who walks in front of your car/bike in a lot or on a street.

I didn't miss the point at all, but I don't think it's relevant to cell phones. I'm very much familiar with car buyers who are more focused on monthly payments than they are with the interest and cost over the course of a loan. And 0% loans aren't an option for the vast majority of car buyers. Generally requires nearly flawless credit and a sizeable down payment and most car buyers tend to lack one or the other....often times both. 0% loans also typically apply to new cars, which also applies to a smaller market. Down payment and credit isn't even an issue for me and I still don't shop for new cars because I don't want to deal with the instant depreciation and be upside down on a loan once I drive the car off the lot. Thanks to the internet, it's far too easy to find a "nearly new" used car for thousands less than a brand new one.

Example: Back in 2005 I wanted to buy a Mustang. Looked online and found a used 2005 GT with only 1300 miles on it and it was priced about $8000 less than an unsold (new), but otherwise identical vehicle. Some guy bought it, drove it for like 2 months and traded it in. Even if you factor in the interest that I paid over the life of the loan (about $2000-2500 if I remember correctly), I still paid around $6k less for that vehicle than had I been able to buy a new one at 0%...which wasn't even a thing at the time as far as I can recall.

Like I said....apples and oranges.

T

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I'm just about full circle. From desktop, to the laptop, to a flip-phone.

To the iPad, to an iPhone, back to a flip. Then an Android, and back to my laptop about a month or two ago.

I found that I wasted to many hours on my tablet. Then even much wasted time on my Android online.

Now I spend more time on my laptop in my living room while watching TV. Less neck strain than looking at a cellphone 12-16 hrs a day. When I pick up my phone now, its to talk or text, or monitor Ebay.

"I'm willing to bet that you didn't offer interest free payment plans to car buyers. Apples and oranges comparison."

Actually 0% loans are very common on new car purchases but you missed the point about people only focusing on monthly costs.

Side note: The Note 20 is the got damn truth. I don't know if they make a USB C adapter for my penis, but if they do, I'm definitely going to make sweet sweet love to this thing.
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Current "Cplof In the County where I live, if someone came into my house and stole the same information because under the TOS I left my door unlocked, and I shot them dead, as long as I didn't shoot them in the back, no one would even prosecute me let alone convict me.
Yet when it comes to technology, under good old freedom loving Murica's version of socialism, ownership of our private information is transferred and privatized for profit, because corporations can get away with it under bullshit "consent" argument you laid out while the downsides (loss of privacy, threat of predatory behavior and theft, persecution by a corrupt government) are socialized (distributed to the populace). Compare that to what occurs in the "socialist" EU, where the government actually requires a modicum of consent before peoples privacy is ass raped and converted to a tradeable commodity by these very same corporations."

Literally nothing you posted other than my abbreviated screen name makes any sense at all. Does your county require a TOS or something? What does socialism have to do with TOS? How does the EU fit into any of this? Can I get a translator or something to break this down for me?

T

2much "When I was in the car business we loved "payment buyers" who only cared about the monthly cost vs the overall cost."

I'm willing to bet that you didn't offer interest free payment plans to car buyers. Apples and oranges comparison.

T

8inch "Who in their right mind pay over $1,000 for a new phone?"

No one is spending $1000 on a phone. They're spending $1000 on premium pocket computers. Top end phones are borderline computer replacements for most people, especially with cloud storage being so readily available and affordable. For the average home user, there's nothing a laptop or desktop computer can do that a phone or tablet can't and consumers in general are moving away from computers in favor of mobile devices. Email, web browsing, online shopping, video and music streaming, and social media are about all that most people want to do and phones do that just as well, if not better than any laptop of desktop.

And practically no one actually spends the full retail price on phones. If they do, they're a sucker. I just upgraded my Note 8 to the Note 20 basically for free. I traded in my Note 8 paid sales tax on the Note 20 (about $60) and the upgrade fee ($30) and I have 0 monthly payments so long as I keep the phone for 30 months...which is no big deal for me because I don't have to have the latest and greatest phone every year. But even when I got my Note 8 three years ago, I still received a bunch of incentives like a $300 Sam's Club gift card and a free 360 degree camera (approx $150 value). My payments were around $30/month for 30 months (about $900 total, but credit me $450 in goodies). Mobile tech basically needed to go to a lease/rent-to-own strategy in order to make their devices affordable for a larger portion of consumers. Nothing wrong with less expensive smartphones, but some people enjoy tech. If you have the means to spend on it, there's nothing wrong with that either.

T

Cplof

In the County where I live, if someone came into my house and stole the same information because under the TOS I left my door unlocked, and I shot them dead, as long as I didn't shoot them in the back, no one would even prosecute me let alone convict me.

Yet when it comes to technology, under good old freedom loving Murica's version of socialism, ownership of our private information is transferred and privatized for profit, because corporations can get away with it under bullshit "consent" argument you laid out while the downsides (loss of privacy, threat of predatory behavior and theft, persecution by a corrupt government) are socialized (distributed to the populace). Compare that to what occurs in the "socialist" EU, where the government actually requires a modicum of consent before peoples privacy is ass raped and converted to a tradeable commodity by these very same corporations.

It's kinda the same.

There is no interest on the phones, but if you change plans, you have to pay it off.

We have 5 different devices on our plan, 3 phones and two tablets. All with different expiration dtes. So no matter what we do, we can never line everything up so we can easily switch.

But we don't switch like that, so it is no big deal for us. We have had the same cell provider since I got my first cell phone in the mid 1990s.

"Just 60 easy monthly payments of $24.99......"

When I was in the car business we loved "payment buyers" who only cared about the monthly cost vs the overall cost.

People don't look at the list price. They see the $25 a month. I notice on the high end phones from verizon, they have gone to a 36 month payback from 24.

So you are just in debt longer.

Was at Best Buy a couple of days ago to pick up a printer.

Near the phones section there was a sign with prices for trade-ins.

They give anywhere between a couple of hundred dollars up to like $800 for certain phones.

That's a car note, a couple of months insurance, gas for a couple of months, and a cell phone bill for couple of months type of money.

Who in their right mind pay over $1,000 for a new phone?

Just out of curiosity, what other tracking does Google do that doesn't require your consent? It's all in their TOS. Granted, no one reads that stuff and I can't say I blame them because who the hell has time for that, but when you agree to the TOS for any of their services (whether it's Gmail, Desktop Chrome Browser, or mobile devices and app services), you're giving them consent to basically take a look up your ass and see what you ate for breakfast.

Could they present the info about what you're agreeing to in a more simplified manner? Absolutely. But it is available for anyone who wants to actually take the time to read it.

policies.google.c om/?hl=en

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