TLDR: Drug dealers in Catalonia have started to adopt GrapheneOS en masse leading to Catalan police suspecting anyone with a Google Pixel is a drug dealer

  • Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org
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    18 hours ago

    Basically, if you don’t have a phone the cops can easily backdoor, you must be a criminal.

    … and if it’s an obscenely expensive one.

    Normal people either can’t afford these devices or don’t have time for all the hassle of installing and using a rare operating system on a phone.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      Normal people either can’t afford these devices or don’t have time for all the hassle

      Had a friend who was getting by on $2k/mo and got herself a $1400 top of the line iPhone, because her carrier gave her a reduction in her monthly payment plan (for an obscene amount of debt and locked-in service on the back end). Her brother jail-broke it for her and did the normal “cleaning off all the bloatware” due-diligence.

      This is just something we all put up with in the modern day. “Normal people” have a harder time navigating the bullshit, but its a lake we all have to paddle through.

    • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
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      18 hours ago

      Pixels are mid range if you buy a generation back. I have 6a and paid $250 two years ago.

      No one forces you to root your Pixel, you are allowed to use it with stock android.

    • AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today
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      15 hours ago

      You can install Graphene from the browser, it’s really not a huge hassle to install especially if you do it right when you get the phone.

    • IllNess@infosec.pub
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      17 hours ago

      Minimum wage in Spain is €1,300 per month. A Pixel 9a is under $500 and under €550 and currently on sale for $449 and €500. A couple of hundred can get you a Pixel 9. What exactly is a not obscenely price for a flagship phone to you?

      And I don’t even understand your second comment. People spend over an hour a day on social media alone.

      So the normal person in Spain could buy this phone and the normal person in Spain does have the time to figure out how to install a “rare” operating system. A “rare” operating system that’s free and easily copied.

      • MangoCats@feddit.it
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        8 hours ago

        Rare is a matter of popular practice, not difficulty.

        It’s rare to walk around with an actual tinfoil hat, but not difficult or expensive to do.

        • IllNess@infosec.pub
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          7 hours ago

          When someone says “rare operating system”, the word “rare” describes “operating system”.

          Here is the statement again:

          Normal people either can’t afford these devices or don’t have time for all the hassle of installing and using a rare operating system on a phone.

          In your sentence, “rare” is used to describe “it”, a pronoun, which refers to the action “to walk around with an actual tinfoil hat”.

            • IllNess@infosec.pub
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              2 hours ago

              I commented a user’s use of “rare”. Then you did the same to my comment.

              I didn’t think how the initial poster use of the word “rare” meant to describe “a matter of popular practice, not difficulty.” So I replied back to you.

      • sip@programming.dev
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        10 hours ago

        maybe they dumbed down “a custom ROM” or just didn’t want to name GrapheneOS

    • icegladiator@lemy.lolOP
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      17 hours ago

      GrapheneOS is most used on old Google Pixels which are anything but “obscenely expensive”

    • Benaaasaaas@group.lt
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      17 hours ago

      Pixel 9 pro with 512Gb is obscenely expensive. Pixel 8a, with minimal storage is pretty affordable. 7a dare I say cheap.

    • TheLowestStone@lemmy.world
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      17 hours ago

      The refurbished pixel 8 I bought cost a fraction of what I’d have paid for a new phone and the installation took 5 minutes.

    • Elextra@literature.cafe
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      17 hours ago

      The A series lines have been the best value smartphones generation after generation. I would not say theyre expensive. I have bought each current gen for about $350 or less (excluding tax), no trade in.