It looks like chatgpt can generate pictures taht aren’t real. This is obviously a problem because

Shared computer? Clear Browsing Data on Exit.
Personal computer? irrelevant annoyance.

Yea car-culture is garbage, but not sure what that has to do with metal-detectors and security theater grifting.

An app that isn’t complying with any local law is the only app that you can’t actually lose. So if they do the right thing, humanity gains. Unless you want them to comply with the law?

No ethical consumption under capitalism, yadda yadda.

There is almost nothing you can buy that doesn’t have people like the Saudi Princes involved especially if you are talking about electronics. Though I am glad that people are bringing these kinds of consolidations to light.

Isn’t the purpose of an immutable OS supposed to be for things like specific services that generally aren’t supposed to be logged into? For example a web-proxy, or log-forwarder or maybe some kind of LB front-end?

I didn’t think “daily driving” an immutable OS as a user who needs to invoke a shell was its purpose.

What use is the metadata? Or is that stuff like the album covers etc?

I’m also a bit concerned about this:

Second, there’s an obsession with audiophile-grade quality (lossless FLAC, etc.) that inflates file sizes, making it impossible to maintain a complete archive of all music ever produced.

Does that mean that this spotify dump is a bunch of 64kbs mp3s, or worse some kind of lossy spotify transcode?

It comes down to the hostile actor you are trying to defend against. If you are Jason Bourne and you have been burned by your agency so multiple nation-states are looking for you, then you have to go fully off-grid and live a quiet life without ever communicating with anyone in your prior life again. It doesn’t matter if you are using Signal, or SMS, or even a dial-up BBS. If you are communicating with people that are also under heavy surveillance, you cannot hide.

If you want to reduce your “digital footprint,” then not using google/facebook/other social media is the most worthwhile thing you can possibly do. Your phone doesn’t matter. Use iOS, never install any of the social apps, use Safari in incognito mode, and you’ll never be tracekd across websites again.