Just realized that phone came with a bunch of “hidden” Meta/Facebook services pre-installed and they cannot be uninstalled, so I guess me trying to “fight” WhatsApp is pointless anyway. 🤪

… and then people call me a “luddite”. 🤣🖕

@movq@www.uninformativ.de Oh geez that sounds like an awful phone 🤣

@movq@www.uninformativ.de At least with an iPhone I’m not forced to use anything like Google, Facebook, or TikTok. None of those “things” are ever pre-installed, hidden or otherwise.

@movq@www.uninformativ.de yeah I’m pretty confident in what my iPhone and other Apple devices (Macbook, Mac Studio, iMacs, etc) do and don’t do in regards to talking back to Apple over the Internet. I mean, I do DNS filtering at my home network and most of the time I ensure my phone is connected to my VPN so that all DNS traverse through my own network and filters,

Obviously I can’t guarantee that it’s not making its own DNS requests and sneaking through my filters, I could go and check at my router level, but I’m fairly confident it probably isn’t.

Last ~24 hours of DNS Requests:

Some of those *.apple.com DNS requests look legit and valid, like itunes (the App Store) and push notifications. Need to investigate what some of the other ones are. There are some Apple domains I already block as well that I’ve figured out over the years.

It also helps a lot to a) ensure you turn off all things “iCloud” when you setup your device and b) teach your wife and children the benefits of doing the same and risks of not ensuring you do a) and c) ensuring that you keep doing a & b 🤣

@movq@www.uninformativ.de A family member gave me their old (pseudo-)smart phone and it had all kinds of pre-installed BS that you’re not supposed to be able to uninstall, Xiaomi, FB, google… you name it. but guess what!? I already know about this Trick and then there is the Rethink DNS/Firewall app I have setup to block all traffic then allow the stuff I need with an Allow, Bypass or Exclude rule.

You’d be surprised to see how much traffic is going to blocked!! 🤣