3mo ago

/e/ OS does a little trolling and sends all your Text to Voice data to OpenAI for processing and Speech generation.

community.e.foundation Voice to Text feature using Open AI

reality — an open, secure, de-Googled system is not open, not secure, and not a de-Googled system!? This is just a new anøm disguised as open source. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Tor nodes in Advanced Privacy are routed through servers controlled by Murena. I trust /e/ Foundation OS and the Murena...

First of all, to anyone downvoting my Comments about /e/ being a piece of shit, because...

they advertise themselves as degoogled, but instead let you connect to Google/Microsoft/etc services
replace all the propriatery not at all Secure Services from Google, with.... Drumroll please.... Propriatery and not at all Secure Services from themselves and actively encourage it.
They are For-profit
and being MORE out of date then even Fairphones stock roms.

... I told you so. Dm your Instance admin, pay them to send the DB entries of your Downvotes on a Thumb drive (or anything else from SSD to 3.5 inchHDD, depending on your preferences), and shove it up your rectum.

But a TL;DR:

/E/ is not Private. They just switch one bad comany to another one.

Privacy @lemmy.dbzer0.com

/e/ OS does a little trolling and sends all your Text to Voice data to OpenAI for processing and Speech generation.

community.e.foundation /t/voice-to-text-feature-using-open-ai/70509/4

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This is a FUD post. Honestly this is just doing a disservice to privacy in general.
Of course /e/OS is not perfect but the title is wrong (/e/OS didn't suddenly start sending data to OpenAI without user permission, they are relying on OpenAI for a service that is optional PLUS they are explicitly saying that they setup a proxy to anonymize content!) but the content is also wrong :
of course they "let" you connect to whatever you want. What they do though by default is block trackers within apps including things like Google analytics. I imagine most people who buy a deGoogle phone from them will NOT want to use Google/Microsoft/etc services but if somehow they have to, e.g. a Google Meet meeting, then it's nice that they can. This is a ridiculous take.
they replace services and their work is open source https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/os/ if something is somewhat missing you can just open an issue and request it. If they do provide server services they do not have to provide the code for it (even if they should IMHO) but here again just request it publicly. The goal is to help them do better, not "scold" them. Still here please share what's actually missing rather than making grand claims.
they are for-profit, so what? They have a foundation that managers /e/OS itself so AFAICT Murena is to sell phones with installed /e/OS so you can skip that entirely and not give them 1 cent. Even funding like NLNet (which IMHO is some of the best as the project gets to decide on milestones, they are just funding FOSS) encourage projects to have sustainable source of income, what's your solution there? That they get bought by Google? Do you personally have the kind of money to make them sustainable for years if not decade?
there is an obsession with getting the very latest updates on the deGoogle community. Yes patching security holes is fundamental to privacy but it's also NOT the only thing that matters. They are doing their best to catch up but if you have a solution, e.g. a better CD/CI system please do contribute.
TL;DR: /e/OS is not perfect but it's damn well better than Google!
Also important clarification, the Murena services (backup, STT highlighted there, etc) are NOT MANDATORY! When you boot you can decide to use them, make an account, etc (yes, like other services, including Google) but you just as well refuse and use your device. There is NO account required. The goal is to help people who are not yet self-hosting everything have an alternative rather than... have nothing then give up and fallback to iOS or Googled Android.
- Of course /e/OS is not perfect
  Let me stop you here.
  Every phone /e/ supports, Lineage or calyx supports too. Lineage and Calyx are both non profit, implement an actually secure Backup system by default, and do not try to sell you a subscription.
  So why should I be defending a company that's worse then the Alternative, that's obligated to extract the most possible profit from its costumers, that says it is Private, yet sends your backup and Photos unencrypted to murena servers?
  And no, you can't jUsT uSe aNoThEr bAcKuP sErViCe. These require root access by default, so you can't just install Seedvault.
  Also, I don't give a fuck if the data to OpenAI is proxied or not. OpenAI is still not Private, and Murena has other, on device, Open source Voice to text options. Yet they, the self proclaimed Private OS, rely on a non private service
  
  let me stop you here.
  ... So why should I be defending a company that’s worse then the Alternative, that’s obligated to extract the most possible profit from its costumers, that says it is Private, yet sends your backup and Photos unencrypted to murena servers?
  You'd have benefited from not stopping there, at least reading the bold parts : nobody has to use Murena servers. You turn on the device, say no, use whatever alternative services you want, that's it. What Murena (not /e/OS) offers is buying a phone with a working deGoogled Android device. There is a market for that. You don't have to buy from them and it's enough. You can criticize it as much as you want, here and elsewhere, and honestly your criticism is welcomed so that they can improve, just don't make things up.
  Source : I'm backing up my photos locally with Immich, no Murena account, no Murena services.
  Edit: thanks for sharing https://github.com/seedvault-app/seedvault looks interesting.
  
  nobody has to use Murena servers.
  Im just saying, that Murena, with their current services, is in no way better than Google. Also, that can change at any time, since the one making the Services and the one making the OS is the same Murena, so theres nothing stopping them to vertically integrate their Services more and more, until it becomes the only real option
  just like Google and Apple did it.
  Google started as a company that gave extraordinary Services for cheap to people, and only once it got popular, they started selling user data and doing questionable shit as result of them not really caring about Data Security and storing data unencrypted on their Servers.
  Murena is a company that is giving extraordinary Services for sometimes Cheaper than the non Privacy friendly option, and once it gets popular, they still will be reserving the right to start selling user data and do Questionable shit as a result of them not caring about Data Security and storing data unencrypted on their Servers.
  Yes, they did not sell your data. Yet. They did not release your Data to authorities. Yet. Their Service, being unencrypted, baked deep into the OS (with their Backup) shows just how much they could go that route at any time, and by having a mostly noobie audience, they wont get much shit for it probably
  For me, its just like the Mastodon vs. Bluesky thing
  Yes, /e/ is currently better than Google, but /e/ can turn as bad as Google any time. Unlike something like Proton or other Backup systems, since they have the option to encrypt your Photos and therefore make them Availible only to the user.
  
  Murena, with their current services, is in no way better than Google.
  Honestly you seem to understand the technical side of things but I don't think you fully grasp the economical scale of Google. Murena is literally nobody, like 10 guys in a small shop in Paris, the CEO walking around, few extra staff international, some contributions here and there, it's not symbolic and I don't want to diminish their effort but it's really tiny. Your local supermarket probably has more staff than they do!
  Meanwhile... Alphabet who owns Google is nearly ~200k people on payrolls, thousands more outsourced via 3rd party services (e.g. data annotation, social network "cleaning", etc) and the 4th largest corporation in market capital.
  Honestly the comparison is not even apple versus orange.
  Same for Apple, 3rd market cap, ~150k employees.
  Yet... maybe more importantly, Murena has 0 lock-in, none. Meanwhile Apple and Google literally own the mobile market. It's practically impossible to buy a phone without at some point using one of these 2.
  So finding imperfections in /e/OS and Murena is fine, again hopefully helping them to grow out of those potential problems, but the comparison ... I don't even know why do it in the first place. Murena literally can not become Google.
  
  Google and Apple were once the 10 employee nobodies going against behemoths.
  Google also used to have no lock in, as well. It's original selling point was an open ecosystem with no lock in, unlike Apple.
  You're like a walking definition of 'those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it'
  
  Check my post history, I often link to Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy by Carl Shapiro and Hal R. Varian that precisely has chapters on lock-in. If you are not aware who Hal Varian is he was Chief Economist at Google. I don't know how much you think you know about "history" but I'm sure you do not know what I did study or not on the topic.
  PS: if one day Murena becomes the size of Google or Apple according to pretty much any metric, I'll buy you a bottle of Champagne and kiss your feet to apologize of my naivety. You can archive that post.
  
  Nothing you wrote was a response to what I wrote.
  I also don't care what you 'studied'. I lived it. Google and Apple were literally, and this is a quantifiable fact and not an opinion as you seem to be treating it in your response, the 10 person startups that were going against industry behemoths.
  Yahoo was, at the time, was a Juggernaut.
  I.B.M., at the time, was a Juggernaut.
  
  Just blocked... you don't seem to care for a proper polite conversation so no matter what you know, or think you know, that might make you special is not worth it for me. I don't have any need for toxicity.
  
  Google was just a comparison. Of course Murena will not become as strong globally, but if we look at it relatively to the Costum ROM community, they have quite a fair share already.
  Don't take everything literally. I just said, that having the track record that /e/ has regarding actual Privacy and not relying on big tech, which dosent take much effort since they literally fork LinaegeOS, which already dosent rely on big tech, I don't think its a good idea to let them become any stronger than they need to be, since, like I just pointed out
  Murena does not do any substancial Development of Costum Roms. They just take Linaege, remove all the Open source software like Seedvault, and instead implement their own security nightmares.
  And no, tracker blocking is not a good reason to make your own Costum Rom. There are literal free apps on Fdroid which do it already, and better. Don't like it? Switch to the DNS server of adguard, they do that too. Or mullvad. Or whatever.
  Murena as a company is literally a leech just like Iode, which Attach themselves to Linaege (which dosent say they are Private at all), add a fucking DNS blocker, call it a day, and act like they just made Linaege Private.
  
  Murena or Iode aren't about development or customization, it's about being able to actually buy a phone and use it without Google services, no tinkering. You might not be the audience, you might have other criteria for what constitute privacy, but basically if you can AND want to install a custom ROM, you are not their market.
  None of the actors you mentioned, e.g. LineageOS, AdGuard, MullVad, SeedVault, and all the other "OS" in the name, etc do that so it's not relevant. I'm not saying they are not important but it's a different product entirely.
  
  There are 3rd Party stores for Those too.
  Its just not plastered on the Main page of the project
  But I wouldnt argue that if you already want a degoogled phone, you have researched enough to at least know where to Ask for such websites
- Say less. You do not fight efficiently.
  open source
  Libre software. 'Open source' is a deliberately ambiguous phrase, engineered to derail libre software.
  they are for-profit, so what? They have a foundation that managers /e/OS itself so AFAICT Murena is to sell phones with installed /e/OS so you can skip that entirely and not give them 1 cent. Even funding like NLNet (which IMHO is some of the best as the project gets to decide on milestones, they are just funding FOSS) encourage projects to have sustainable source of income, what's your solution there? That they get bought by Google? Do you personally have the kind of money to make them sustainable for years if not decade?
  Selling libre software is good. Stay on target.
  https://lemmy.world/post/35312231

112 comments