ubuntu-phone team mailing list archive

[Alan Pope <alan.pope@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi David,

On Wed, Apr 23, 2014 at 5:41 PM, David Marceau
<uticdmarceau2007@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Ubuntu-Phone and any other GNU/Linux phone should be all about
> digital-freedoms, NOT digital-constraints.  The Ubuntu Phone will be
> about YOU, about do-it-yourself(DIY).  Purist DIGITAL-FREEDOM hardware
> buyers WILL BUY a phone where you can install/change whatever you want
> whenever you want.
>

Meanwhile, back on planet earth..

The phone already has chunks you can't fiddle with. Binary blobs for
talking to the radios, a OS which is firewalled away from you. There's
so far we can go in making an open & free software based phone right
now. Maybe in the future every component can be replaced, but right
now that's not the planet we live on.

> It's ok to install anti-theft software, but the idea of having some
> hardware/software within the infrastructure where the user has no
> control over it, does not sit well with me.  That is not the kind of
> phone that I want.
>

It's less about bits the *user* has no control over and more about
bits the *theif* has no control over. I don't want to accidentally
leave my phone in a cab and find out that someone just needs to
long-press on a security feature to remove/disable it. I would like to
have a security feature - like Prey - which is difficult to remove
without some work, and maybe even hidden from view. If it could be
remotely enabled for the times when I lose my phone, all the better.

Sounds like a great use of U1DB where a user could open their laptop,
start up the "Where's my Unicorn?" app and find and potentially
disable or wipe the device.

Cheers,
-- 
Alan Pope
Engineering Manager

Canonical - Product Strategy
+44 (0) 7973 620 164
alan.pope@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://ubuntu.com/