this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2026
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cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/70348978

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[–] OwOarchist@pawb.social 115 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (7 children)

I can see a promising market for 'dumb' point-and-shoot digital cameras reemerging.

  • Doesn't automatically upload your pictures to train AI on, no internet-based privacy risks whatsoever

  • No AI nanny telling you that your pictures are too naughty

  • Never needs updates, can never be enshittified by new updates

  • No risk of the government getting their hands on your pictures, unless they physically confiscate the device

  • Can never be hacked without physical access to the camera

  • Doesn't listen to you or watch you or otherwise spy on you

  • Most models have easy to change user-replaceable batteries

  • Most models are compatible with SD cards for easily upgradeable storage

  • Can take advantage of a larger lens and more adjustable focus/zoom to take better pictures (Even a relatively cheap digital camera could potentially take better pictures than the ultimate flagship phones that cost 4-figures.)

[–] detren@sh.itjust.works 33 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It has already reemerged as part of the retro trend among young people.

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[–] bcgm3@lemmy.world 12 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

I still use my Canon SD1000. 20 years and it's still going! The resolution is lower (only 7.1MP), but the photos still look really nice. And that was a relatively cheap camera for the time.

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[–] Magnum@infosec.pub 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Or you could use an open camera app

[–] OwOarchist@pawb.social 31 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

For now. Until Google says those apps aren't "verified" or whatever and blacklists them. Until the next Android update makes it scan and upload every photo file anywhere on the device, not just ones used or made in particular apps.

[–] willington@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 3 weeks ago

We should consider divorcing Goggle from Android via something like GrapheneOS or /e/OS.

[–] Dremor@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (10 children)

Yeah, I can tell that since I do tests for Amazon (Amazon Vine).

There is more and more camera being put to test, ranging for cheap bellow €100 ones to miniaturized keyring sized ones (with tiny screens).
I tested some of them (and have another one coming next week), the quality of the pictures are good, but the build quality of sub-100 ones are kinda bad (cheap plastics, no optic zoom, no hardpoints for better lenses, sd cards smaller than their advertised size)

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[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Those kinds of cameras didnt disappear.

But Canon already enshittifies their bodies some, with links to the canon.cloud subscriptions in-camera (which is a front for RAW training if you read the ToS), a subscription for linked editing software, and some feature crippling to push them.

There is actually healthy competition in the space, though.

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[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 57 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Reportedly, the app uses an on-device machine learning model to classify the content.

Using your shiny new phone to train AI...

For now its only supposed to check Google Messages, so not if you use a different text app.

But one vulnerability already is side loaded versions with super high version numbers so they won't be auto updated. Those will scan everything and do whatever with it. Considering the apps point is to scan for nudes, likely sending all your nudes to the hacker.

[–] JiveTurkey@lemmy.world 19 points 3 weeks ago

The dummy version is an empty app.

[–] akunohana@piefed.blahaj.zone 7 points 3 weeks ago

This is why I'm not buying a new phone until my current one literally breaks down. It's in the hardware nowadays.

[–] Prox@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

For now its only supposed to check Google Messages, so not if you use a different text app.

Shameless plug for Textra as a much, much better alternative.

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[–] GamingChairModel@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago

Reportedly, the app uses an on-device machine learning model to classify the content.

Using your shiny new phone to train AI...

I would think the models are already trained, and then deployed to phones to do on-device inference. The models should be fixed and static by the time they end up on a phone (in large part because phone hardware is just not technically suitable for training, whether pre training or post training).

[–] Miller@lemmy.world 54 points 3 weeks ago

Sphynx cats trigger it and you get an unwarranted alert that Google is very disappointed.

[–] vala@lemmy.dbzer0.com 46 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

You can uninstall it and install this so that Google can't get it back on your system.

https://github.com/daboynb/Safetycore-placeholder

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[–] sik0fewl@piefed.ca 30 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Aren’t viruses and spyware illegal?

[–] benjirenji@slrpnk.net 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Technically it's neither. Viruses spread and spyware sends your data to an attacker. This app does neither. The third party feature however does make it easier for spyware to identify sensitive content on your phone, but then you have a problem anyway because you gave a spyware app access to all your media.

[–] foodandart@lemmy.zip 7 points 3 weeks ago

I can see actual digital cameras are going to become popular again...

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[–] mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 25 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

what the fuck? I had no idea about this. I never opted into this.

[–] willington@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

No shit. The billionaires at the top worry about public safety, would you believe it? (giant fucking sarcasm tag goes here for all my asperger ftiends)

Who owns the (fully paid up) phone that's in my hands right now? I try to tell myself I do, but...

Yea, I am not a happy camper.

[–] crunchpaste@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Time to start shooting nudes on film I guess.

[–] kadu@scribe.disroot.org 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You can develop black and white film at home using coffee. Developing nudes this way sounds kinda hot.

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[–] minorkeys@sh.itjust.works 18 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

If we weren't so fucking weak and unorganized, we'd be burning their companies and their homes to the fucking ground.

[–] tidderuuf@lemmy.world 15 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I've got a Pixel 9 I keep for development and uninstalled that system app a few months ago. It's still gone. Maybe updates are reinstalling it but saying that it cannot be uninstalled or removed is a lie.

[–] Mihies@programming.dev 17 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It says in the article title that it keeps reinstalling itself, not that it can't be removed.

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[–] dsilverz@catodon.rocks 11 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

I once stumbled upon this app automatically installed on the phone I happen to have paid for (because at this point I doubt I could call this piece of metallic tile "my phone" and suing Google Inc. for them to refund me this phone would be as successful as if I tried to push and move a certain Mountain View building from its place with my own muscles). Shortly after that, it seems to have vanished from the list of apps as mysteriously as it initially appeared, either it uninstalled itself or it was changed names.

In any case, as soon as I realized that presence and realized I wouldn't have an "uninstall" option without turning on options that would straightforwardly break banking apps and government apps (gov.br the Brazilian app for everything citizen-related) I was compelled to use, I started filling the phone's gallery with all sorts of potentially-triggering stuff I either find online or (mainly) make myself: dark art including FNAF-like jump scares, haunted/cursed artifacts and occult/ritualistic imagery, photos and videos depicting snakes and scorpions, lots of Memento Mori including photos of cemeteries and tombstones, archaeological skeletons, buzzards eating animal carcasses in the wilderness, as well as media of my own cut wr... I mean, uhm, media of my own cute wrathful owl I sculpted on Blender. Yeah, several different 3d rendered scenes and short animation videos as well, especially scenes in which she's performing chases and huntings... Not to mention the plethora of owl photos and videos, many of which are birdwatching of them catching and eating prey on nature, in potentially gory settings (i.e. the unfiltered, untamed nature who doesn't care about our anthropocentric definitions of good and evil).

So if Google decides to start "protecting me from (my own) sensitive imagery", their clanker is essentially going to have a hard time having to go through gibibytes of media and potentially wiping the whole device as I made sure to fill the entire storage (even non-media things too, such as using provoking nicknames for fictional contacts like a contact card for "Inanna", as well as odd descriptions for bank transactions such as "my soul belongs to Ereshkigal") with purposefully sensitive content. If they do that, I'll then have something more concrete to sue them for: religious intolerance, as it's all representing of my left-hand path spirituality.

And with all this I leave this one absurdist idea on how to try and boycott the corporate nanny (and surveillance). A phone gallery full of sensitive items (not nudes, but dark/provocative art purposefully built to trigger similar nannying responses) will hopefully overwhelm their servers, shall they offload the computing to their data centers. If this doesn't overwhelm their servers, at least the techbros and their clankers are going to have an interesting time when scrolling through legal-yet-disturbing content they hoarded from Android users' phones.

!technology@lemmy.world

[–] schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Came for technology news, stayed for the Mesopotamian undergods.

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[–] borari@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

It’s not looking for stuff like you’re describing, skeletons, graves, birds, whatever spoopy “dark” stuff you put on there. It’s looking for nude people, then actioning/alerting if it thinks minors are in the images. You definitely don’t want to honeypot this ai bro.

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[–] plz1@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

So...

  1. They really don't care about that stuff
  2. They are using your own phone's processing power to scan, not theirs. I'm sure they have a phone-home mechanism, but they have no vested interest in scanning server-side when they can do it phone-side.
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[–] story@lemmy.zip 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

hey folks i got graphene, do i need to worry about this or is this what the sandbox is for?

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[–] glitchdx@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

just hoping my current phone survives ling ebough that my next one can be a linux phone

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