I think the existing domain-based verification system is a better way of doing that. Something like Mastodon’s verified links might be a nice addition. This more centralized system is… not what I hoped for.

Instagram and Tiktok are usable in a web browser, though they do want you to make an account.

Terms like “safe” and “private” are not binary.

Are the contents of your Signal conversations on an iPhone private with regard to mass surveillance conducted by governments and ISPs? Probably. Apple uses security and privacy as marketing points, and there are a whole lot of people looking for vulnerabilities in its products who are incentivized to disclose them (possibly with a delay for patches). Signal itself takes steps to prevent data leaks to less secure parts of the OS and other apps.

Would your conversations remain private in the face of a targeted attack against your device by a nation state willing to spend a significant amount of time and money when you’re using Signal on an iPhone that’s presumably used for purposes other than secure conversations with a small set of people you know? Almost certainly not.

The AI thing I’d really like is an on-device classifier that decides with reasonably high reliability whether I would want my phone to interrupt me with a given notification or not. I already don’t allow useless notifications, but a message from a friend might be a question about something urgent, or a cat picture.

What I don’t want is:

• Ways to make fake photographs
• Summaries of messages I could just skim the old fashioned way
• Easier access to LLM chatbots

It seems like those are the main AI features bundled on phones now, and I have no use for any of them.

Depending on how the requirement to accept the ToS is implemented, a config file might be able to disable it and any features that depend on it.

Preferring websites to apps when possible makes this approach more effective. If you use apps with ads in them, they will likely get sensitive information as described in the article.

System wide ad blocking helps more. Private DNS is the easiest way; Mullvad provides a free option.