Deceptive language frequently used against consumers: Difference between revisions

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 Deceptive language used by companies to impede the rights of consumers comes in many forms. Many of them can be boiled down to a few principles.
-'''False benevolence''', also known as '''the "we're just protecting you" excuse''', '''the "it's for your best" excuse''', etc., is a tactic corporations often use to excuse eroding freedoms.
-This is done using pleasent-sounding words such as "protection" and "safety" and "integrity". It is the same kind of "protection" one gets from disconnecting the Internet. It indeed is safer never to connect to the Internet, but it comes with losing access to a highly useful resource. These "protections" resemble a muzzle, not a shield.
 =="For the safety of the consumer"==
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 </blockquote>
 <ref>[https://www.phonearena.com/news/Google-will-make-sideloading-apps-way-more-difficult-from-next-year_id173542 Google will make sideloading apps way more difficult from next year - PhoneArena]</ref>
-This is a poor comparison because an airplane is the property of the airline while your smartphone is your property as the person who paid for it. What Google is doing is closer to them putting an airport security station at your doorstep.
 ===Storage access restrictions in Android===
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 </blockquote>
-The only "security" storage access framework actually gives the user is that it prevents them from granting access to the root directory of the external storage (not to be confused with "root access" which gives you superuser privileges). So an imaginary app that does "bad stuff" can still do it inside the directory picked by the user.
+The only "security" storage access framework actually gives the user is that it prevents them from granting access to the root directory of the external storage (not to be confused with "root access" which gives you superuser privileges).
-These restrictions prevent legitimate apps such as file managers from functioning properly. If the user does not trust an app with access to the entire USB stick or SD card, perhaps one should not use that app at all. At the very least, users should have been given the option to grant exceptions to apps which use this access for legitimate purposes, such as file managers.
+Storage Access Framework is no replacement for legacy storage access given its slowness from its large processing overhead. The performance loss may be concealed to some extent from the fast hardware smartphones have nowadays, but even then, it increases battery usage.<ref>[https://www.xda-developers.com/android-q-storage-access-framework-scoped-storage/ The Storage Access Framework is the only way for apps to work with all your files in Android Q. And it's terrible.] - XDA developers</ref><ref>[https://archive.today/2025.08.23-201715/https://www.reddit.com/r/androiddev/comments/65dn8x/horrible_access_storage_framework_performance/ Horrible access storage framework performance] -  androiddev - Reddit</ref>
-Storage Access Framework is no replacement for legacy storage access given its slowness from its large processing overhead. It is a soydev{{Citation needed}} technology. The performance loss may be concealed to some extent from the fast hardware smartphones have nowadays, but even then, it increases battery usage.<ref>[https://www.xda-developers.com/android-q-storage-access-framework-scoped-storage/ The Storage Access Framework is the only way for apps to work with all your files in Android Q. And it's terrible.] - XDA developers</ref><ref>[https://archive.today/2025.08.23-201715/https://www.reddit.com/r/androiddev/comments/65dn8x/horrible_access_storage_framework_performance/ Horrible access storage framework performance] -  androiddev - Reddit</ref>
-Google has a conflict of interest as a provider of cloud storage. Imagine SanDisk owned Android and blocked Google Drive. Everyone would recognize the obvious conflict of interest. And when Android restrictions break applications like file managers, end users complain to the app developers even though it is not their fault. So these restrictions also caused headaches to innocent app developers.
 ===Non-replaceable batteries since the Samsung Galaxy S6===
-Samsung couldn't just switch to non-replaceable batteries without losing a word about it, so these words at the keynote by Justin Denison, Samsung's public relations person, filled that gap:
+Justin Denison, Samsung's public relations person, said:
 <blockquote>We refused to do this for some time. That's because we didn't want to have a built-in battery, until we were absolutely sure that users would feel confident about charging their phones. </blockquote>
 <ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8mfEud8n4c Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2015 - Livestream (Replay] ([https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211117/U8mfEud8n4c archive]) at 27:37</ref>
-These are the words Samsung used to excuse making the shortest-living part of the smartphone not replaceable, removing one of the long-standing selling points of Samsung smartphones at that time.
-Mr. Denison is implying that the anticipation of not being able to replace a dead battery, at least not without great difficulty, is supposed to make the user "confident" about charging their phone. However, replaceable batteries provide the peace of mind that one is able to replace it at any time when (not if) it expires.
 ===OnePlus "encrypted" batteries===
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 Google tried to implement Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) on the Internet, giving it the name "Web Environment Integrity API".<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0i0Ho-x7s_U Google's trying to DRM the internet, and we have to make sure they fail] - Louis Rossmann ([https://www.brighteon.com/1f4125e9-f0cd-46a3-bf38-0ff22881c0f9 Brighteon mirror], [https://old.bitchute.com/video/Jl7ze8KjhWvK/ BitChute mirror])</ref><ref>[https://www.jodybruchon.com/2023/07/22/web-environment-integrity-must-be-stopped-enslavement-by-remote-attestation/ Web Environment Integrity Must Be Stopped: Enslavement By "Remote Attestation" - Jody Bruchon]</ref>
-== "To enhance our services" ==
+=="To enhance our services"==
 ===Samsung "offers additional content" by advertising on refrigerators===
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 Despite using benevolent-seeming phrases such as "enhance our service" and " offer additional content", the actual aim of the change was to place large and obtrusive adverts in users' homes.
+=="To streamline the experience"==
+===Fewer ports on modern laptops===
+In the 2000s and early 2010s, three or four USB ports built into laptops were not uncommon. Modern laptops in contrast usually feature one or two USB-A ports and might feature an USB-C port, in addition to less modular and less upgradeable parts. In reality, this has the opposite effect: due to fewer built-in ports on their laptops, the user is forced to carry hubs and adapters to be able to use the same functionality as before, which outweighs any portability benefit that the thinness might have afforded. Netbooks already existed as the category of laptops for people primarily interested in thinness.<ref>[https://archive.today/2022.12.17-000103/https://www.easydongle.com/why-do-new-laptops-have-less-ports/ Why are so many laptops having less ports?] </ref>
+===Google wants to help cleaning up MicroSD cards by denying normal write access===
+MicroSD cards became a major selling point of Android smartphones compared to iPhones, allowing the expansion of the storage capacity by multiple times at a time where smartphone internal storage capacities were only in the double-digit gigabytes. In addition, MicroSD cards make it easy to rescue data from a broken smartphone and to get immediate free storage within minutes without hour-long file transfers.
+In Android 4.4 KitKat, Google revoked normal write access to the MicroSD card through applications installed by the user, with the exception of folders dedicated to each app at "<code>Android/data/(package name)</code>". The write access could not be restored through a setting in the menu, only through rooting.
+Google's argument was to ensure no app can leave files behind after uninstallation:
+<blockquote>
+The WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission must only grant write access to the primary external storage on a device. Apps must not be allowed to write to secondary external storage devices, except in their package-specific directories as allowed by synthesized permissions. Restricting writes in this way ensures the system can clean up files when applications are uninstalled.
+</blockquote>
+So they brought it back with Android 5.0, however only through Google's Storage Access Framework.
 ==References==
 <references />