[jeffparsons]

My Android phone prevents me from taking screenshots if an app author doesn't want me to.

My Android phone prevents me from recording phone calls at the request of my carrier, even though it's totally legal for me to do so in my jurisdiction.

I'm not loving where this is all going.

[hypeatei]

> prevents me from taking screenshots if an app author doesn't want me to

The most frustrating part about this "feature" is that you don't know it's enabled until the screenshot is taken and you're left with a picture of nothing.

That and some app authors thinking they're protecting you with this (referring to banking apps in particular)

[GuB-42]

It is not for preventing you from taking screenshots, if you insist, you can do it with another camera. It is to prevent malware and "helpful" AI tools from doing it for you and then uploading the picture to who knows where. Signal does this too, though I think it is optional.

Beyond preventing screenshots, it blacks out the window content in the task switcher, which is useful if someone is looking over your shoulder. This, by the way, is a good way to check if screenshots are allowed. If the window appears black in the task switcher, screenshots won't work.

The idea is similar to the "**" password fields.

[godelski]

In some sense they are. But being protected either from a consequence of my own stupidity or a consequence of their lack of security. I think the worst part of all is that these "bandaids" are being used in place of actual security. I don't need to be protected from my own stupidity nor do I need security theater.

[Foobar8568]

I want to send my new IBAN to my company, I can, no screenshot allowed on the screen with banking information. So I need to log on their website to do it. At least my new bank allows such screenshot and to copy account information directly from the app.

[nerdponx]

Pretty sure Twitch on iOS does this now. Screen recording still works though.

[stronglikedan]

> The most frustrating part about this "feature" is that you don't know it's enabled until the screenshot is taken and you're left with a picture of nothing.

That's doesn't sound right. On mine, a message is displayed saying that the app does not allow screenshots, and no image is written to the device.

[mihaaly]

Jesus Christ!

Who are the product designers of the present with these single-minded attitude not checking how the implementation affects the life of paying customers< Children?! Most take pride - on paper! - about what one can do 'so easily' with their product, just to raise barricades getting there, using it, or those pop up suddenly while using it, bumping into it like into a bollard ona highway. Or just chain them to it against will! I am not aiming at Android only here as this is a generic attitude I found from organization being so self obsessed about what THEY want that no-one else benefits, no-one else have real benefits - only mixed ones with sizeable drawbacks -, defying the purpose of having modern technology. When the life becomes differently complicated, then that is no progress at all, just messing around. I am thinking three, four, or more times nowadays buying any technology, which is sad, as I was so enthusiastic only one but especially two decades ago, discovering advances and gadgets. Not anymore. I spend my money - and TIME! - on things bringing benefit or joy instead, or on those I am FORCED into. Yes, this obsession of providing non-technology services (banking, bureaucracy, identification, ...) apps first (sometimes only, at least to various, sometimes important details of the use/access) which is a hugely demanding matter on users (choose, purchase, pay, setup, learn, re-learn, update, maintain, subscribe, know and accept terms, charge, protect, both physically and data wise, click away suggestions and self promotions while busy with something important) that it is a very bitter pill to swallow.

[figmert]

You're tech savvy enough, you're not the target for such a feature. The target is the grandmas and grandpas, and other people who have no idea about such things.

[nine_k]

Now consider the fact that an arbitrary other app can take a screenshot clandestinely, via API. Would you like it to happen when you're looking at the summary of your accounts? your list of credit card numbers?

The problem is that certain actions should only be acceptable if initiated by the user, physically. Think of the way Ctrl+Alt+Del works in Windows. This, of course, is not possible if you don't have enough fingers for the action, or something; here comes the loophole of assistive technologies, widely (ab)used for that on most platforms.

[socalgal2]

It's not just phones. Try asking ChatGPT/Gemini anything the hive mind in SV doesn't want you to ask. Try asking it anything the hive mind as decided has only one possible answer. It's only going to get worse

[jbstack]

At least with LLMs you have more options (Deepseek, Grok, offline models, etc.). It's still far from perfect, but it's not as bad as phones where you basically only have a choice of Android or iPhone if you don't want to have to live with major inconvenience (such as being unable to do online banking or pay for parking). It's also a lot easier to launch a competitor in the AI market: you just need capital. With phone OS's it's essentially impossible. The barriers to entry are too high.

[szszrk]

I tried to debug a google pay issue with a Bank once:

- Bank told me to go to Google.

- Google support told me to go to the Bank.

- (... few emails later...)

- Google support told me to make screenshots of the banking app and google pay.

So have a second phone ready, or stop complaining :) A few years later and 3 phones later... it works again!

[preisschild]

Google Pay requires SafetyNet verification, which means it only works with a Google-approved hard & software combination, so not with GrapheneOS for example...

I hate that banks use this proprietary "standard" for NFC payments

[_heimdall]

Only your carrier is supposed to record the calls.

Edit: apparently the /s is obligatory on this one

[Maskawanian]

Absolute lies, where I live it is one party consent. I can still record with another device on speakerphone.

[m463]

iphone now allows phone call recording.

I don't know if it is geolocked somehow, I wouldn't be surprised if it was. for example, Japanese iphones always make a shutter sound in japan or in airplane mode

There is a waveform thing in the corner you can press during a call. It will say "this call is being recorded" and waits 5 seconds, then records the call.

strangely... the recording doesn't end up in voice memos, it ends up in notes.

[ulrikrasmussen]

My government (Denmark) refusing to let me use their digital identity app because I don't want to accept Google's or Apple's TOS, and Google helping them enforce that via remote attestation services.

Luckily there are alternatives in the form of code displays and NFC chips. However, next year I won't be able to watch porn unless I verify my age using a smartphone, no alternatives are planned. Or rather, I have the "free choice" to choose between a privacy preserving ZKP solution operating in the kingdom of Google or uploading my face to a porn site.

Dark times.

[throw83834948]

During covid I was not allowed to leave house. Permits were only issued to local SIMs, which I did not had!

If I respected the rules, I would starve to death!

[mrweasel]

The amount of things you can't do in Denmark without a smart phone is terrifying. Technically you can still manage, but it's becoming increasing difficult. Way everything needs to be a fucking app is beyond me. Accessibility and alternatives for the elderly, or just people who doesn't want a smartphone is pretty much just ignored.

[azalemeth]

I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one who hates MitID. I really don't think that any software that has so much trust in the user has a good security model. What are they protecting against exactly? If someone else wanted to impersonate you with your consent you could just tell them your login credentials!

[taneliv]

LOL, what? My (teenage) kids use my phone all the time, especially in the car, when I'm driving, but also at home. It's not like I have porn or banking apps on it, but what is the age verification going to help there? If the kids would install an app or used browser to see naked people, then my face would be available to these services, right? Better mine than the kids', I suppose!

(We're not in Denmark, but I wonder how it is going in our jurisdiction ...)

[nicman23]

route everything through a vps?

[food4thought1]

> or uploading my face to a porn site.

I assume that in the pornography you've decided to consume, the participants are not clad in balaclavas.

They're showing their faces to everyone, in perpetuity, which many may no longer want to, and - considering the exploitative nature of the pornography industry, where rape is endemic - some didn't consent to in the first place.

So maybe consider that when you're complaining that your own face may be linked with pornography. Is what you're doing ethical? Do you reasonably have any right to complain?

[motbus3]

My friend, your phone might snitch on you depending what pictures or files you save. Your messages and calls can be saved at will without your knowledge. Even your notifications are being watched. Your apps have backdoors to spy on you.

It is already here.

[craftkiller]

< recording phone calls

FWIW the default phone app on GrapheneOS supports recording phone calls.

[7e]

Did a nation state ask GrapheneOS to add that feature?

[amelius]

> My Android phone prevents me from taking screenshots if an app author doesn't want me to.

It's worse. An app author can even be notified if a screenshot was taken.

[croon]

The Amazon app does this: "Amazon Shopping detected this screenshot."

I'm assuming (hoping) it's Android letting me know and not the app passive aggressively side eyeing me.

[emporas]

The issue is bigger than that.

Why not two people share a device, and when passed from one person to another, delete applications and install all apps and profiles from scratch using verified checksums saved on a blockchain. An OS which could do that is something like Nix. When passed to the previous person same thing, delete and install everything from scratch.

Using smartphones in a smart way, not a dumb way, like timesharing mainframes of the past. Same procedure could be applied to cars and other devices.

[rerdavies]

Android's Multiple Users feature does exactly this. Multiple users accounts with all user data completely sandboxed and restricted to each user. All user data is cryptographically protected on storage devices.

The actual SE filesystem available to a logged in user is pretty complicated. But the short story is that user-data is completely isolated. Presumably application binaries (which require digital signatures by default) are shared; although the "installed" state is not. Successive releases of Android have restricted access to any legacy "shared" data on the device (media folders particularly; pictures and video taken by the camera device have been strongly protected since Forever).

Verified checksums on a blockchain are only useful if they are verified by some provider who associates a blockchain ID with a real-world identity. Not sure what "blockchain" really adds. If anyone can create a blockchain ID, then "verification" doesn't really provide useful information.

[nine_k]

This assumes that these two persons will never need to use a smartphone at the same moment, which is a bit of a logistical puzzle.

Installing apps is the trivial part; isolating, or removing / reinstalling user data is much harder. Especially a few gigabytes of it. An SD card could work maybe.

This all goes against the grain of the smarthpone UX, the idea of a highly personal device that you can use for anything, and might need (or benefit from) at an arbitrary moment.

If the point is reducing e-waste, the solution would rather be opening up the hardware enough to provide long-term software support, LineageOS-style.

[BrandoElFollito]

This reminds me of a story of my bank that at some point told me to send them a screenshot.

I told them that their app prevents this. To their surprise.

I told them that I would use the web site and they were happy that there is a workaround for their own limitation.

I had other wild stories with this otherwise good bank.

[mihaaly]

These petty measures are as self damaging to reputation as futile: one can easily make screenshot or do recording with an other device, which is soooo commonplace nowadays. It is just ruining user experience with small-minded measures, driving people away.

[dsp_person]

I think this might be a longstanding "bug", but I have also not had any luck on my android using the screen recorder to record device audio from a browser (either chromium or firefox). It used to partially work using the mic to record the speakers, but currently it sounds like it does processing to subtract away the original signal; I hear mostly silence with occasional garbled artifacts resembling the original audio.

[tsimionescu]

Maybe this depends on the site? I have definitely recorded video with audio off YouTube and other popular video sites, on a stock Samsung phone, even yesterday.

[jeroenhd]

The first part also happens on desktop thanks to DRM, unfortunately. Like on Android, it can be worked around, but it's a massive pain to do so.

I'm curious about the second part, though. How do carriers influence the call recording feature on your phone? Is it because you run a carrier ROM or is there some kind of integration with the mobile network/SIM card that I'm not aware of?

[layer8]

See https://source.android.com/docs/core/connect/uicc. UICC is the software component of a SIM card.

[sterlind]

> My Android phone prevents me from recording phone calls at the request of my carrier, even though it's totally legal for me to do so in my jurisdiction.

my GrapheneOS phone has the record button. :) though I have to obtain all-party consent to do so legally in my jurisdiction (but that's my responsibility.)

[aerique]

That's what I love running Android apps in Sailfish OS. I can just take these screenshots.

Then again, this is also what makes me almost throw my Android phone against the wall when I try to do the same on that phone.

[liendolucas]

Is not your phone and it probably never will be.

[benterix]

Fortunately we still have the analog loophole.

[nicman23]

run a custom rom. Infinity X (the gsi one) does both

[microtonal]

Custom ROMs do not work with remote attestation (typically), so that means saying bye bye to a lot of apps, including some banking apps.