[off-topic] Dumb mobile phones

[William Kenworthy]

I dont see it as wrong as some of the entities I have dealt with in the 
last 6 months are getting beyond allowing simple acccess - and this 
applies especially if you are looking to the future - as of now you are 
already mentioning having to enable browsers and functions beyond the 
basic sms auth codes that were mentioned.  Its only going to get worse! 
My point is that if you get a too low end phone, its just not going to 
be adequate in the (near) future.

BillK


On 1/1/24 15:57, gavinwc wrote:
> Sorry, Bill but you're wrong. See my posting that would just have come 
> through :-)
> 
> Best regards,
> Gavin
> 
> On Mon, 1 Jan 2024 at 15:53, William Kenworthy <billk at iinet.net.au 
> <mailto:billk at iinet.net.au>> wrote:
> 
>     Hi Margaret, I am thinking you have left it too late to get a dumb
>     phone. Some of the financial entities I deal with now require an
>     authenticator app to deal with logins and I can see plain sms 2 factor
>     auth going away at some point - some still have it as optional or
>     use it
>     as well, but its changing.  The auth app uses a closed system to verify
>     its really you/your device being used by you. Some apps also check the
>     phone to make sure its up to date etc. Google/MS/Apple are also
>     inserting themselves into this process as they see a financial benefit
>     (to them) as well as the improved security.  Even dealing with
>     mygov/centrelink (via their apps) is getting irksome.  Its fast
>     becoming
>     a case of participating or being sidelined and have to move to Tasmania
>     ** :(
> 
>     BillK
> 
>     * a trip to India in December was an eye opener - to get two sim cards
>     valid for 1 month took an hour and a half with photographs of us,
>     passports and visas being sent via the shop assistants smart phone to
>     the InGov servers.  The shop assistant had to photograph us to
>     verify us
>     against the passport/evisa data they hold from our entry into the
>     country, then use the selfie mode every step to confirm by photo
>     that it
>     was them using their phone.  A long, painful, slow and error prone
>     process - but no simcard unless you do it. And to add to the weirdness
>     of it, there had to be physical printouts of the electronic
>     documents to
>     go on file as well!  1984 anyone!
> 
>     ** Apologies to Tasmanians!
> 
> 
>     On 1/1/24 14:33, Daniel wrote:
>      > Hi Margaret
>      > If you get a cheap smart phone and turn wifi and data off … I
>     think you still get text messages but not fancy ones with pictures
>     and I suspect that stops voip with faked numbers?
>      >
>      > Will you just get a number and not a url for authentication?
>      >
>      > Is that adequate security that would allow you to confidently get
>     a low priced smartphone (sold without updating the operating system
>     and already out of date and despite suggestions that security would
>     be enhanced many may never get updates made for it let alone made
>     available )?
>      >
>      > You may be quite sensibly flinching at the cost of a smart phone
>     you don’t intend to use much  …
>      >
>      > Daniel
>      >
>      >
>      >> On 1 Jan 2024, at 11:53, M S R Wood <msrwood at gmail.com
>     <mailto:msrwood at gmail.com>> wrote:
>      >>
>      >> I don't want a smart phone, but I have reluctantly decided it
>     is time
>      >> for me to get a moblle phone. The main reason is to receive
>     codes from
>      >> banks and other organisations who think this is the best/only method
>      >> of two-factor authentication. I only expect to make outgoing
>     calls in
>      >> a emergency (e.g. car breakdown), and will hardly ever send texts.
>      >>
>      >> So my ideal phone would be voice calls and text only - no
>     internet, no
>      >> apps, no camera, no torch, no music. It would have keys/buttons
>     rather
>      >> than a touchscreen, and a display in muted colours - preferably text
>      >> only, rather than icons. That's probably impossible to find
>     nowadays,
>      >> but is there anything that comes close?
>      >>
>      >> I'm also looking for a low cost, pre-paid phone plan, where unused
>      >> credit lasts as long as possible,
>      >>
>      >> Any recommendations?
>      >>
>      >> Margaret
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