Who Owns My Cell Phone?

[+ Lucky]

Google seems to want to control everything I do on the phone, but somehow Samsung is also involved. They want me to agree to their new privacy notice, but I don't know if I have to. I don't even know why Samsung is still involved with my phone. Yes, I bought a Samsung Galaxy recently, but don't I own it now?

[cheekycharlie]

It could be said BIG tech owns you & tracks you, what signed up for, having given consent. Check out options, see if can block.

[viewing ownly]

Phones are just like cars now - nobody wants the one they have a few years in. You may own your phone, but be assured that the powers that be will render it unusable mere moments after you're done paying it off, if you're on a payment plan.

I was incensed that AT&T talked me into having a "second phone" for my "monthly rate to go down". It didn't - and, I lost my free HBO I received when I just had one phone. I feel like I'm the super-fool continuing to have Directv, dealing with chronic channel blockades due to contract disputes - I had no CBS for 6 months last year. 

[+ Vegas_Millennial]

19 hours ago, Lucky said:

Google seems to want to control everything I do on the phone, but somehow Samsung is also involved. They want me to agree to their new privacy notice, but I don't know if I have to. I don't even know why Samsung is still involved with my phone. Yes, I bought a Samsung Galaxy recently, but don't I own it now?

I use Android phones and try to use as little Google as possible.  I downloaded and use Microsoft Edge instead of Google Chrome on my telephone.  I save all contact information only to my phone, and never backup to a cloud.  I create a new Google account with a fake name whenever I buy a new Android phone, and I transfer the information from my old phone via cables, and stop using the old Google username associated with my previous telephone.  So, while Google tracks me for the few years I own a mobile telephone, there's no lifetime data associated with my account, and no name or personal information given to Google.  It's a few days worth of headache to transfer what I need when I buy a new telephone, but I look at it as a helpful purge every few years.