Idk how the new user experience is now but back when I first downloaded it I wanted a hybrid of sat imagery when cell signal allowed, with an overlay of offline OSM data. This was for two reasons, hiking and to see if the mapping in that hike area needed any major land use edits.
Anyway I had to fiddle with the menus and settings for a while to get the overlays where I wanted it to be. Don’t get me wrong I was able to figure it out but for users who want to install and go it can be understandably frustrating
My grandma told me of a relative that came to visit them in the US from Eastern Europe (Slovakia I think) after the Soviet Union dissolved.
One thing they noticed is that he always wore his shoes. Even when staying at home. Even to bed. They asked why and he explained that it was to give him a chance of escape if the Secret Police came and he was surprised that our family didn’t have to do something similar.
Yeah we really need to step it up. Sadly we’ll never live up to the shining example of Tiananmen Square. Peak human rights!
Ah I was just kidding, you probably mean the ability for Soviets to assemble. Like that one time they all banded together to put an end to…the Soviet Union. In that case yes we have much to aspire to!
It is clunky and takes tinkering to get it just right for each use case, which can be a pain especially for new users. But once it’s set up it works very well and most importantly works everywhere. While traveling abroad without cell data OsmAnd saved our asses more than once when Google Maps failed!
It’s like Call of Duty vs Arma. Call of Duty is slick and is very good at a very specific experience. Arma isn’t nearly as smooth or pretty, and it has a learning curve but once you get past that it can do a wide variety of amazing things the other simply cannot match. But admittedly it’s not for everyone
It’s interesting to think about. Banks can track where a person buys and how much is spent. Individual businesses gather data on customers in various ways that bigger corporations can pay to look at. But there’s only so much one business sees. And they might not want to share that in the first place.
Scanning trash for logos, barcodes etc can give you nice “average consumer” stats for an area without paying a bunch of companies. It doesn’t matter if a bottle of sunscreen came from a small business, walmart or bought online direct, they’ll know people in your area bought it and used it.
Yeah I’m not really trying to hide from the govt, but I would vote on limiting their power if given the chance. Anyway, what I don’t want is every corporation I deal with (car, bank, phone, apps, isp, etc) to track me so excessively.
If the govt did get curious it would take zero leg work, just ask those companies that are very willing to hand over my data to damn near anyone, or hold onto it long enough to have it stolen.
So with that in mind limiting corporate surveillance and limiting ease of govt surveillance is essentially the same thing, but the govt has the ability to put in the work and get you if they really wanted to.