Im fortunate enough to want neither of those things haha

sadly i do actually need to work still :(

Whatsapp preinstalled… hard pass from me. All the other considerations like price, browser block, app emulation implementation; those are all things I could probably get past but preinstalled spyware is unacceptable from the get go.

Edit to add. The app blocking is interesting to me. Instead of thinking about the user being blocked from unstalling and using the app, I’m curious about the technology they will use to block the app (and app maker) from running activity on the device.

Hopefully the solution includes something like DNS blocking rather than a blacklist on the play integrity api and a reliance on Google killing the unstall of apk from other sources.

Not sure if DNS blocking explains the browser exclusion which is otherwise a bit odd.

I use noscript https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NoScript

It starts with a default position of blocking everything (which breaks a lot of sites) but as you use the internet you just tell it to trust the domains that you need and permablock those you don’t. After a few weeks, you find your regular sites are taken care of.

googletagmanager and fascistbook are obvious blocks on most sites. Same for trust pilot and the like.

It can get more complicated when you try to buy something as that does legitimately require scripts from other services like stripe, worldpay etc. Or from shopify and the like.

You always have the option of temporarily allowing the page to do what it wants if you just find the pagelist too overwhelming but it is worth just experimenting and reloading the page till you figure out what is necessary and what is not. Set once, and it’s done.

Another option is to have a second browser not running noscript, that deletes all data on exit, and use that for purchasing. I use Librewolf when I want to do that and minimise fingerprinting and tracking.

Bonus fact, most news sites with paywalls, run those paywalls with JavaScript. No script, no paywall. 😂

Another reason to be aggressively blocking attempts to run JavaScript from marketing (and other non critical) domains.

There nothing to cheer here. They are all toxic snakes.

There are reasons why I would never use Gamestop but do (currently) use eBay and have done for over 20 years.
On of those reasons is Ryan Cohen and if he takes over I will delete my account without any hesitation at all.

Per Ryan Cohen’s Wikipedia page: “He supported Donald Trump during the 2024 United States presidential election, and promoted the conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was rigged. Cohen has publicly expressed criticism of Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. In early 2025, he criticized Canada and France for “wokeness and DEI” and said they have “high taxes, Liberalism, Socialism, Progressivism” that generated a challenging business environment in those markets.”

When will these billionaires just take the fact they already have far more money than they can ever spend, and FUCK RIGHT OFF!!! Let someone else run a business with morals, ethics, and a desire for something other than the extraction of wealth that can never be spent. At this point when you have so much, to chase more can only be because it denies the rest of the plane access to that wealth which could do so much economic rebalancing as well as social and environmental good.