06-26-2021, 11:00 PM
Reading the manual, it appears that a KaiOS account is only needed if you want to be able to remotely lock or wipe the phone, presumably if it is lost or stolen. It is not needed for normal phone operation. So far all I've done has been to remove the SIM and charge the battery.
As I mentioned the phone does have Google Assistant, which is worrisome, but it appears to be a standalone application that does not need to be used. Of course I have no idea whether Google also has its spyware burrowed into the OS. On the plus side the battery can be removed so it can be turned off fully.
So as I said this new AT&T flip phone is not as bad as I initially thought but certainly it is not going to be totally under the user's control and is worthy of some suspicion. So the Pinephone will be my primary and the new AT&T phone an emergency backup. So far no problem using the Pinephone with AT&T but if they block it I'll try changing the IMEI as has been mentioned.
As I mentioned the phone does have Google Assistant, which is worrisome, but it appears to be a standalone application that does not need to be used. Of course I have no idea whether Google also has its spyware burrowed into the OS. On the plus side the battery can be removed so it can be turned off fully.
So as I said this new AT&T flip phone is not as bad as I initially thought but certainly it is not going to be totally under the user's control and is worthy of some suspicion. So the Pinephone will be my primary and the new AT&T phone an emergency backup. So far no problem using the Pinephone with AT&T but if they block it I'll try changing the IMEI as has been mentioned.