Ethical phones

[Kurtis Hanna]

I wanted to mention that, when it comes to figuring out what phone has
the least environmental / social injustice impact, it is sometimes
better to buy used and refurbished devices than it is to buy Fairphone
type devices.

New phones that use recycled and ethically sourced materials are great!

Preventing a phone from needing to be recycled because it has a well
maintained LineageOS or Replicant ROM is also great and potentially greater!

Free software helps our society move away from the planned obsolescence
strategy of proprietary software companies.

I use a Samsung Galaxy S3 phone that I refurbished, as a member of
Technoethical.com. It now sports a ROM from https://replicant.us that
has regular security and other updates to it. I'm looking to switch to a
Technoethical Note 2 soon.

Cordially,
kurtis

Max Mehl:
> Hi Padraig,
> 
> # Decarraig [2017-07-17 20:51 +0200]:
>> I have been following various discussions on android at lists.fsfe.org
>> and I am wondering if FSFE has any policy on ethical issues with
>> mobile phones e.g. Conflict mining, cobalt mining etc ?
> 
> No, to my knowledge, we don't have a policy on that. But if we had, it
> would probably be "The more ethical, the better".
> We are experts when it comes to ethical software, but I doubt we have
> enough expertise to evaluate the many granular issues of certain
> minerals and the often dubious circumstances in which they are produced
> – not to speak of the labour conditions in which mobile phones are
> manufactured. This is a field large and complicated enough for dozens of
> NGOs.
> 
> However, many of us appreciate initiatives like Fairphone, and we will
> continue to help them to improve the freedom of their software (and
> users).
> 
> Best,
> Max
>