Actually Infuriating

Some phones resist powering off to try to help you recover your device.

Many phones will trigger FRP (factory reset protection) if you manage to factory reset it from recovery. Then you'll be asked for the password to the Gmail account previously registered on the phone.

Sometimes FRP bypass is possible. Many methods utilize glitches.

Find my device is great. I've used it before with mixed results. Sometimes if only to confirm where you lost it. Theft-wise, obviously ymmv, but if you just misplaced it, having it make a sound can be super helpful.

I feel for you. And yes, they really do that. They re-enable features that were explicitly disabled.

But usable and affordable alternatives exist - if you're willing to curb your expectations, meaning: there isn't an app for everything, or this great feature I got so used to on my $CORPO phone is not available.

It's all in the terms & conditions that no-one has ever read, but everyone has agreed to. (and yes it's all horrid)

I've used find my device my device plenty of times when I'm not sure if I left my phone somewhere. It's pretty useful. I just go to Google and type find my phone and it asks me which device and then gives me a button to make it ring and shows me it's location.

I haven't used it as much as now I have a Garmin watch that tracks my every movement and that has a button to make my phone ring.

It is possible to self host a similar service if you want the protection without the spying.

Something like this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification?wprov=sfti1

Your rant is valid, but it’s not just Google, it’s every single tech company is doing the same, one way or another.

Apple also has the Find My, which is quite useful, even though I know it tracks my location.

Even if you leave your phone at home, there are cameras everywhere and they can know exactly where you are or your last known location.

Data is gold and it’s being collected by every website, app, company, etc.

Apple does the same. Apple had their Find My first, and of course Google had mapping first. Now they both do it.

The mapping is useful if you're a commuter, but everyone contributes their data, supposedly anonymously, and then your phone provider basically can tell you how many people are on the road by looking at how many use their platform, and figuring their market share in the area. They assume if 20 people are using their phone and they have a 20% market share, then there are probably 100 people on the road at that time and they can tell you with relative accuracy how congested one motorway is, and suggest an alternate route.

Apple's Find My network is pretty useful, and your identity is not shared. Basically every iPhone, cellular iPad, and cellular Apple Watch knows where every other Apple device is because they all talk to each other. You mark yours as lost, the others that see it ping you and say "right here! here it is!". If your iPhone is helping someone find their Mac or their luggage or whatever, they'll never know who you are, and you'll never know who they are, let alone that you helped them. It's all done on the DL. Google... I'm not so sure about. But, it's also not easy to disable. If I lose my iPhone and you pick it up, it's junk to you, unless you have some really expensive and rare hacking tools (governments for example). If it's in Lockdown Mode, you're still screwed. Used to be, you could factory reset a locked Android device and start over with it, losing all the data stored on it... now, I'm not so sure.

Just saying, what annoys you saves a lot of people a lot of money. I'm not talking about the billionaires — every device does that. I mean people who could lose their job if they don't get to work on time, or someone who really can't afford to buy a new phone but they lost theirs. Google sucks for privacy. Apple says they're better but we're really not sure, and they're putting ads in Apple Maps now because being the second, third, whatever largest company in the world isn't enough, they gotta make more money.

You did censent... You did check that "Accept the Terms & Conditions" box (don't feel bad though, we all did unfortunately!)