It's also a reminder that your mobile's current privacy settings don't matter.

If Instagram/Facebook/Whatsapp have ever had access to your contacts - even inadvertently - you essentially can't undo this.

Not only that, but I do not know of an open source phone that is commercially available and has been audited to not do nasty things behind your back. I am not sure about the progress of Librem, and it is a sad state that we only have that, or will have that. Those phones are spy devices, I look at them as I look at Windows 10. I am never, ever, going to trust it. When I take a photo, I expect at least the thumbnail of it to get on some server. Am I too paranoid? With Google, or Chinese crap, I do not think so.

Of course you could take a similar argument or stance when it comes to desktop, and indeed, just look at all those CPU vulnerabilities. I think technology is at a really sad state. Most things are closed source (what does your keyboard do?![1]), and we have no goddamn way of knowing what is happening behind our back unless someone reverse engineers it, but the fact that it has to be done is an issue to me.

[1] https://thehackernews.com/2017/11/mantistek-keyboard-keylogg... or https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/158805/how-to-d... but yeah you could just search for it. Regardless, besides the point. :)

That’s not true. We add more contacts over time. The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The next best time is now.