Buyer beware plagued with issues

[V11]

This phone is not worth the purchase. Samsung is putting all its efforts into using AI and Google for surveillance/data harvesting. They've lost interest in providing a phone that has simple functions and letting you keep your data private.

Buyer beware, this phone has major issues that do not get resolved. Group texting doesn't work, text magically dissappear, pages freeze up mid use, and the camera is overloaded with AI enhancements and the picture quality is terrible. 

Another phone company needs to come out and offer a quality phone with minimal surveillance, put the SD card back, no clouds, simple functions and a great camera. Samsung has taken the wrong path. 

[Srb79]

Good luck with that

[Pianodude58]

My Samsung Galaxy S25 FE 5G phone has none of the issues you mentioned. Group texting works perfectly, text does not magically disappear, pages don't freeze up, and the Camera Settings can be adapted to what you want, including using Pro mode. My S25 FE out-of-box takes great quality photos.

[nullandvoid]

I'm of the firm belief that most of these issues are user error or user configuration.

[nullandvoid]

You have an Android phone.  Android is a Google product.  Google is the operating system.  Anything related to Google is part of Android.  You will get this with *ANY* Android phone.  Your data is being harvested with every interaction you make out in the world.  Use email? Data harvested. Visit websites? Data harvested. Use a credit card?  If you think banks aren't tracking your purchase habits, there are a few bridges for sale.  If you are concerned about data harvesting, give up all your technology and retire to a cabin in the woods.  You can turn off most of the AI features on  your phone.  You can mitigate the camera's AI photo enhancement by adjusting the settings, or just using pro mode where you  control all aspects of the picture.  Not really ideal if you are just a point and shoot kind of photographer.

If your group texting does not work, I'm guessing you use Samsung messages, likely because you "don't want to use Google".  Samsung messages is incomplete when it comes to RCS and group messaging.  Samsung has been largely ignoring the app in advance of sunsetting it.  But it seems as if they may be returning some functionality to it with OneUI8.5 - likely only on newer phones.

If you can find a manufacturer with all the requirements you list, go for it.  I think what you are looking for, though, is a return to "dumb phones".  I think Nokia revived their classic model.

[CEParsons]

Modern dumb phones run KaiOS, which still harvests user data such as app usage, IP address, device info, etc.

Unless OP is prepared to solely use a landline, they are not going to find a phone that does not harvest any data.

[V11]

I'm fine with dumb. We have the technology to keep it simple and make it work flawless. 

When you have government purchasing private data for large amounts of money, then tech focuses on this. Free society is doomed. Each year Millions of people  either get killed, go missing, get assaulted, and God knows what else. The same data they collect on you about whether you drink coke or Pepsi, knows who and what is involved with the Millions harmed each year. Tech is not for good, it's for ultimate control.

All the smart people can have it. 

[nullandvoid]

You can always go back to a landline wired/fiber optic phone - no one says you have to carry around a portable tracking system - but if you think there's no tracking/data collection going on there, well I think Greenland is for sale.  Privacy became a myth the moment people accepted cordless phones and then regular cell phones into their lives.

Do you think your data isn't being harvested the instant you sign up for an email account, or even simply registering a product?  There's a reason they ask demographic questions.  Paranoid people should not own or seek to own technology.  @ricketypumpkin is correct, none of us are important enough for any government to be tracking us.  Marketing companies are another story.

[ricketypumpkin]

He acts like he's never heard of cookies before. Forget about even registering products, he's literally getting his stuff harvested by posting here on this forum. It's a self-defeating argument He's having with himself. As his data is being harvested, he's arguing against harvestment Make that make sense (not you lol)
Simply opening the browser nine times out of 10 just its homepage constitutes a bombardment of cookies that don't ask explicit permission in most cases, and have a handshake with your browser which then gives the requested information so long as it complies with regulations. He obviously is uneducated on the matter and is literally just a run of the mill conspiracy theorist that does zero research into the topic and goes online and yells the loudest. Textbook sociopath

[nullandvoid]

From the time marketers and developers discovered they can cash in on selling/buying personal data, they've been looking for ways to exploit that and garner more.  Most people forget about cookies because they either gave up their computers (or are too young to ever have had one) or set their browsers to accept first party cookies (or, heck, *all* cookies).  In the early days of computing, we would get pop-ups asking us if we wanted to accept each individual cookies (that got old fast) and then Microsoft added a way to make them automatic and no more pop-ups.  It was still relatively manageable, until the cookies started having babies then you couldn't see your content for all the popups.