> I know older people who will still walk into the various government offices and utility offices when needed
Yup. I speak from experience.
Government services and private utilities in Texas require email addresses. They require phone numbers.
If you don't have a computer, you're definitely not going to get the emails in a timely fashion. If you don't have a phone, you're not going to receive phone calls or texts. Good luck to homeless!
When you do have a computer, the government services offload your information to a private third party. You are required to do this to enroll in government services, and that private entity has its own license agreement whose jurisdiction is not even in Texas. If you have a disagreement, good luck getting to Idaho to file a dispute when you can't afford groceries. And all of your private information is made available to the lowest bidder.
I looked at the various utility companies in Texas. They all have in office support. Are you really telling me that senior citizens are not getting utilities if they don’t have an email address?
They require home phone numbers.
And you are talking about owning a phone - not a smart phone.
> Surely as an HN commenter you know the solution for having a computer that you don’t want to run software by BigTech on it.
Yup. I speak from experience. See my other reply [0] to you.
[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42879665
> I know older people who will still walk into the various government offices and utility offices when needed
Yup. I speak from experience.
Government services and private utilities in Texas require email addresses. They require phone numbers.
If you don't have a computer, you're definitely not going to get the emails in a timely fashion. If you don't have a phone, you're not going to receive phone calls or texts. Good luck to homeless!
When you do have a computer, the government services offload your information to a private third party. You are required to do this to enroll in government services, and that private entity has its own license agreement whose jurisdiction is not even in Texas. If you have a disagreement, good luck getting to Idaho to file a dispute when you can't afford groceries. And all of your private information is made available to the lowest bidder.