Basically what TGS & FPS said.
Get an unlocked pixel from google. They often run a 50% off sale on black friday. Put something like calyx or GrapheneOS on it.
https://calyxos.org/
https://grapheneos.org/
https://securechatguide.org/favorites.html
https://www.securemessagingapps.com/
But I am still awaiting better Linux based phones.
Last edited by SLUZENE; 09-16-2021 at 06:56 PM.
Convenience and privacy? No. I agree. But then again I assume the people on this forum are trying to be more private from big tech (google, facebook), rather than from targeted LE/NSA surveillance.Originally Posted by blues
Think about what apps you really need on a phone. Don't think about convenience, think about need (convenience and "free" is the candy to lure you into the van). Odds are, there are many non-Google open source apps that can replace those.
If you can't find open source versions (check F-Droid store which features all open source apps), you can download apps from the Google play store through an anonymous store app called Aurora. Since your phone has been de-Googled, most likely you can control what the app will do on your phone and how much it talks to Google if you aren't running any Google play services. Some apps might have some functionality disabled if they rely on G Play services. If you absolutely need Google Play services, you can download an app called Micro G. Read up on what it does.
Biggest pain for most people is usually the loss of Google maps. But that thing is the biggest spyware and tracking device in the history of the world. If you absolutely need to use it, use it via a browser, preferably one that you don't use for anything else. But remember, we were able to find things before the existence of Google maps. There are some alternative map programs but I haven't used them yet. Don't expect anything like G maps though.
Operating systems - I have one success with GrapheneOS and one fail with LineageOS (phone issue that wouldn't cooperate). Graphene has worked out great.
Privacy can be attained but it takes work and understanding how you are being tracked which is very extensive. Most people would be horrified if they knew all the ways. We would all be better off if we got rid of big tech services as fast as possible. If you can't for work or other reasons, you can isolate them by using different browsers, computers, virtual machines, etc. Use a good VPN to hide your IP address (Mullvad, ProtonVPN - read up on which ones are best for privacy, they are not all equal).
Once you have made your phone as private as possible, you have more to do with your home network and other devices and what apps other people are using to communicate with you. Try to get as many people as you regularly chat with on Signal. Look at ProtonMail or Tutanota for end to end encrypted email between both parties using the service. If one party is not using the same encrypted service, no encryption - email header info is wide open. Move to Linux where possible - many distros have gotten much easier to use.
Hiding from 3 letter agencies is largely futile IMO - mass surveillance unfortunately has to be handled at the political level (which it probably won't). It is big tech I am concerned about (read up on the kind of things Apple has done with China and Russia, they are an evil company). Long track record of abuses by the other big tech names. Government won't crack down on them most likely due to all the backdoor data sharing deals and technology dependencies.
Good resources:
- PrivacyTools.io
- Michael Bazzell
- Edward Snowden
- The Hated One (YouTube)
- Rob Braxman Tech (YouTube)
- Techlore (YouTube)
- The Social Dilemma (Netflix)
- "Mobile Handset Privacy: Measuring the Data iOS and Android Send to Apple and Google" - Douglas Leith, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, School of Computer Science and Statistics.
- Summary article of above paper - ArsTechnica (and many other sources, it was widely reported).
MySudo now supports non-stock Android, so I've picked up a Pixel 4a, loaded GrapheneOS on it following Michael Bazzell's guidelines, and am playing around with it. The only major question mark is interfacing with my car's infotainment system, as I use CarPlay / Android Auto literally every time I'm in the vehicle. That doesn't appear to work without Google services installed, so this phone is probably not going to become my EDC until that's resolved.
On the plus side, installing GrapheneOS was very straight-forward. I've installed LineageOS on other systems and, while it certainly wasn't rocket surgery, it did require a non-trivial amount of "already know what you're doing".
"Sapiens dicit: 'Ignoscere divinum est, sed noli pretium plenum pro pizza sero allata solvere.'" - Michelangelo
To iOS 15? Or keep 14 up to date?
If you have a gun safe with a heater in it, put your old phone in there for a week. Open the case if you can. I've done that with several old flip phones that went thru the washing machine. Once the moisture is sucked out they worked just fine.
But if you want a new phone get a new phone.
In the P-F basket of deplorables.
The latter. This was for a security patch that apple pushed out. Chances are it was already force installed for you but if not, accept the update.
My phone’s trying to force-install 15.1.
If nothing else, that will include whatever the security patch was.
Plenty of popular apps work just fine. The problem - at least in my experience - is that there's no way of telling what will work and what won't, sans actually downloading it and trying. Some apps don't blink at the absence of GSF (Google Services Framework), others loudly proclaim they won't work and then proceed to work fine, others won't get past their initial splash screen.
At present, I have: Spotify, PocketCasts, Headspace, MyFitnessPal, MySudo, Authy, ProtonVPN, ProtonMail, FastMail, and Firefox all running fine (I think...) on GrapheneOS. Those apps seems to like LineageOS as well.
Yes. Some of that can be mitigated by using firewalls and avoiding the worst offenders (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, et cetera), but if it's using a network connection, it's probably leaking something. You could keep it anonymous if you were very deliberate, but you'd have to give up using your phone the way most people use their phones, and I'm not prepared to do that.
No push notifications to apps is the biggest thing I've seen thus far. Push notifications rely on either Apple or Google to locate and send data to your device, so no GSF means no notifications. Some apps (like MySudo) will still get notifications if the app is up and running in the background, but that can be a little gnarly to your battery.
"Sapiens dicit: 'Ignoscere divinum est, sed noli pretium plenum pro pizza sero allata solvere.'" - Michelangelo
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