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You can’t say no to Google’s surveillance
Yes you can: https://grapheneos.org/
I was just wondering earlier today if Google kept the bootloader open to allow custom OS installation only because they had other hardware on the phone that would send them their information anyways, possibly through covert side channels.
Like they could add listeners for cell signals that pick up data encoded in the lower bits of timestamps attached to packets, which would be very difficult to detect (like I'm having trouble thinking of a way to determine if that's happening even if you knew to look for it).
Or maybe there's a sleeper code that can be sent to "wake up" the phone's secret circuitry and send bulk data when Google decides they want something specific (since encoding in timestamps would be pretty low bandwidth), which would make detection by traffic analysis more difficult, since most of the time it isn't sending anything at all.
This is just speculation, but I've picked up on a pattern of speculating that something is technically possible, assuming there's no way they'd actually be doing that, and later finding out that it was actually underestimating what they were doing.
So what phones do you all have?
iPhone 16 Pro Max, but Graphene does look dope.
Pixel 7 pro with GrapheneOS.
Pencil with graphite
stone and chisel
Oooga booga
the one guy on lemmy with calyxos
not a phone just a literal block of graphene
Fairphone 5
Pixel 7 Pro with GrapheneOS
pixel 6a with graphene os
Pixel 8a with graphene
pixel 7a with crdroid
I know this isn't the topic here, but I really wish these researchers would unroll what all Apple harvests from Apple devices. It's quite a lot as well. Could help pop that "we're so private" myth.
Installing GrapheneOS removes all the Google crap.
What is the advantage over Calyx/Lineage/iode OS on compatible devices? I just don't want Google to have any of my money at all. Buying a privacy solution from them recoups their loss.
Can't speak to what others are saying about Graphene but Calyx is amazing if you prefer a FOSS-centric option but still want GMS/GSF compatibility. Bootloader relocking is a requirement for their devices.
I don't know about Calyx or Iode but Lineage doesn't allow for a locked bootloader. This is a massive security hole and without security, sooner or later, your privacy will be violated.
Currently, GrapheneOS on a newer Pixel are the only phones that Celebrite can't breach. Celebrite machines are cheap enough that the border guards and your local cops probably have one. In my country, it's the law that a cop is allowed to examine a phone during a traffic stop.
Mainly the locked bootloader that GrapheneOS offers. It's more secure, and GrapheneOS emphasizes security over all else, but privacy features are part of that security.
Other OSs let you lock the bootloader too. I know that iodéOS and CalyxOS do, for example.
It's my understanding that Graphene has security as its main goal, not privacy, though it's also quite private.
I like calyx, might try graphene some day. But I absolutely won't run Google's play services ala graphene. It's sandboxed, supposedly, but why run it at all?
Calyx uses microG, a much smaller, fully open source emulator of Google's services.
@RubberElectrons @multi_regime_enjoyer its not actually fully open source, it uses a lot of closed-source libraries, and its not as battle-tested as google's official one so there really isn't a reason to use it
Just about all of your identifying data is stripped out by the framework before interacting with Google at all: https://github.com/microg/GmsCore/wiki/Google-Network-Connections
That alone makes it an important tool. I'm not too worried about memory exploits as I don't really install apps, but it's an important feature in graphene's toolkit.
For most people who want an Android alternative that's open source but don't have time to fiddle with it, calyxOS seems like a good solution. It just works out of the box.
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this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2024
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