this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2025
290 points (98.3% liked)

Privacy

40863 readers
976 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Related communities

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

It feel like we’re losing to Google, day by day. They aren’t killing AOSP directly, but they are making it useless step by step.

Now it’s Google Play Services, Play Integrity checks, installation source checks… more and more apps just refuse to run without GMS. Banking apps? Most of them don’t work. And it’s only getting worse. I run vanilla AOSP on my main profile, no Play Services. I keep GMS only in my work profile for the apps that absolutely need it. But now even some regular apps that don't need any play services won’t work on my main profile anymore. They simply block your from running , like le chat.

Maps is google's most important app there is no way to run without play services. Sure we can use webview or gmaps wv, but they don't provide turn-by-turn directions. Earlier maps used to work without play services, but two years ago, an update stopped it from working. Now that old version is out of date and no longer works.

Google is slowly making GMS very important to run. The problem with GMS is they require to run as system app and has to have all the permissions by default.

Hope EU puts pressure to make google allow apps to run independently without GMS or atleast install them as user apps(like graphene os sandboxed play services).

If we keep going on like this, AOSP can only run fdroid apps in the future.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] ChaosSpectre@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Realistically, change your approach to how you use your phone.

A majority of apps are not actually apps. They are a web app packaged in an apk so they can get elevated permissions and more data. Dont download apps, instead just install them from your browser as the web app they are. This is far more secure and far less invasive as generally a web app is containerized, at least thats my understanding in regards to firefox.

Instead of google maps, explore the world of open source navigation apps. Osmand has worked great for me, and tends to provide better info so im not panic merging at the last second. Theres a lot of them out there, and google maps has stagnated for so long that many of them are caught up in features. While its not open source, ive sesn a lot of people praise Magic Earth as well.

Buy phones on the premise of being allowed to use a custom rom. As much as i dont want a pixel because it is google, graphene os is battle tested and much more secure than stock android. But theres also lineage OS, eOS, and a few others out there.

If you need google play services, containerize it. I keep all apps i dont want having special permissions on a work profile. Funnily, i also keep my work apps on that profile, so if google wants my works data then they can handle the lawsuit if something bad happens lol.

I think a lot of people have forgotten that phones are tiny computers. The only real difference is the cell network, but we already have devices that can use those networks that arent phones, so it isnt an exclusive feature to phones. Android can be forked, but also we can emulate android on linux and there are already linux phones out there. If we grow the linux space for phones, then we effectively lose nothing of value while gaining increased freedom. For now, change how you use your phone, and only download apps if you have no other choice.

[–] mlg@lemmy.world 4 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Mainline linux on mobile is solving this problem as we speak: https://postmarketos.org/

I expect a full collapse of the Google Android behemoth about the same time we get Half Life 3.

[–] gaiety@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 3 hours ago

i reaaallyyy want this project to be amazing. We need a lot more device support though for that to happen.

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

ITT: no one has any idea.

hint: class war

[–] kadup@lemmy.world 5 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

I keep my old smartphone precisely so I can install banking apps and other annoyances.

Feel free to track the burner phone that stays on the same location, turns on once a week, is got tape on the cameras and never uses the browser.

[–] Shamot@jlai.lu 22 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

For banking, I use the website instead of the application. I have very few non-open-source applications left on my phone.

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 7 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

in my country they won't let you do that without at least their proprietary 2fa on your phone. and that of course needs play integrity in 90% of cases.

[–] pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 9 hours ago

I was upset about Duo authenticator when I found out someone made a workaround that lets you export the secrets to a normal totp app. I can only hope you have some project like that for your situation

[–] LiamTheBox@lemmy.ml 13 points 16 hours ago (3 children)

Real question is

Why can't a rooted android fake play services?

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 5 points 8 hours ago

If they really had interest in stopping you they could definitely stop you. That's the direction they're heading with all of these apps that are doing the integrity check. It's just a matter of time that it'll take for them to do it gradually enough not to make everything backward compatible explode.

Microg and stuff like that are probably on their way out within the next few generations.

When postmarket finally manages to reverse engineer the modems and the voice and support something with a half decent camera I'll readily leave the ecosystem.

[–] jafranz@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Afaik this is possible, but the banking apps don't like rooting either. No achievement there.

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

why can't we sandboxing them in a goody two-shoes kind of environment?

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›