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How to stay private when using Android

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Re: How to stay private when using Android

#111

Post by qaute »

andrepd wrote: post #96
endemic wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK one of the best solutions for smartphone privacy is using a custom Android ROM without Google apps installed. Of course that means basically no 3rd party apps, but you can still get a surprising amount of functionality with just a web browser. You’ll still get tracked by your mobile provider, but I think that would happen even with a dumbphone.

You can use microg. It's a Free reimplementation of google play framework, so that apps which depend on it can still function in a de-googled phone. It's imperfect, I admit it, and breaks some apps, but it's still a massive help.

I'll second (third?) LineageOS + microG! Full ROMs combining both are available [1] (OS updates often seem to have to be installed manually, but are supported on popular phones for years). In addition to using everything from the F-Droid repository, I can run Slack/Discord/Messenger/WhatsApp/GroupMe (though notifications are hit-or-miss) and a good few other apps (Duolingo, bank mobile apps, Uber but not Lyft). Many of these apps can be installed via Yalp Store [2], which is a frontend for the Google Play store with a built-in account to provide some anonymity. It'll do until I get a Librem5 [3].

TL;DR: no Google, most things work, but not necessarily smoothly. I've used it for a few years now.

[1] https://lineage.microg.org/ [2] https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.github.yeriomin.yalpstor... [3] https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/

Re: How to stay private when using Android

#112

Post by cnlwsu »

lern_too_spel wrote: post #90
Benjammer wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple's incentives as a product business align much better with user privacy than Google's incentives as an ad business though.

And yet Apple's OS collects more information than Google's. You cannot even write an app for your device without handing over banking details like a credit card. You cannot get your location without also sending that location to Apple. If you're in China, everything in your iCloud is accessible by the Chinese government. Edit: this is not whataboutism. People are seriously suggesting using Apple devices instead for p…

A lot of what you just claimed is completely false or misleading, given your rants throughout this thread though I doubt it’s worth time to enumerate it. You seem very intent to distract the discussions for this post towards Apple and whataboutisms.

Re: How to stay private when using Android

#113

Post by MarioMan »

lern_too_spel wrote: post #94
danShumway wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Google tracked user location even when location history was turned off. 2. Most people don't understand the full extent of Web and App Activity permissions -- they don't understand that this will allow Google to do things like parse search queries out of DuckDuckGo searches on Chrome. 3. Similarly (until recently) most people didn't realize that Google was using email info for advertising, including purchases made…

> 1. Google tracked user location even when location history was turned off. This is disingenuous. If the user uses a Google app that needs location data, of course that location will be sent to Google. This also happens on iOS. > 3. Similarly (until recently) most people didn't realize that Google was using email info for advertising That's how Gmail was marketed when it launched. Ads were shown based on the content…

If you’re referring to the crowd-sourced collection and contribution of Wi-Fi SSIDs, iOS has the “Wi-Fi Networking” toggle in location services that turns this on or off. If you’re referring to the use of that data, it is one of several components in the locations API that cannot be separated out.

Re: How to stay private when using Android

#114

Post by qrbLPHiKpiux »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #46
qrbLPHiKpiux wrote: post #33

> smartphones per se are not evil. No, just the people who write the code.

It's not the people who write the code, it's their management. If they were paid to write secure privacy centric code then that's what would happen

What is your surgeon was only paid to do something on you that was unethical?

Re: How to stay private when using Android

#116

Post by arminiusreturns »

endemic wrote: post #20
pinepinetree wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Scottiestech's YouTube has some good info on how your smartphone is tracking you more than you think. Sometimes I think about building my own phone with a Raspberry Pi or use LineageOS.

AFAIK one of the best solutions for smartphone privacy is using a custom Android ROM without Google apps installed. Of course that means basically no 3rd party apps, but you can still get a surprising amount of functionality with just a web browser. You’ll still get tracked by your mobile provider, but I think that would happen even with a dumbphone.

F-Droid is a pretty cool foss app "store" as an alternative to the playstore.

Re: How to stay private when using Android

#117

Post by icedchai »

emodendroket wrote: post #22

If you want to stay private, give up the idea of a smartphone altogether. If you (quite understandably) do not want to do that, you're pretty much just kidding yourself.

May as well give up a mobile phone all together, never mind smart phone. Your location is constantly tracked by the telco.

Re: How to stay private when using Android

#118

Post by icefog »

endemic wrote: post #20
pinepinetree wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Scottiestech's YouTube has some good info on how your smartphone is tracking you more than you think. Sometimes I think about building my own phone with a Raspberry Pi or use LineageOS.

AFAIK one of the best solutions for smartphone privacy is using a custom Android ROM without Google apps installed. Of course that means basically no 3rd party apps, but you can still get a surprising amount of functionality with just a web browser. You’ll still get tracked by your mobile provider, but I think that would happen even with a dumbphone.

> Of course that means basically no 3rd party apps

I'm using LineageOS without Play Store/Services and would like to dispel this myth. Here are just some of the third party applications I can install directly from the developer using adb, without going through a third party store: Signal, Firefox, NetGuard, NewPipe, Orgzly, OsmAnd, Tor Browser. Those pretty much cover all of my smartphone needs and more.

Re: How to stay private when using Android

#119

Post by Buge »

thawaway1837 wrote: post #75
danShumway wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Google tracked user location even when location history was turned off. 2. Most people don't understand the full extent of Web and App Activity permissions -- they don't understand that this will allow Google to do things like parse search queries out of DuckDuckGo searches on Chrome. 3. Similarly (until recently) most people didn't realize that Google was using email info for advertising, including purchases made…

I did not know #3. That’s messed up. Email privacy should be sacrosanct.

See news articles about it from the time, and a petition telling Google to stop:

https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-03-31-google_...

https://web.archive.org/web/20040604175545/https://www.priva...

And a Microsoft ad criticizing Google for it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9x4_dozWkq0

Re: How to stay private when using Android

#120

Post by anigbrowl »

jblz wrote: post #35
swiley wrote: post #13

I hate iOS but good god android is awful! I bought a cheap one on new years to use as a balloon tracker (GPS boards are expensive so it seemed like a good idea.) There are absolutely no diagnostics, every setting (including critical ones) seems to move around between OS updates. They’re constantly breaking things you actually need (termux API is missing half of what’s useful and silently fails on most things now) whi…

> "android is awful!" ... "I bought a cheap one" Nothing like condemning the entirety of a thing based on a single limited intentionally-bottom-of-the-barrel experience!

A cheap device would deliver lower performance, but that doesn't explain the poor OS design issues. I used to be quite a fan of Android, but even as performance has improved other things have gotten worse. I don't like the Apple ecosystem either so perhaps I will be a customer for the Pine phone as my app needs are quite limited.
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