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Degoogled phones running privacy oriented OS
41–50 of 80 posts
Re: Degoogled phones running privacy oriented OS
#42The US government has really shaken my trust in services like these (which I guess is their ultimate goal). With the risk that these "secure devices" type sellers are fronts I think it's best practice for anyone wanting a de-googeled device to just buy one of these phones in store with cash and then load the custom OS themselves, it requires the level of technical knowledge you'd need to even know you'd want somethin…
The Google threat you can still mitigate or even escape. The US government one you can't. Sorry. As much as I wish I were wrong, the hardware is probably backdoored, so no custom OS will save you. Even if it weren't a phone by design has to communicate with radio towers (backdoored) and even if you get the most secure phone in the world you still have to communicate and pay for some exotic hardware. Guess who will ge…
The solution I have is a wired-in, locked down raspberry pi where I have a separate email account, PGP key, etc. Phones are definitely a writeoff though, with the possible exception of the PinePhone. If memory serves, the 4g modem lacks direct memory access which improves security substantially.
Re: Degoogled phones running privacy oriented OS
#43The US government has really shaken my trust in services like these (which I guess is their ultimate goal). With the risk that these "secure devices" type sellers are fronts I think it's best practice for anyone wanting a de-googeled device to just buy one of these phones in store with cash and then load the custom OS themselves, it requires the level of technical knowledge you'd need to even know you'd want somethin…
> I think it's best practice for anyone wanting a de-googeled device to just buy one of these phones in store with cash and then load the custom OS themselves The best practice is to abandon locked down Android phones and switch to GNU/Linux phones (Librem 5 and Pinephone).
I would be happy to try Librem 5, but I looked at the specs a few days ago, and just...
It was mid-spec a half decade ago, and hasn't changed since. You're really paying a lot for that old hardware. This won't help adoption.
Re: Degoogled phones running privacy oriented OS
#44I don't trust Google but I would trust them more than this website. Who knows what they are going to install on the phone before shipping it.
Re: Degoogled phones running privacy oriented OS
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Google threat you can still mitigate or even escape. The US government one you can't. Sorry. As much as I wish I were wrong, the hardware is probably backdoored, so no custom OS will save you. Even if it weren't a phone by design has to communicate with radio towers (backdoored) and even if you get the most secure phone in the world you still have to communicate and pay for some exotic hardware. Guess who will ge…
The solution I have is a wired-in, locked down raspberry pi where I have a separate email account, PGP key, etc. Phones are definitely a writeoff though, with the possible exception of the PinePhone. If memory serves, the 4g modem lacks direct memory access which improves security substantially.
Can anyone be sure an enormous open source project like a Linux distribution isn't backdoored?
Re: Degoogled phones running privacy oriented OS
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Google threat you can still mitigate or even escape. The US government one you can't. Sorry. As much as I wish I were wrong, the hardware is probably backdoored, so no custom OS will save you. Even if it weren't a phone by design has to communicate with radio towers (backdoored) and even if you get the most secure phone in the world you still have to communicate and pay for some exotic hardware. Guess who will ge…
The solution I have is a wired-in, locked down raspberry pi where I have a separate email account, PGP key, etc. Phones are definitely a writeoff though, with the possible exception of the PinePhone. If memory serves, the 4g modem lacks direct memory access which improves security substantially.
I'm not sure if the PinePhone advertised that. The Librem 5 advertised that though.
Re: Degoogled phones running privacy oriented OS
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I think it's best practice for anyone wanting a de-googeled device to just buy one of these phones in store with cash and then load the custom OS themselves The best practice is to abandon locked down Android phones and switch to GNU/Linux phones (Librem 5 and Pinephone).
I would be happy to try Librem 5, but I looked at the specs a few days ago, and just... It was mid-spec a half decade ago, and hasn't changed since. You're really paying a lot for that old hardware. This won't help adoption.
iPhones are very high-spec, but you can't really run anything serious on them due to the walled garden. What are you going to do with this phone?
Re: Degoogled phones running privacy oriented OS
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Google threat you can still mitigate or even escape. The US government one you can't. Sorry. As much as I wish I were wrong, the hardware is probably backdoored, so no custom OS will save you. Even if it weren't a phone by design has to communicate with radio towers (backdoored) and even if you get the most secure phone in the world you still have to communicate and pay for some exotic hardware. Guess who will ge…
The solution I have is a wired-in, locked down raspberry pi where I have a separate email account, PGP key, etc. Phones are definitely a writeoff though, with the possible exception of the PinePhone. If memory serves, the 4g modem lacks direct memory access which improves security substantially.
Those components in that PinePhone, they come from China. Are you sure that flash module does not contain a backdoor? What about the SoC, PinePhone uses Rockchip, the full name of that company is Fuzhou Rockchip Electronics Co., Ltd.. Are you sure the SoC is free from backdoors? Why even limit the search to complex components when a simple SMD capacitor is more than big enough to contain a low-power radio. Add some 'intelligence' and the thing will be able to deduce whether it is mounted in a position which gives it access to interesting data - the power path being a good candidate - to be transmitted on demand. The same would have been true had the components come from any other country but as it stands nearly all such components come from China.
Re: Degoogled phones running privacy oriented OS
#49The US government has really shaken my trust in services like these (which I guess is their ultimate goal). With the risk that these "secure devices" type sellers are fronts I think it's best practice for anyone wanting a de-googeled device to just buy one of these phones in store with cash and then load the custom OS themselves, it requires the level of technical knowledge you'd need to even know you'd want somethin…
The Google threat you can still mitigate or even escape. The US government one you can't. Sorry. As much as I wish I were wrong, the hardware is probably backdoored, so no custom OS will save you. Even if it weren't a phone by design has to communicate with radio towers (backdoored) and even if you get the most secure phone in the world you still have to communicate and pay for some exotic hardware. Guess who will ge…
My first “tech” job out of college was tech support for a VPN company. Brilliant little operation reselling bandwidth to folks visiting China and those who wanted to hide their traffic. One reason I really respected the CEO and CTO is that they told us specifically to never, ever promise that we made people “anonymous on the Internet.” Even when they went to no-logs — a big step for them — they still maintained that we always stick to this line: “You are never anonymous on the Internet. Our service is to help you create a more private connection, one that makes it more difficult for you to be tracked by corporations and hackers. It does not protect you against state-level actors.” When I discussed this with them, they had an even more candid take: “Look, if you have the US government after you, you’re already fucked. No level of encryption is going to help.”
This has always stuck with me.
Re: Degoogled phones running privacy oriented OS
#50I don't trust Google but I would trust them more than this website. Who knows what they are going to install on the phone before shipping it.
For me, the website does not even load since it uses way too many javascript hosts which I have to trust.