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GrapheneOS recommended for domestic abuse victims

privacypros.com.au

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Re: GrapheneOS recommended for domestic abuse victims

#151

Post by roysting »

monksy wrote: post #6
Cider9986 wrote: post #4

It's absolutely insane that phones have online accounts deeply integrated into the OS. You need to give Apple your phone number to download any apps on iOS. For example: Say anyone that downloaded IceBlock commited crime, Apple could give the govt everyone who downloaded its phone number, the govt could get the realtime location of everyone based on their phone number from the carrier. And that's not even mentioning…

I agree with that.. additionaly, I'm finding it to be insane that organizations are trying to force you to have a "audited" phone to interact with them. (I.e. events, businesses, etc)

> organizations are trying to force

If it were only that and we actually had “free market capitalism” and “competition” you could simply choose, but leering and steering these “organizations” is the treasonous and inherently illegitimate government, which is increasingly indistinguishable from private corporations, mostly because it’s the same pool of people, which are reflexively moving us all towards a common focal point of a form of tyranny similar to hereditary oligarchy and/or serfdom.

Re: GrapheneOS recommended for domestic abuse victims

#152

Post by izacus »

grapheneos wrote: post #132
AussieWog93 wrote: post #114

This post is literally just SEO copy designed to sell degoogled phones to (justifiably) anxious DV victims? Their phones are more than twice as expensive as equivalent models at JF HiFi too (and 5-10x the price of an older, but still perfectly useful degoogled phone from Marketplace). Why is it on the front page of HN?

Getting a new phone is very useful to someone that's a victim of a controlling partner but it doesn't particularly need to be a GrapheneOS device. GrapheneOS has features useful for this including Auditor and standard Android profiles (Private Space, secondary users) with improvements but we're not specifically recommending it for this ourselves. People who are victims of this probably just need a new phone of any ki…

Ok, but this is outright a scam for those victims, you realize that? A company profiteering massively from vulnerable people.

Re: GrapheneOS recommended for domestic abuse victims

#153

Post by inigyou »

izacus wrote: post #133
Cider9986 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zero Google services ship by default.

I meant - explain how would that data retrieval actually happen in real life for a domestic abuser.

Abuser calls police and says the victim did some crime, police subpoena Google for location history.

Re: GrapheneOS recommended for domestic abuse victims

#154

Post by MYEUHD »

z3t4 wrote: post #94
monksy wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're running into situations where the usage of smart phones and apps are becoming mandatory for using services. For example: The UK has a digital ID requirement which is required for you to be employed in the UK. Additionally the EU digital identity services have a hardware/software attestitation that is required to run their apps. (Many of those which 3rd party software can't run). Another example of this is the A…

This sucks. The solution is to buy the cheepest iPhone and use it just for the goverment services.

The cheapest new iPhone is €720 (iPhone 17e)

Re: GrapheneOS recommended for domestic abuse victims

#155

Post by budsniffer952 »

everyday7732 wrote: post #123
izacus wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's plenty of high moral principles, but "let's build technology that explicitly protects criminals - especially child and women traffickers - against investigation" ain't one of them for majority of people living in democracies.

Your assumption that "criminals" are doing something morally wrong is fundamentally flawed. Civil rights activists were criminals, as were suffragettes, and the people who protected Jews in Nazi Germany, and gay or trans people just existing in countries where that isn't allowed. All criminals. Law enforcement isn't even always carrying out the law, as we've seen with ICE arresting, assaulting, searching, deporting p…

You do realize there's another side to it, right? There are morally good examples where privacy is needed, and morally bad examples where not being able to access data is harmful.

I personally agree with you, but for most people it's not black or white. They want privacy when it suits them, but would take yours away in a heartbeat.

Re: GrapheneOS recommended for domestic abuse victims

#156

Post by b112 »

grapheneos wrote: post #137
b112 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You cannot on many phones, and often phones will even lie when it says all categories are disabled, as some jurisdictions have laws against turning off some of the highest alert categories.

GrapheneOS supports fully disabling wireless alerts via the Settings app. It's possible to disable it on other Android devices via ADB.

I've dealt with Android phones for which there was zero way to disable the highest alert, adb regardless. Unless you have root, it's often not possible.

Yes, GrapheneOS of course allows this.

Edit: re followup comment.

No, adb cannot be used in all cases to disable the packages involved. At all. Some phones refuse to lets users disable some packages, no matter what.

Yes, I know what I'm talking about.

As someone with decades of Linux and Android experience, who often works nights, having Quebec police use presidental alerts... CRTC regardless, to warn of a child abducted by a parent 2000km away from me, is an exceptionally strong motivator.

The sheer stupid of an alert you cannot control the volume, sound, and length of in any way, is absurd. Try going back to sleep after something screams at you, at your equiv of 2am is madness.

By god I hate those alerts.

So yes, I know. If you don't have root, and the phone won't let you disable some packages, you're done.

And it's another reason I like GrapheneOS.

Re: GrapheneOS recommended for domestic abuse victims

#158

Post by grapheneos »

b112 wrote: post #156
grapheneos wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GrapheneOS supports fully disabling wireless alerts via the Settings app. It's possible to disable it on other Android devices via ADB.

I've dealt with Android phones for which there was zero way to disable the highest alert, adb regardless. Unless you have root, it's often not possible. Yes, GrapheneOS of course allows this. Edit: re followup comment. No, adb cannot be used in all cases to disable the packages involved. At all. Some phones refuse to lets users disable some packages, no matter what. Yes, I know what I'm talking about. As someone with…

ADB can be used to disable it without GrapheneOS by disabling the packages providing the high level implementation of wireless emergency alerts. It's not something most people can be expected to do though. It's actually a lot easier to install GrapheneOS via the web installer than using the CLI ADB shell. ADB is also quite dangerous and people can be tricked into giving very invasive access to malware with it. We're not recommending that people use ADB for this but rather just noting it can be done.

Re: GrapheneOS recommended for domestic abuse victims

#159

Post by harvey9 »

mmooss wrote: post #29
harvey9 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I flashed a pixel using their webpage. They have made it remarkably simple to do.

How do you know what they installed? Also, I understand that GrapheneOS installs are very simple now.

I should have been explicit: I used the GrapheneOS webpage. I am placing my trust in them but I am not under any particular threat and just liked that they have stated they won't support age verification.

Re: GrapheneOS recommended for domestic abuse victims

#160

Post by grapheneos »

izacus wrote: post #152
grapheneos wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting a new phone is very useful to someone that's a victim of a controlling partner but it doesn't particularly need to be a GrapheneOS device. GrapheneOS has features useful for this including Auditor and standard Android profiles (Private Space, secondary users) with improvements but we're not specifically recommending it for this ourselves. People who are victims of this probably just need a new phone of any ki…

Ok, but this is outright a scam for those victims, you realize that? A company profiteering massively from vulnerable people.

There are a bunch of companies selling devices with GrapheneOS at a significant markup despite it being very easy for non-technical people to install it themselves in 10 to 20 minutes. There's a lot of demand for it and companies set prices based on what they can get away with charging.

The linked post is a mess which was probably generated with an LLM. GrapheneOS does have useful properties for this even though it isn't the focus. Someone could write a proper article making a case for it even though this isn't one.

GrapheneOS is free and we recommend people install it themselves with the web installer. People can also save a lot of money getting a used device, but we strongly recommend against an older device than a Pixel 8 due to support time. A used Pixel 8a tends to be the cheapest option. An important thing to watch out for with used devices is avoiding ones which were originally sold by carriers locking their devices. Some phone sellers wrongly label locked devices as being fully unlocked.

If people buy a device with GrapheneOS instead of doing it themselves as we recommend, we a guide to follow to make sure it's genuine GrapheneOS and get rid of any strange software or configuration it ships with:

https://grapheneos.org/faq#preinstalled-devices

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