On privacy and control • Hacker News Board

Re: On privacy and control

#11

Post by arionmiles » Wed, Dec 31, 2025, 8:17 PM UTC

As much as I'd love to daily drive an OS like GrapheneOS, the risk of running into apps that use Google Integrity API thereby making it impossible to run those apps on Graphene is too much of an inconvenience.

I took a look at this curated list of bank apps[1] supported on Graphene OS and I'm glad that a large majority of them work on Graphene. However, just my luck that one of the banks I use on this list isn't supported.

In my country, the state is enforcing a lot of essential workflows to be digital-first (and in extreme cases digital-exclusive) and I dread to think needing these services at a critical moment and the choice of my OS making it impossible for me. This is more of a commentary on my government's choices but it's a reality for me.

In any case, I don't think it's practical to go cold turkey and switch to a privacy focused phone without testing waters first to see which of your of workflows break and then reason about the tradeoffs/workarounds.

I do admire folks who use GrapheneOS as a daily driver, I'd like to chat them up if I find them in the wild.

https://privsec.dev/posts/android/banking-applications-compa...

Re: On privacy and control

#12

Post by dinkleberg » Wed, Dec 31, 2025, 8:23 PM UTC

riskeet wrote: post #4

The average person won’t go through even 2% of the trouble. Your self inflicted lockdown is a niche within a niche. I respect it though!

Who cares what the average person will go through and do though? We’re each responsible for ourselves and how we choose to go about life, even if vastly differs from the general population.

Re: On privacy and control

#13

Post by delichon » Wed, Dec 31, 2025, 8:24 PM UTC

arionmiles wrote: post #11

As much as I'd love to daily drive an OS like GrapheneOS, the risk of running into apps that use Google Integrity API thereby making it impossible to run those apps on Graphene is too much of an inconvenience. I took a look at this curated list of bank apps[1] supported on Graphene OS and I'm glad that a large majority of them work on Graphene. However, just my luck that one of the banks I use on this list isn't supp…

I worried about that too, but jumped in and it hasn't been an issue at all in two years. Including three bank apps. And it's usually so easy to reset to vanilla Android if you need to that it shouldn't be your moat.

Re: On privacy and control

#14

Post by Lapsa » Wed, Dec 31, 2025, 8:26 PM UTC

reminder - there's tech out there capable of reading your mind remotely and non-invasively

Re: On privacy and control

#15

Post by HelloUsername » Wed, Dec 31, 2025, 8:30 PM UTC

bstsb wrote: post #3

excellent article, you've inspired me to get off Gmail finally (Google's been sending me angry emails about hitting my storage limit for ages anyway). side note, your link to Tuta is broken - think it's an internal link by accident

They also wrote "Messanging"

Re: On privacy and control

#16

Post by navigate8310 » Wed, Dec 31, 2025, 8:37 PM UTC

The only thorn in the opine is Cloudflare. Everything looks reasonable but CF. I get that DNS is free, it is OP's employer and registry being offered sans margin but it doesn't make up for the fact that CF is on its way to become the biggest gatekeeper and strangle the freenet if it wishes to do so.

Re: On privacy and control

#17

Post by ccakes » Wed, Dec 31, 2025, 8:37 PM UTC

nyx wrote: post #9

Agree that "control" is a much better framing, since it doesn't suggest a need for secrecy and therefore embarrassing/unacceptable/untoward behavior that needs to stay behind drawn window blinds. I'm also fond of "agency" and "digital self-sovereignty" as alternatives. But fine, I'll be the one to say it: Cloudflare isn't one of the good guys here and as an entity it shouldn't be trusted. It doesn't matter how pure t…

> Cloudflare isn't one of the good guys here

Came here to say the same thing, post was interesting until I got to that point.

> nuisance captchas

Try using the internet outside of the western world and major hubs. Cloudflare make it so painful with captchas and browser integrity checks

Re: On privacy and control

#18

Post by 65 » Wed, Dec 31, 2025, 8:38 PM UTC

This reminds me of the old meme:

> Tech enthusiasts: My entire house is smart.

> Tech workers: The only piece of technology in my house is a printer and I keep a gun next to it so I can shoot it if it makes a noise I don't recognize.

Re: On privacy and control

#19

Post by bitwize » Wed, Dec 31, 2025, 8:44 PM UTC

arionmiles wrote: post #11

As much as I'd love to daily drive an OS like GrapheneOS, the risk of running into apps that use Google Integrity API thereby making it impossible to run those apps on Graphene is too much of an inconvenience. I took a look at this curated list of bank apps[1] supported on Graphene OS and I'm glad that a large majority of them work on Graphene. However, just my luck that one of the banks I use on this list isn't supp…

I've seen a couple of apps try to use Play Integrity, get blocked by GrapheneOS, and keep on running. Maybe I'm being locked out of something, but it's not something I use anyway.

Note that I don't use banking or government apps. If I bank online it's via the web.

Re: On privacy and control

#20

Post by kgwxd » Wed, Dec 31, 2025, 8:45 PM UTC

arionmiles wrote: post #11

As much as I'd love to daily drive an OS like GrapheneOS, the risk of running into apps that use Google Integrity API thereby making it impossible to run those apps on Graphene is too much of an inconvenience. I took a look at this curated list of bank apps[1] supported on Graphene OS and I'm glad that a large majority of them work on Graphene. However, just my luck that one of the banks I use on this list isn't supp…

Is the app the only way to access what you need? I've never once install the app of any bank I've ever used (10ish) and never found myself wishing I had.