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Android phones are sending significant amount of user data with no opt-out [pdf]

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Re: Android phones are sending significant amount of user data with no opt-out [pdf]

#161

Post by streamofdigits »

jmnicolas wrote: post #154
streamofdigits wrote: post #149

How far are we from a phone that: ships fully formed - no flashing and stuff, has reliable supply chain and production, is open source only, usable on a daily basis (stable, normal battery life, all basic apps, easy upgrades) and ideally repairable / recyclable as much as possible? I would leave "high-end" specs and price constraints out of scope to make this a reality sooner than later. There are several contenders…

Far in never. There's no (real) money to be made, manufacturers don't care. I use GrapheneOS. It's rough but at least it gives me peace of mind.

Why is there no money to be made? I would at least pay to buy the hardware and possibly for ongoing software support as well (depending on how they structure such support or any other "soft" features). E.g. I think its a jolly good idea if somebody really checked for a living all those open source apps.

In any case if there is really no viable business model for private mainstream mobile computing we have been duped big time: This is not a consumer device, it is track-and-trace machinery.

Re: Android phones are sending significant amount of user data with no opt-out [pdf]

#162

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

cookiengineer wrote: post #123
doc_gunthrop wrote: post #69

A distinction needs to be made clear here with regards to the data being transmitted to Google by LineageOS in this study. In the cited paper ( https://www.scss.tcd.ie/Doug.Leith/Android_privacy_report.pd... ), the device used to test LineageOS was a Google Pixel 2 running LineageOS 17.1 which also included an installation of OpenGapps 10.0 nano . It's not the OS that is transmitting the data over to Google, but rath…

Technically, the Internet Connectivity Check on LineageOS also sends your position/IP to Google, and also avoids a VPN tunnel because it's lower down the stack. I can recommend LineageOS, however be aware that lots of malware infected builds have made it to xda dev in the past, so you should build it yourself if possible (or use the official downloads). Regarding the Connectivity Check: You can add all google related…

> however be aware that lots of malware infected builds have made it to xda dev in the past,

Can you point me to some? How were they caught? I knew this was a possibility, but I hadn't seen it actually happen before.

Re: Android phones are sending significant amount of user data with no opt-out [pdf]

#163

Post by ruph123 »

jonstaab wrote: post #49

Feeling quite smug about switching to CalyxOS earlier this week.

Same. It feels like the "have the cake and eat it" situation for me who switched over from iOS.

I was worried that some apps might not work but that is not the case. Everything from banking apps to password managers just works fine with the only exception being NPR One (which is hilarious).

They are really doing an outstanding job and I do not miss anything on here besides a Apple/Google Pay NFC solution. But that is quite ok.

Re: Android phones are sending significant amount of user data with no opt-out [pdf]

#164

Post by COGlory »

streamofdigits wrote: post #149

How far are we from a phone that: ships fully formed - no flashing and stuff, has reliable supply chain and production, is open source only, usable on a daily basis (stable, normal battery life, all basic apps, easy upgrades) and ideally repairable / recyclable as much as possible? I would leave "high-end" specs and price constraints out of scope to make this a reality sooner than later. There are several contenders…

This has been my experience with e os. Everything just works

Re: Android phones are sending significant amount of user data with no opt-out [pdf]

#165

Post by _V_ »

salusinarduis wrote: post #62

I use GraphineOS and LineageOS without Google Play Services. They are great and are suitable replacements for Apple and Google. - Osmand(FOSS) for maps (supports being fully offline!) - Signal and Discord for messaging (Discord is sandboxed) - Newpipe(FOSS) for Youtube - F-droid(FOSS) for my FOSS appstore - APKmirror for the few non-free apps I need - Libretorrent(FOSS) and VLC(FOSS) for watching movies - Firefox(FOS…

What do you use as Dialer/SMS/Contact app?

I tried to switch myself from iPhone and almost everything was OK but these were the worst to get right... I ended up using suite from Tibor Kaputa (Simple Dialer etc) but I ran into some rather annoying issues.

Also, do you use phone recoding? This was actually my breaking point, because i have an iPhone w/ jailbreak that enables me to record phone conversations (for my use only, not trying to get into the legal discussion). I did not find anything for GrapheneOS (or Android in general) - just some info that I need to root my phone to get this working and with that I just reverted to my jailbroken iPhone.

Re: Android phones are sending significant amount of user data with no opt-out [pdf]

#166

Post by commoner »

cookiengineer wrote: post #123
doc_gunthrop wrote: post #69

A distinction needs to be made clear here with regards to the data being transmitted to Google by LineageOS in this study. In the cited paper ( https://www.scss.tcd.ie/Doug.Leith/Android_privacy_report.pd... ), the device used to test LineageOS was a Google Pixel 2 running LineageOS 17.1 which also included an installation of OpenGapps 10.0 nano . It's not the OS that is transmitting the data over to Google, but rath…

Technically, the Internet Connectivity Check on LineageOS also sends your position/IP to Google, and also avoids a VPN tunnel because it's lower down the stack. I can recommend LineageOS, however be aware that lots of malware infected builds have made it to xda dev in the past, so you should build it yourself if possible (or use the official downloads). Regarding the Connectivity Check: You can add all google related…

Some Android flavors, including /e/[1] and GrapheneOS,[2] don't use Google servers for the internet connectivity check by default.

[1] https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/backlog/-/issues/268#note_1809...

[2] https://grapheneos.org/faq#default-connections

Re: Android phones are sending significant amount of user data with no opt-out [pdf]

#167

Post by technerder »

salusinarduis wrote: post #75

I use GraphineOS and LineageOS without Google Play Services. They are great and are suitable replacements for Apple and Google. - Osmand(FOSS) for maps (supports being fully offline!) - Signal and Discord for messaging (Discord is sandboxed) - Newpipe(FOSS) for Youtube - F-droid(FOSS) for my FOSS appstore - APKmirror for the few non-free apps I need - Libretorrent(FOSS) and VLC(FOSS) for watching movies - Firefox(FOS…

Could you elaborate on what you mean by "Discord is sandboxed"? Are you using an app to sandbox it?

Re: Android phones are sending significant amount of user data with no opt-out [pdf]

#168

Post by commoner »

kekebo wrote: post #143
cookiengineer wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically, the Internet Connectivity Check on LineageOS also sends your position/IP to Google, and also avoids a VPN tunnel because it's lower down the stack. I can recommend LineageOS, however be aware that lots of malware infected builds have made it to xda dev in the past, so you should build it yourself if possible (or use the official downloads). Regarding the Connectivity Check: You can add all google related…

One used to be able to change the captive portal url using adb [0], although I'm not sure that's still the case in current android builds. [0] https://gist.github.com/tonyseek/bc5b72197ddb15418c614060617...

I can confirm this used to work, but I'm not sure if that's the case now. These were the instructions I used:

https://android.stackexchange.com/a/186995

Re: Android phones are sending significant amount of user data with no opt-out [pdf]

#169

Post by aqfamnzc »

salusinarduis wrote: post #90
dont__panic wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider Fennec instead of Firefox -- I just switched yesterday, and I think the only difference is that Fennec is usually a couple of versions behind because it removes some Mozilla crapware.

Does it support extensions? I can't go anywhere without uBlock Origin :D

FWIW, Mozilla has worked with devs of some popular extensions to get them working on "new" mobile FF, including uBo.

Re: Android phones are sending significant amount of user data with no opt-out [pdf]

#170

Post by colordrops »

dont__panic wrote: post #83
salusinarduis wrote: post #62

I use GraphineOS and LineageOS without Google Play Services. They are great and are suitable replacements for Apple and Google. - Osmand(FOSS) for maps (supports being fully offline!) - Signal and Discord for messaging (Discord is sandboxed) - Newpipe(FOSS) for Youtube - F-droid(FOSS) for my FOSS appstore - APKmirror for the few non-free apps I need - Libretorrent(FOSS) and VLC(FOSS) for watching movies - Firefox(FOS…

Consider Fennec instead of Firefox -- I just switched yesterday, and I think the only difference is that Fennec is usually a couple of versions behind because it removes some Mozilla crapware.

What about Firefox Focus? It's private by default and VERY unbloated. The ephemeral nature of sessions also forces me to not leave a hundred tabs open.
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