Cops in this country think everyone using a Google Pixel must be a drug dealer (Updated)
www.androidauthority.com
Pixel phones are criminals' top pick in Spain's Catalonia for their strong security and mod-friendly design.

TLDR: Drug dealers in Catalonia have started to adopt GrapheneOS en masse leading to Catalan police suspecting anyone with a Google Pixel is a drug dealer

  • tourist@lemmy.worldEnglish
    51·
    16 hours ago

    I don’t doubt the claim, but I would imagine others do because there’s a relatively minor technical skill hurdle on replacing a phone’s operating system which would turn most people away.

    I never used a Pixel or Graphene OS, but when I installed Lineage OS on a Redmi, Xiaomi made me wait a week to unlock the bootloader. Huge pain in the ass.

    Or there might be a better “drug-dealer-friendly” OS. I only know of Lineage and Graphene as open source alternatives, so I could just be speculating.

    Also, all my former drug dealers used WhatsApp on the stock vendor OS. But then again… I live in South Africa, so the police are more focused on violent crimes (both enforcement and perpetration)

    • icegladiator@lemy.lolOPEnglish
      1·
      7 hours ago

      There’s for sure different tiers to drug dealing and OPSEC. While some guys who throw around shrooms and LSD may not care too much about OPSEC, big time players who import “sensitive” drugs like fetanyl have extreme OPSEC procedures

    • qqq@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      14 hours ago

      You can unlock the bootloader on a Pixel in about a minute.

      I can understand some people finding the whole process a bit daunting, but it’s not actually that difficult with Graphene.