I am a long term GrapheneOS user and would like to talk about it. r/privacy on the redditland blocks custom OS discussions which I think is very bad for user privacy, and I hope this post will be useful to anyone who are in the hunt for better privacy.
Nowadays smartphones are a much bigger threats to our privacy and Desktop systems, and unfortunately manufacturers has designed them to be locked down devices with no user freedom. You can’t just “install Linux” on most smartphones and it is horrible. And most preloaded systems spy on us like crazy. That was why I specifically bought a pixel and loaded GOS onto it.
According to https://grapheneos.org/features , they start from base AOSP’s latest version, imptoves upon it’s security and significantly hardens it. There’s hardened_malloc to.prevent against exploitation, disabling lots of debugging features, disabling USB-c data, hardening the Linux kernel and system apps etc. They even block accessing the hardware identifiers of the phone so that apps cannot detect whqt phone you’re using. That means with Tor and zero permissions given, apps are anonymous.
Compatibility with apps are best in Custom ROMs but there are still that can’t work, especially if they enforce device integrity. Very few apps usually enforce that tho. Also their community isn’t the friendliest but you can get help. Just don’t try and engage too much or have too many debates.
Anyone else here use GrapheneOS, or any other privacy ROMs? What is your experience? Do you disagree on any point? Let’s have a discussion!
I would love to buy a pixel to install GrapheneOS but ain’t no way I’m giving google money and I don’t know where I can buy a brand new pixel. There are currently 3 apps that scare me and not sure if they’re even working on GOS and one is my bank app
Getting a used/refurbished one doesn’t really give them anything, and actually prevents them from getting data on the next person who would have gotten the used phone and used the stock OS
True. I have to see which one is the right one for me and the price. I’ll check it later
I got a 6 a few months ago and it’s solid. I only got it as a test but ended up using it full time. I do wish j had gotten a newer one only to future proof more
I’ve found the 7 8/128 for ~270€ and it’s great! Good conditions too, it scares me the green screen problem which is a pixel thing
Check out Swappa. They usually have plenty of phones in various condition to pick from.
It’s a refurbished website for the US? I’m in Europe and I can check something similar Thank you!
Regarding banking app, check privsec.dev 's list.
Regarding Pixel, don’t see it as giving money to Google, see it as payingnfor good hardware.
I’m still paying a shitty company for good hardware. I will see if I can find a good refurbished, otherwise I’ll pay the hardware with money and not my data. Fuck google
Way to go
Found a pixel 7 8/128 for 270€ and could be good
Of course mine isn’t supported 🥲 fuck google
Does yours have a website you can use through a mobile browser? With the exception of mobile depositing checks, which I do once every 15 years or so, I an do all of my banking in the browser
It does but the mobile app is a lot better in terms of UI. For example, on the app I can transfer money in a few clicks while on the website I have to login every time (app is fingerprint), navigate in desktop more and find the way to transfer money to the other card. Maybe it works, maybe no one reported it as working (I hope that’s why!)
My bank app worked fine on lineage OS without Google Play Services, but I ended up leaving them anyway because I wanted to have a bank that would let me use a mobile website and that bank required the use of their app.
Good luck to me I guess! Thank you!
Here they aren’t officially available yet there are still plenty of resellers - I guess you can find some in your area. I was really scared that the bootloader wouldn’t unlock due to the origin country’s carrier shenanigans, but it went through just fine (still checked every bit of info I could before buying).
Last time I bought a phone it was sold as phone of my country then realized when started that was from another country in Europe so I’m scared of getting that again
At least the listings I have seen explicitly listed the origin country. Mine is Japanese, and it cost less than an American counterpart, for example.
It’s not a big deal but the thing I wanted to use was not available on that region🥲 then I learned how shitty the company was