What are everyone’s recommendations on making android more private? Given Google’s recent behavior around tracking and the like, I’m not really comfortable with then having all of my data. I’ve even contemplated going to iOS, since apple doesn’t have a vested interest in me having less privacy… But I just don’t like their OS lol.
I’ve tried GrapheneOS, and it’s not awful. For usability, I did have to add Google apps back in, but at least they are sandboxes.
For the moment though, my daily driver is a Samsung S21. What can I do to make I more private?
So far, I have:
- Switched to Samsung browser with adblock.
- Started using duckduck go.
- Installed duckduck go’s app tracking protection. That was an eye opener.
- Restricted location history in Google maps.
What else? I know Graphene is typically the gold standard, but I’m trying to see what I can do short of that.
Yeah, I’m not trying to go full paranoia on this.
The main thing I’m worried about is Google’s response to geolocation based subpoenas. That combined with the US political environment is concerning.
The second thing is the stupid advertiser tracking. That’s just not cool.
Well, you asked for privacy recommendations so that’s what I delivered. I wouldn’t call it paranoia so much as being aware of how bad privacy has gotten. I don’t think we should have to give up our right to privacy to use a smartphone.
It’s pretty hard to stop Google from tracking you on Android. Play Services is deeply rooted in most Android devices and has access to pretty much everything. Also, a lot of the privacy settings don’t really stop tracking, they just tell Google to stop using the data in the ads you see or showing it on your account.
You could give iPhone a try. Though it has a whole host of privacy issues as well, mainly stemming from the fact that you need to trust Apple with your data. Apple collects most of the same data that Google does including location.
I wish I didn’t have to evangelise about GrapheneOS, but I just haven’t found another option that eliminates most of these issues without sacrificing usability. If you find something else that works be sure to let us know.
Yeah all fair.
That’s pretty much how I feel about apple. I think at this point I’m leaning towards going to Graphene OS. I used to use custom ROMs a bunch back in the CyanogenMod days.