I broke my phone a few months ago and I hadn’t use a phone since I didn’t need it until now. I’m willing to buy one that’s around under 500$. I’m thinking of getting google pixel maybe, any recommendations?
I broke my phone a few months ago and I hadn’t use a phone since I didn’t need it until now. I’m willing to buy one that’s around under 500$. I’m thinking of getting google pixel maybe, any recommendations?
That is bollocks. Security!= privacy
And you have to deal with Google’s extra proprietary security hardware, unaudited and unverifiable. Having faith in Google’s promise of their proprietary closed source chip being clean is like having faith in cyanide not killing a person.
If it is conspiracy to believe in Google being an evil company with backdooring intent, then it is a worse conspiracy to promote Google as a safe company for privacy and anonymity, by conflating those terms with security.
Privacy can be controlled on application level, but there are a lot of system stuff that user can’t change and the best solution for system is GrapheneOS in terms of security, as I said in first comment.
Google is evil, no question about that, but Google is just a brand / label on the phone. Ironically, but most secure and privacy-friendly phone is Google Pixel without Google
As for privacy, any phone capable of running lineageos is fine, but lacks security
I am sure you make sense. And yeah security does not work that way. Has GrapheneOS been audited by anyone yet? Pwn2Own? Any other BlackHat event?
OK, has any xiaomi phone audited by anybody?
What about proprietary hardware of all other vendors?
I’m not trying to say that pixel is perfect or something, I think whole mobile market is a proprietary shit, tbh. But you need phone anyway, so IMT just trying to tell that pixel smells less that xiaomi, Asus or anything else
Are you implying that American brands are somehow better than Taiwanese or Chinese or rest of world brands? Is this some kind of blind USA cultism? Despite the fact that Google AI was directly involved in bombings in Yemen, it smells less bad than Xiaomi or other brands?
Forgot to address your “muh all phones have proprietary hardware” argument. All phones have one less proprietary hardware layer to deal with. Google adds that compared to other OEMs. Lesser the proprietary “security” components, lesser the attack surface, more the security.
I’m not from USA and “cultism” is not for me, I’m enthusiast of open source and don’t trust proprietary software and hardware. Sadly, but there is no 100% hardware ready for end-users, so I’m just trying to find a balance.
Btw, any device has proprietary “security” components, so it’s all about “smells less”, not " trusted one".
My own opinion - GrapheneOS is good one, using it on Pixel devices is a trade-off.
Anyway, that thread comes to holywar and I don’t want to take part in it, my arguments and thoughts you can find in comments above, if you disagree with them - OK, I’m fine with it. Just shared my thoughts
It is a fundamentally wrong argument when it is said that other device hardware has not been audited, because if one were to avoid proprietary components, the lesser of them existed in the memory and security domains, the better it would be for reduxing attack surface.
Look at Intel ME, Apple T2 or Qualcomm Snapdragon’s Hexagon DSP flaws.
what do you recommend then?
Fairphone, Xiaomi, Asus, Motorola (if in USA). Xiaomi has the best community support if you pick a popular model, Fairphone provides 5 or so years of Android version upgrades with high repairability and some modularity. Asus and Moto are clean slates, although Asus is the least desirable of the above now.
Do not fall for the GrapheneOS meme. The developers and its community is made up of absolutely garbage people (not even going into the racist aspects), but if you asked them the simplest of questions that would come off as criticism, or requires hard effort to solve problem, they will kick you out of their Matrix rooms immediately. The post installation support sucks balls. And of course if you wanted to use apps that need Google Services Framework (NOT Google Play Services), good luck because they do not work.
Maybe you could use CalyxOS, or LineageOS, way better choices with way more humble and supportive people.
I can agree on Fairphone, but all other vendors… Are you joking?
No, and I would not trust GrapheneOS solely because its dev somehow only trusts Google. Ask him why (I did) and https://teddit.net/r/privacytoolsIO/comments/gs4uv7/i_dont_fully_trust_grapheneos/fs82fdv/
Also, if technical support for a custom firmware does not exist post installation, it ID abandonware. GrapheneOS for most people is usually abandonware, considering the kind of nut Daniel Micay is.
The Graphene group account actually gave some good replies to that thread - you just don’t have a clue what you are talking about. The dev doesn’t solely trust Google just because - as they’ve stated many times - there just aren’t good alternative phones with decent security baselines.
I’m not even sure what you mean by “technical support for custom firmware” - Graphene pushes firmware updates with their OTAs.
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Well, one of my friends owns a Fairphone, and they told me that the worst thing about it is that Android updates take a age to be released: https://forum.fairphone.com/t/android-11-has-arrived-when-will-we-see-it-on-our-3s-and-3-s/64273/6
Whereas I had Android 11 on my graphene phone a few weeks after it was released by Google.
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IMHO, until the actual version is supported and security updates are on par, there is absolutely no reasons to rush a major update (or even release it, actually). I will be more than happy to stay on a stable version for a longer time and having a phone actually supported for more than a blink, instead of a phone who bring one major update and kill support after 2 weeks.
Almost every single phone recommendation or custom ROM thread on just about all privacy communities on the internet is derailed like this by GrapheneOS users and sockpuppets. They have a very clear, defined way of spreading propaganda from their Matrix, IRC and Telegram groups. And they are slowly, gradually going private so it becomes hard for people to notice the stuff they do.
spoiler
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Technical support also means if somebody asks questions on their subreddit, Matrix rooms or Telegram groups, they do not get bashed or banned for “targeted harassment” and “concern trolling”. https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=Dx7CZ-2Bajg
You are the one trolling people with GrapheneOS security theater here.
Funny how you instantly recognised the “group account”, when it is run by Micay himself. It has been very evident between u/DanielMicay, u/GrapheneOS, u/madaidan and all such accounts how they operate.
I think it’s reasonable to presume that the founder of GrapheneOS would own the official GrapheneOS account on reddit. You’re the one that literally linked us to the discussion, so I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make with this.
Are you Daniel Micay or his friend? Are you on GrapheneOS team?
What should I use?
Pick a Fairphone, Xiaomi or Moto (check popular models on XDA for latter two). You can manage permissions, firewall apps off internet and install suspicious apps less, and you will have plenty security.
If you want to increase your security further, make use of the Private Lock app on F-Droid, which instantly locks your phone based on accelerometer sensitivity you set, in case of someone snatching your phone.
If you want to increase further security, learn OPSEC. https://lemmy.ml/post/34223 Do not get memed thinking this ROM with negligible post installation support can magically solve your privacy, security and anonymity woes.
Security does not work like GrapheneOS maker thinks. Memory hardening and forced no GAPPS/microG sounds good from afar but what these people get memed into is called security theater, often an insecurity GrapheneOS users project onto others. There are multiple facets to privacy and anonymity as well, but I am not sure most of their userbase can even differentiate between the 3 terms now.
I thought xiaomi is a chinese phone. is it safe?
Ignore them, they don’t have a clue what they’re talking about.
Chinese phone has American hardware and Chinese software, the latter which you will remove. Will you be able to get rid of the greater hardware threat? This is a game these people will trap you into.
I suggest getting familiar with OPSEC and educating yourselves with 101 security and privacy instead of playing into this geopolitics, contemporary xenophobia and security theater.