Recently got a pixel as a secondary work phone and was reminded that I actually kinda like android (my main is an iPhone). Problem is mostly that I don’t want an even higher level spyware device. Of course I could use graphene but I use Apple Pay, find my / AirTags regularly and I also would need to find good alternatives to iCloud, and photos which I honestly kind of like. I suppose I could possibly get a pixel watch and get around the pay limitations but maybe some users who have switches might have some general insight.
Edit: I guess my best option right now is to stick with my current plan of both devices and maybe see what oem graphene partners with and if that somehow changes anything
The reality is that security/privacy will always be a balancing act with convenience.
If you increase your security and privacy, you will lose convenience.
If you increase your convenience, you will lose security and privacy.
It’s always a tradeoff.
It’s up to you what things you’re willing to trade off, in the end. Everyone can give valuable input, but it will always be up to you to make the final decision on what level of tradeoff you’re willing to accept and what level fits your threat model.
For total security and privacy you would basically have to not use electronics at all and live in a cabin in the woods and have a good grasp of chemistry, scavenging and farming to take care of yourself. I think a guy named Ted did that once and it didn’t work out so great for him, but of course, he also didn’t actually just keep to himself in those woods.
And to be fair, these days even that’s not a guarantee of total privacy with satellite imagery, drones, etc.
This is why it’s important to sit down and write a document titled “my threat model, 2026”. OP should figure out what they’re really worried about, how important it is, and what are they willing to sacrifice. Once that’s done, it’s easy to start putting that philosophy into practice.
Yeah you make a good point. I saw an article recently that Apple is considering using ads in Apple Maps so maybe the companies are moving closer together and it doesn’t really matter that much anyway. How would a degoogled stock pixel phone compare to an iPhone do you think?
I didn’t see ads until I got an iPad and it was because I had been rooting before that with adaway on Android. I didn’t know talkings ads existed. Then when it came to buying apps it was hard finding ones that didn’t have subscriptions, and the apps didn’t have a clear label of whether it had ads or not before installing. Finding foss options was even harder.
So outside of official apple apps I found the app market trash on Apple with it not letting me know if an app had ads, subscriptions, and no easy F-droid type alternative to seek out for foss apps.
Might be more “private” than Android but i found Apple a more ad infested experience, and didn’t help that their third browsers are so gutted compared to Android options to make adblocking when browsing the web better.
GrapheneOS?
Can’t use graphene unless my primary because android because of the Intune stuff
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I’m definitely skeptical of anything closed source in general but there isn’t too much on the contrary, so it’s just a matter of one company makes money on data and on doesn’t. I’m sure they both collect similar amounts of data though.
Does google say no when the FBI want access to androids or do they have so many holes they don’t need to
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Google pissed off a bunch of people because they stopped storing your location date in the cloud and now only store it on device. Reason they gave is they don’t want the data so it can’t be asked for.
This was a publicity stunt, fbi than paid nso to give them a zero day exploit to bypass the ios password. No software is bug free.
My recommendation is to keep both separate. Your work phone should NEVER be your personal phone.
Use you work phone at work or on a mission. Not outside, not at home, it does not matter what your contract says, what the law says is what’s important (so check locally, depends on jurisdictions).
Now IMHO both options such. Apple is closed source and Android provided by work is not customizable so you have no control over. If you want a more radically approach and are serious about privacy, reconsider both.
Get a phone case with a credit card slot in the back and replace your cloud storage with Syncthing.
You can lead a horse to water…
I don’t want an even higher level spyware device.
but I use […] AirTags regularly
Hmm…
Alfred is disappointed.
It might be time to move on from the mass-surveillance-on-every-single-device style of object location tracking.
Are there localising/tracking bluetooth tags available which only connect to your network/devices?Wouldn’t be very good for tracking if you had to know where they were to find them
indeed, fortunately you would only need to be near it, like in the same building, to be able to find it. I believe in your ability to remember generally where might have you left your keys.
Yeah, it’d be a live monitoring footprint limited to, say, wherever you have/bring a personal device plus maybe wherever there’s a wifi network it knows. But you’d be able to see where the tag was when it last pinged you, so you could return to that location to search for it and get a more accurate location fix.
The only case my example doesn’t cover is if a third party moves the tag away from your typical footprint and networks.
indeed, fortunately you would only need to be near it, like in the same building, to be able to find it. I believe in your ability to remember generally where might have you left your keys.
For what it’s worth, I run GrapheneOS and can use my phone to pay for stuff via NFC just like any other phone user. I’ve used it in various countries and it Just Works™.
To achieve this you just need to find a payment app that works.
In my country, I use Curve.
I’m in orange country currently so there aren’t any alternatives. It curve was here I’d probably be off iOS honestly. I genuinely use nfc payments that much that often that it’s a big necessity for me.
I don’t see a question in there. What are you asking?
I guess I’m asking for thoughts on a solution. My options are basically A) Keep iPhone as main, use stock pixel 9 as work no changes. B) Use graphene + watch and somehow try to hack a way into Intune setup properly, lose a little bit of functionality. Probably would return pixel and trade in iPhone for pixel 10 and wait for graphene, since I value the MagSafe. C) Get a different iPhone as a second for or upgrade current phone to use current as old phone. Probably most expensive option if the latter. D) not care at all about having my personal device slightly managed and just put Intune on it.
Sure you can go super private with more inconvenience with Graphene but there is a less drastic compromise. I turn off the advertiser id, block ads via DNS, use DDG and Brave for search, and browse via IronFox and Brave.
That way you keep the convenience of Google wallet and other services without the same degree of tracking and even if they get some info you won’t see the ads.
I’m really anxious about what they are doing to F-Droid though.
One option to reduce amount of devices you carry is I think an Apple watch, which can work offline after setting up with Apple pay. So you’d keep your iPhone at home and just leave home with Android and an Apple watch for paying with.
All of those things are very easy to replace.
I’m in the same boat, sort of. iPhone 16 Pro Max main, Galaxy S10 backup (WiFi only, cosplay prop). New iPhones are just not exciting so I’m thinking I’ll update the Android phone next. I need Apple for Apple Health and I don’t think iPads do Apple Health? So I might keep the iPhone to do Health and to pair with my watch and main Android for a while? It’s not definite but it is a consideration. Their keyboard is way better. Almost zero privacy on official firmware though. I wonder if Samsung is better than Pixel in that regard or if it just adds a head to the hydra. Like, I really like the S24 and S25 — wife has S22 and even that is pretty good. Anyway, this is not a this year or next year problem, this is like 2028-2029 when my iPhone gets to be 4-5 years old.
As far as I know Samsung is the worst option for security and privacy. Also good news iPad has the health app now
What have you heard re Samsung?
