What are the most privacy respecting smartphones to buy, I am also looking for the one which respects your privacy the most. So far going to privacy communities esp on reddit, I often see Google Pixel + GrapheneOS being recommended.
But the thing is I don’t really trust Google with privacy, as we have seen they are last one to respect privacy. What if Google has some backdoor in the hardware that cannot be changed? And the problem with the more privacy respecting OSes for mobiles like GrapheneOS, CalyxOS etc are that they are only supported for Google pixel phones.
So I am really confused here.
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I’d say the most private would probably a Purism Librem with Pinephone being second place. Both of those come with their own caveats.
I think Graphene also puts a high focus on security for which, if you’re using android, the Pixel phones offer the best platform. You could also go with the /e/ android operating system if your focus is on de-googling while sticking to android.
Librem seems very expensive ranging from $1200-2000. Can’t afford that, I would want something less than $500 and if more preferably to be under $350. Would sticking to android that’s already installed and degoogling it be really enough when it comes to privacy?
Depends on what you consider “enough”. Even “degoogling” it in most instances won’t entirely get rid of proprietary code and reliance on some google services. It’s a trade-off.
For me it would be enough that big corps not taking my data or tracking any of my activities. With degoogling you can only decrease the amount of spying that big corps do instead of completely eliminating it?
If you remove Google Play Services and only install apps from F-Droid (which are vetted by the community and explicitly list antifeatures) you should achieve your goals. That is, assuming your system itself is not snitching on you.
Also worth noting, phone providers are big corps doing tons of spying on their users. If you’d like to get rid of those, running your smartphone using wifi only with randomized MAC addresses (i think is default now on Android) is very reasonable.
Yes removing Google Play services will reduce the spying that Google does on you but the mobile company can still possibly spy on you. How do I check that my phone has a randomized MAC address or not?
That’s my understanding. You can decrease it, significantly, but not entirely. But the same goes for the web in general. Hard to completely bock all tracking and such too while still interacting meaningfully. So unless you’re a die-hard fanatic and willing to suffer a lot of inconveniences, good enough will have to be, well, good enough for most of us.
Unfortunately privacy and convenience generally just don’t go together and the convenience factor along with the mentality of “nothing to hide, nothing to fear” makes people just go for the most privacy violating stuff and arguing about privacy with those who have that mindset is just not easy either.