sagWhat is spying?
1984Google “Only spy the web” is highly inaccurate…they are everywhere. In every website, in your android phone, in your YouTube, in your Google drive, in your email, in your Google maps…
Anyways… I will calm down now. :)
In your car, your TV, your network, your dns…
Everywhere.
They are even part of paying for the massive underwater cables between continents that all internet traffic runs through.
They took everything over.
It’s the most extensive surveillance network in the world.
SneezycatLiterally 1984.
Used to be a joke, now its a journey.
Literally 1984
Resol van LemmyDystopia has taken over.
Except that instead of an authoritarian government using it to totally control the learned populace, they are showing you ads.
We’ve still got a way to go before 1984. If it did happen, you wouldn’t be able to discuss it.
AustralianSimonTo be fair, Google does release data to governments so I guess it’s both.
We’ve always been at war with Eastasia.
Whose accessing the cables/data has never been more important, it’s literally the difference between being in/out of reach of the law.
in your android phone
And if you try to revoke their spying access on a rooted stock device, they force a reboot ☹️
Hence GrapheneOS sandboxing the Play Store. It is ironic that Google is the only phone manufacturer that allows for installing a different OS. But I suppose the fact that GrapheneOS has pushed security updates that have made it into stock Android and the fact that most users won’t bother installing an alternative OS on their pixel phones is why they allow such shenanigans.
JamieI use rooted LineageOS on my 4a 5G, though I do still have GApps on it. Next phone I buy I’m thinking I’ll give GrapheneOS a try. Leaving behind my rooted system level adblocking would be difficult for me though.
In regards to ad blocking. My solution isn’t as all encompassing as that, but for general web browsing, I use the Mull browser as you can install some addons like ublock and noscript. I’ll admit though if you’re looking to install advertisement heavy Play Store Apps though, I’d say maybe look into using a PiHole to adblock your home network?
I mostly just use my phone for/at work. I already have a server that could operate as a pihole at home, but my PC already blocks everything under the sun, so it’s not really needed.
I get most of my stuff off f-droid unless I don’t have any other choice, and use firefox with ublock+noscript on my phone as-is. But it is nice to not have to worry about getting ads in anything else when I do install an odd game or something, though.
What works for me is a pi-hole at home, a wireguard service on my (dd-wrt) router with the pi-hole functioning as dns server and my phone using wireguard as an always-on vpn.
All traffic on my phone is now routed through the pi-hole at home, which filters out all tracking, wherever I am.
Can users who use Google Fi switch too? Will call screening still work?
I don’t use Google Fi, but a quick search shows that many have gotten it to work with Graphene OS just fine. You can still install Fi from the Play Store, and it appears all works as intended as long as you grant it Network Permissions.
I’d do research on it though if you’re truly interested. They have a link to their Matrix chat on their website where you can field general questions.
somedaysoonIt is ironic that Google is the only phone manufacturer that allows for installing a different OS.
What do you mean by that? There are definitely other manufacturers that make it easy to unlock the bootloader so you can install other ROMs.
I stand correctted then. Please tell me a few of these other manufacturers!
Motorola has always made it easy. I’ve unlocked and rooted LG phones, although not sure on how easy they make it normally. Oneplus is well known for being open to unlocking. I’ve done it with Samsung too, although you have to be careful with the model, US variants are harder.
I stand very corrected. My apologies for not investigating this further before posting. I suppose i should rephrase my previous comment as:
I find it ironic that Google allows its flagship product to be rooted with an OS dedicated specifically to limiting data harvesting of Pixel users.
Yeah, it does seem counterintuitive, but they have to have some reason for it. If I were to guess it would be to keep goodwill with nerds like us. The way it stands, techies are still recommending Pixels, and that’s good for them.
But whatever reason it is doesn’t have to be much to have a better expected value for them. The amount of people that actually go through the process of changing the ROMs on their phone has to be so abysmally small that it is insignificant to them either way. And then the amount of people that take it the next step further and actually de-Google their phone completely has to be even smaller.
zbeckerI don't do Android development, but I would imagine rooting makes it easier to test things, as you wouldn't have to rely on ADB all the time.
It’s nice to have full file access and take advantage of apps like Adaway and Neo Backup and some Tasker functions, among other things.
With Samsung these days, it's usually impossible to root without some sort of exploit on US models unfortunately.
Yeah, that’s why I said the US variants are very difficult to unlock, I had to pay to unlock that s10e that I mentioned and it’s fairly sketchy.
last time I checked U.S band support on international samsung versions sucks.
I don’t think it’s as much of a problem on newer phones. But you’re right that if you get an international phone then you should make sure it supports the bands that your carrier uses before buying it.
maria [she/her]Pinephone is the obvious one, BUT!
Have you heard of FairPhone? These things also make it easy to install other operating systems on them. Also Beter for the climate ig.
I actually have a Pinephone from a few years ago (2 years now I think?). I never used it as a daily driver as it was very slow and had comparatively less features than the iphone and samsung phones i had had previously.
Upon recently deciding on purchasing the Pixel 7a and installing Graphene OS on it, i did heavily consider the Fairphone, but I’m in the US and they only just started to come to our shores. The family plan I’m on wasn’t a supported carrier, so that more or less made the decision for me.
The observation about the pinephone and fairphone being more environmentally friendly is intriguing. Care to elaborate a bit please?
I’m not the right person to do that, they got some good advertisement tho.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6gtj1ynstU
I’d encourage you to wait a bit tho, because it seems like they are about to announce a new one.
Introducing: FAIRPHONE 4 | Sustainable. Long-lasting. Fair.
CaptainBlagbirdSure, but all of those, except the phone (and TV mentioned below), are part of the web.
It’s cute, people think their android os isn’t collecting an embarrassing amount of data. Even if you turn everything off but cellular, it still phones home with cellular tower triangulation, app usage, call history, general web activity, weather the phone thinks your walking driving or riding a
Bike, device diagnostics, etc.
Yes but we do what we can.
demand compensation we should be paid for it
Same, I wish there was a better options. I’m on android right now but when it comes time to upgrade I always try to choose the lesser evil and it’s hard.
If you want privacy the only real option is to buy a Android phone with unlocked boitloader and use something like /e/OS or LineageOS, that will break a few apps but most of them work fine with MicroG.
Said Android phone would still use the towers and cellular carriers love selling customer data, because what’re you gonna do? Switch to another carrier that happens to also use their exact same towers?
Those can’t collect much beside my location tho and they aren’t allowed to here unless the cops tell them to, not perfect but a LOT better!
To buy an android phone that is supported by one of those projects. My galaxy s20 isn’t and I’m not willing to loose Android auto and the ability to use my cameras.
I wish there was a paid google of no spying… I mean what does google one get me, but the ability for google to spy on more or my data?
They’re really good at providing value for your data, I feel the same way about YouTube premium. I do it to better support creators and remove ads but they probably have one of the most detailed profiles on me.
They’re really good at providing value for your data
Perhaps you perceive that to be, which is totally fine, but how do you actually know that? We have no clue what that value truly is to them since they won’t share with us. If you are happy with what the googs get you, great (no sarcasm).
Myself, I fail to see the value being returned.
To each it’s own, I’m trying to move away from Google too. I still think it’s a better return than you would ever get from Facebook, Microsoft, or Amazon. There’s something to be said about most people being completely happy with using Gmail, YouTube, chrome, or search with minimal complaints. For a while we even got free unlimited storage for photos.
deejay4amEveryone thinks about the spying as relating to themselves, the individual.
Google doesn’t give a shit about you. Google gives a shit about us. Collectively. They can monitor the collective soul of the world. When people are busy, when they’re not paying attention, when they’re mad, who, and for how long; how they react to certain subjects…how to get them to listen about certain subjects, how to bring them around to certain subjects, how to keep them disagreeing with other viewpoints, etc.
They’re literally developed “a remote control for the flock” and everyone’s out here like “why do I care if Google see my save games I have 500 hours in CoD so wut”
I use alternative for all google server.
YouTube - piped.video Google drive - Mega Drive or Anonfile G-Mail - Proton Google - OSM (Open Street Map)
I think you meant:
Google maps - OSM
and
Google Search Engine - almost a thing else (duckduckgo)
Yea, But my search engine is ecosia.org
Ecosia is cool. Should probably also switch to it…
It would be fun if some government required companies that off free services to disclose how they make money and allow each user to see their particular value. This might help open some eyes…
How much money do you think a single user is worth? I can’t imagine it’s anything valuable
Services are free on the internet because people pay with their attention and data instead. A single user is much more valuable than you think, especially the recurring ones.
open their eyes to what? the fact it costs money to run a service? its either some data mining or everything costing a helluva lot more. and im youd complain about prices too.
and im sure youd complain about prices too
A universal claim only takes one case to disprove, and I’ll be that case: you’re wrong. I actually seek out the pay services and cut out the “free” ones.
My real complaint is when the huge companies offer a paid plan, but then still try to double dip and abuse my data and I. So I leave for the smaller guys who have an actual reputation to protect and so have garnered some trust. The hard part are things like google street view, or youtube, where competition is way behind due to the sheer inertia that incumbents have (e.g., creators using youtube due to the huge potential audience).
Other thing hard to ditch for me is android, as I really don’t like how tightly locked down apple’s walled garden is - not being able to run real firefox with my choice of extensions is a showstopper for any mobile platform.
froghorseOnce a month google sends me this email. “Your timeline”.
It’s a map with this line drawn on it showing everyplace I went that month. Home to work to the grocery store to my dealer’s etc.
Why are they showing this to me? Is it an advertisement of services? A brag? A threat?
It’s a smidge disturbing.
For me, it is useful. At the very least, such a blatant display of tracking information means people will know about it and disable it if necessary.
It should be an opt in feature, but it has helped me a couple times. I got beat up pretty bad after leaving a bar and couldn’t remember anything about the night, was able to retrace my steps from the google stuff.
It is opt in. someone didn’t read.