Which phone would be better if the main concern is the police. Police in my country (not US) is very criminal. They make fake court requests just so they can spy on people.
My reasonings are:
a debloated stock android (Motorola or Samsung) with foss and no google apps/account has almost 0 data going to servers (i tested it) so no data can be given to police, because there is no data on the servers BUT the phone is not as secure as an iphone so it can probably be easily compromised remotely with or without the assistance of Motorola/Samsung etc.
iPhones are more secure but they can respond to subpoenas and provide what data exactly? There has been so many news about warrantles spying - apple gave notifications to police, csam reports you to police, obviously your location is up for grabs etc.
What do you think is better in this threat model (police overreach)? Please do not tell me about Graphene or any other degoogled ROMS, they are not an option in my case.
Need more info. Are you talking about the police asking them for data or are you getting you phone seized and having it subjected to cellebrite? I wouldn’t trust iPhones or most androids against cellebrite but GrapheneOS consistently does well against it. iOS offers advanced data protection which will protect your files from police seizure, however there’s other data of course like your account data. Again likely GrapheneOS is the best choice in either scenario.
The CSAM scanning was never implemented btw. I’d say go with an iPhone if GOS isn’t an option and turn on ADP and possibly lockdown mode if you think you’re going to be subjected to state backed malware or cellebrite. Turn your phone off when you’re not using it, also location services are optional and you have very granular control over them on iOS.
I am more concerned about remote attacks (mainly from police not spy agencies). I have minimum amount of data on the phone so physical access is not my concern. I am more worried about my daily usage/behaviour/camera/mic being monitored by the police. I am not sure what capabilities regural police has in comparison to other agencies but as i said my threat model is corrupt criminal police.
Debloated android send no data to servers so the only attack left would be to attack my phone remotely. iPhones are more secure in this regard but they do have a lot of data on the server side to give to the police… so i am not sure.
What is OP being specifically paranoid over? Why is iPhone better rather than say GrapheneOS? Is there a better threat model OP should consider for their choice?
as a recent graykey victim myself, and stalker of forensics chats, everything i posted has good reasoning. it’s a very long unfinished guide so I chopped the most important parts. more organized post soon.
Unfortunately GrapheneOS is not an option for everyone. Even in democracies like Australia. The situation is complex.
“A cipher phone, more formally known as a dedicated encrypted criminal communication device (DECCD)”
“The court will consider the following to determine whether there were reasonable grounds to suspect the device was being used to commit or facilitate serious criminal activity: If the service attached to the phone (e.g. sim cards) is linked to a false name…”