First off appologies if this is not clear or if it’s been answered already, I’m not too sure how to word it.
My threat model is mostly surveillance capitalism from big tech companies, I’ve been trying to reduce how much data big tech has on me but I still feel somewhat comfortable using them. I’m using firefox with the settings recommended from PG and duckduckgo / brave as a search engine along with other things.
I’ve been looking all over PG but seem to be getting mixed messages and I’m unsure how to progress with this.
I’ve been looking at getting a new phone at some point soon and I was thinking of getting an ios device as the features available for privacy seem more straight forward and easier to impliment (ADP, shortcuts for metadata etc. mostly going off PGs recommendations here as I assumed this would help me decide the best choice for me) However I’ve seen a lot of mixed messages and a lot of people recommend stock android or grapheneOS. This might be ignorant of me but I’d rather not use grapheneOS as much as I want to get away from big tech I trust them more when it comes to mobile OS.
Is there a comparison table or a website to compare grapheneOS, ios and stock android.
If you are a tech savvy individual, then Graphene OS can and is a better option for you for superior privacy and security protections. It is well made, easy to use, and stable. Don’t get lost in the discourse on this as everyone may have strong opinions on their own preferences for their own reasons.
But if you are not as tech savvy and want the easiest option - then iPhone is the way to go. But if you truly want to get away from big tech, it would behoove you to avoid Apple too as they are becoming enshittified at a rate higher than before and will continue to keep up with supposed tech industry changes and demands for AI going forward.
My recommendation is to still go with GrapheneOS and I say that as a current iPhone user. My next one is going to be it later this year.
The main reason I’d not want to go with GrapheneOS is because it’s ran by a smaller community of developers and say it got abandoned or a maintainer did something malicious then what would happen, this is not likely to happen but it’s a possibility. For example if a security update for a recent vulnerability isn’t patched as it takes time for Graphene to impliment it, whereas a big tech company could patch it within a day or two. I’ll probably need to do more research into GrapheneOS if I was to go with it.
(all my GrapheneOS questions have probably been answered somewhere).
If I was to get GrapheneOS is it possible to use apps like phone clone to move to a newer pixel after eol of an older model?
How well does Google play services work I know it’s sandboxed which is good, I’d need to use it for some apps though.
Is it possible to backup data to the cloud? in case of losing a device etc.
I say I am trying to get away from big tech whilst using big tech and apps like youtube and other google services and Microsoft for windows etc. I can’t really move away from google completely but I can reduce data same with Microsoft. (yes I know this is backwards )
If this is your logic, then even thinking, what if Apple as a company stops existing?
You’re picking not only the absolute worst case scenario but also kind of a ridiculous one. I’m sorry but that’s what it reads like/feels like the way you’re trying to ratinalize your own preferences.
But anyways, I still say it won’t happen as it is a successful project and that it all being open source, nothing malicious will ever happen to it. But if you live by the strict principle of nothing is impossible, then there is no arguing with it by anyone.
For GrapheneOS specific questions, I recommend asking on the GrapheneOS forum or wait for others to answer as I can’t answer them correctly or with specificity. Like I said, I don’t use Graphene yet, I am still on iOS.
To me this is oxymoronic and makes little sense if at all any. But alright.
This is the extent to which I can comment on the matter and recommend things. Hope others can help better.
Even I have some beefs with the social media managers and former lead dev honestly but I wouldn’t go as far as to say they would do that, so you’re fine here.
GrapheneOS recovers backup in a weird way, maybe you can use it with Sandboxed Google Play but on setup yeah not at this point wiht the specific pixel clone app or something, again maytbe can install it seperately, may I ask what data you want to retrieve though.
It works very well, the only problem is apps with Play Integrity API requiring more than Basic Integrity. Other than that it’s fine
and yes can backup to cloud but only with the options currently given and I hope the devs expand upon but I also understand why it is specific. If you do manually yes depending on the cloud provider you can do like backing up photos or something.
This is fine, I’m in the same ballpark where I use microsoft products at work but mostly that’s it and for Google I use for SSO and Youtube and that’s it really.
Not true. Stock releases first since it’s google, but GOS is quick enough that yeah there is no complaints about the frequency of updates, they do release the security bulletin updates like a day or two take or leave on stable later after release which is great
What was said can still be true, especially since Google pushes out the updates in a phased (and slowish) approach. Graphene tends to get the updates out rapidly. I (almost) always tend to get my updates faster than my coworker that uses a stock Pixel
How are you basing this?
Just because you got it quicker than a colleague doesn’t mean that GOS releases it first. It’s Google then others, period.
Delays can occur and my phone was sure delayed by a day. But my cousin from Germany likely got it faster, again this is in no way represantive oh when each release their Security updates.
Now GOS isn’t slow, not what I’m saying here, they’re consistent but they’re not first.
Google may START pushing it out first, but that does not mean stock Pixel users always get it first. Again, all their updates get pushed out in phases. In recent history, Graphene COMPLETES pushing out the update faster.
I’m also just referring to security updates. Yes, Graphene will be behind on version updates
Stock pixel users are the first one to get it (Edit: while not consistently in the User POV, Google has the power to roll it out first since they have android and historically has been this way), As I said period, Meaning end it here.
As I said:
Now GOS isn’t slow, not what I’m saying here, they’re consistent but they’re not first
(nor last, they’re basically consistently second place)
I see where you’re coming from with my logic and I maybe did see it from an extreme view but as it’s open source and has a smaller developer base it’s more likely than say google or apple. This isn’t me justifying having say an iphone or stock google pixel it’s just how I view things.
I can’t just ditch all big tech. I don’t wanna sound hostile but that’s not how it works. What I don’t want to do is ditch everything, not sure if I’m intepreting it right but I still like using youtube and services like that etc. this is something that I just have to compromise with.
But do know that there is a way past big tech in full. Perhaps you’re not ready yet, that’s okay - but just jnow there are alternatives one can indeed and relatively easily live with.
tbh I can never exactly move away.
Microsoft, technically it is gone now (outside that I still have to use windows in some games and tech, arrgh, so another rope) but Google, it’s like they’re holding me in a rope with this.
The best I can do is mitigate with YouTube and maybe control my SSOs logins to move to first party where possible I guess but yeah. Also with microsoft where I just use O&O ShutUp10 to mitigate the data collection/spyware.
It is not a bad thing tbh as I said to OP but it’s the extent that you do it that matters honestly.
I mean… I understand for games and highly select apps for highly select purposes.
But outside of that, even if using macOS with all the best privacy and security set up/settings/apps for the same - it is possible instead of moving to Linux for any stability reasons or something.
Everyone is at a different level and wants and needs and reqyires different things with how they do things and live with tech. I am not here to dictate how people should live or do things.
In all cases, the most effective in reducing how much data big tech has on you and protecting you from “surveillance capitalism from big tech companies”, GrapheneOS will be a far superior choice. You probably will have more peace of mind and probably will have few issues. It is a better choice especially if you want to protect yourself from tracking of ALL “big tech companies”, including Apple !
Please note however that if I remember correctly, GrapheneOS said on Mastodon that GrapheneOS offer less privacy protections from apps than iOS (but contact scopes and storage scopes, sensor permissions are better in GOS so not sure). Anyway, iOS has at least better protection from apps than stock Android.
In addition, GrapheneOS is a fun adventure and it is great to deal empowered of your phone at 100% and you can always decide that it is not for you in a few years and sell your Pixel !
Keep in mind that THIS “smaller community” is a team working for YOUR privacy ! They directly serve your interests, whereas Apple does not only serves your interest, and may go against your interests.
I think it’s far more likely that Apple will do something you don’t like, rather than GrapheneOS dies.
I think that there isn’t an all-in-one solution to transfer your setup on GOS to another GOS Pixel.
Amazingly ! I have zero issue.
There is no built-in solution. You can use cloud based services though (Proton Drive, ente photos, Bitwarden, Standard Notes, YouTube Music, Spotify, …) or do local backups.
GrapheneOS does so much attack surface reduction and has so many features against exploits that I find that this is much more likely that Apple let a vulnerability in iOS code than GrapheneOS to delay an important update or to do an error.
You can look at GOS track record too. They are always very timely !
I’ll base this example on what happened this month, but realistically, the same thing happens each month. With release 2025020300, GrapheneOS went out of their way to release a security update “based on the February 2025 security patch backports.” They get these patches 'first’, and if they didn’t value security, they could easily wait the couple of days it takes for the monthly AOSP / Stock releases to arrive. When 2025-2-5 arrived, GrapheneOS released the 2025020500 update on the same day. Google’s rolling releases mean you are still likely to get the update first on GrapheneOS, especially if you select the Alpha channel.
hmm so it’s not a day off or two as I thought. Yes I am on stable and it is intentional GOS is delaying the release a little before the general release.
But other than that the general consensus is that it’s google that first releases it, not GOS, no matter how fast GOS is. GOS can be an hour late, less or so but yeah it wasnt about when GOS does it or something, it’s been the hierarchy.
I repeat:
I said it before:
Now GOS isn’t slow, not what I’m saying here, they’re consistent but they’re not first
(nor last, they’re basically consistently second place)
second place I mean next to Google is what I’m trying to say.
Should you use Stock OS for this? No obviously[if can avoid it which is preferable]
)