I have a phone which i cant really fully remove google from (that includes being unable to change the android OS), so i instead tried to remove lots of stuff with adb (without breaking anything of course). So i still have Google services and whatever else, does that mean its pretty much useless to not have the Play store? Does google already know every app i have and they link that to my device ID and having a google account wouldnt be different?
What google services do you have still ? The play services package google.android.gms and google.android.vending are the main google components.
I think there is still a benefit in removing them with adb .
I was in a same situation as yours earlier but one thing i did was , I performed this right after a factory reset. So their won’t be any linkage of apps installed with your google id. ( I use the " app manager" app to do it on easy manner)
Although this method is not full-proof and can’t guarantee that no info is shared to google but i found it significantly much better than having google services or playstore installed.
On top of this i do use pcapdroid with its firewall feature to keep track of which domains my device is connecting to and blocking unnecessary connections.
I just have GSF and GMS. And i dont want to remove them because i need a couple apps that depend on them for now. I have NextDNS going on overdrive. I also dont have the vending package, is that ok? Ive been quite fine without it, i think
I ask here because i saw this
people on stock OS have nothing to lose by using Play Store, given that Google already has privileged access to their device
Trying to bypass Google on a device where Google has deeply rooted privileged access to said device is pretty much futile. Hacks like messing with ADB often do more harm than good, and give you a false sense of security (and privacy).
If you’re using an Android device with the Stock OS (or any OS with privileged Google Play Services), you have to accept that Google, or whoever, can do virtually whatever they want. Whether they do is another story.
The way I hear it is that you’re using a device with the OS that comes with Play Services, don’t want to fully remove them as you need apps that depend on them (and which also use Google libraries and run Google code themselves) but have removed some of it in an attempt to increase privacy.
At best, you’re left with an incomplete solution, at worst, you’re not only degrading your experience but messing things up and using ADB which exposes your phone to a whole bunch of attack surface when connected to your computer.
I don’t mean to come off as defeatist, but the way you have to think about this is like trying to avoid Apple’s services while using an iPhone; it’s not really feasible.
If your device is compatible with DivestOS, you could give that OS a shot, but do keep in mind that it contains no Play Services compatibility at all.
GrapheneOS does, and does so in a way where Play Services are not being used as privileged components but rather as regular apps that have access to the same amount of things all other apps do. That said, GrapheneOS only runs on Pixels currently (and likely for the forseeable future unless some OEM decided to do better and make a secure device with proper alternative OS support), which I’m assuming you don’t have.
I hope that helps you decide what your steps should be going forward.
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So if i remove GSF and GMS, im good? Or is that a pretty bad idea. The only other thing i can do is give in to Google, which seems to be the safer idea
gsf and gms are the main packages as said earlier. They are the packages which do all the work behind scenes.
So either remove them or keep everything else related to google it won’t matter.
I tries this setup and it worked fine for my needs, ofcourse anything dependent on google services won’t work so be ready with alternate set of apps.
Otherwise you are gonna end up receiving the same suggestion"Buy a grapheneos device…" which i don’t disagree but if not possible this is a temporary suggestion.
In the future, Graphene is the plan. Right now, i already use a ton of alternative software, and i would rather not have notifications from some of the unwanted apps than have google smelling my shoulder.
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Your OS is made to function with Play Services. It likely gets security updates through them via Google System Updates etc.
My issue here is that I don’t think you’re actually achieving much by going the ADB route at all. You’re likely reducing your device’s security for little to no benefit. If you don’t want Google to have system-level access to your device, you have to run an OS which doesn’t give it that.
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Yeah guess ill get some google back. I think ill do a factory reset to make sure stuff isnt broken