A couple months ago there was a thread here about cell phone privacy. I mentioned in the thread that was something I was going to be pursuing and that thread got me off the dime to play around a bit with some options.
I expect this is going to be a fairly long post. I apologize for that. I will try to break it out into sections to at least make it a little easier to read. I will also try to avoid getting too deep into nerd-shit but some of that is necessary just due to the topic.
My Goals For This Exercise
My primary goal for this exercise was to prevent Google (and other tech firms) from collecting usage data on me via my phone. I WAS NOT TRYING TO ACHIEVE TRUE SECURE COMMUNICATIONS. That is simply not possible using cellular networks. It might be possible to get close to secure if you use a call phone without a SIM card and connect wirelessly only through a VPN to a Voice-Over-IP service such as OOMA. But even that is iffy and you are still at the mercy of OOMA. Also, getting that to work, although not technically difficult, it does require you to hopscotch through several different connections and if any one of them is not completely secure, the entire chain is broken. In short, it is just not worth the headaches in my arrogant opinion.
So, I limited my goal to just preventing Google from collecting data from my phone that could be cross-referenced back to me and sold to the highest bidder for marketing. My secondary goal was to minimize the data my service provider (Verizon) could collect.
General Overview
I looked at 4 different operating systems:
- Ubuntu Touch
- LineageOS
- GrapheneOS
- /e/
The primary things I was looking at beyond anonymity were the ease of installation, capabilities, speed and battery life. The device I used for testing was Mrs Inor's old phone: a Motorola Z Play. Just a general note: all of these operating systems are open source and thus, none of them support the latest and greatest hardware available.
Ubuntu Touch
Ubuntu Touch is a pure Linux distribution ported to a smart phone platform. https://ubuntu-touch.io/ Since I know Linux really well, I was hoping this would solve all my issues. It didn't. First off, it is pretty limited with the hardware it supports "out of the box" and the newest hardware was over 7 years old. They do provide a source distribution that you can build yourself if your device is newer than their supported devices. I did have to build it myself since they did not have anything for the Motorola Z. That worked fine and it did install okay and more or less ran but there were a HUGE number of errors logged, I am guessing because it did not have the correct device drivers. I am pretty sure I could have gotten it working well if I spent the time creating updated drivers but I have much better things to do with my time.
In short, Ubuntu Touch was a BIG disappointment. It was a pain to build and install and if you are not into programming C, it is not a good option.
LineageOS
LineageOS is a de-Googled version of the standard Android operating system. https://privacytogo.co/. Android is an open source project based on Linux created by Google. Thus, they are required by license to provide the source code for the base OS. The Lineage people removed all of the code that sends data back to Google. It is by far, the most popular de-Googled phone operating system. It has prebuilt support for almost every major phone.
Installation was not difficult at all, but it does require you to install it manually. - There is no graphical installer that I could find. It was not a big deal but you do need to be familiar with the command line for Windows or the Terminal for Mac/Linux. The instructions for installing it are very straight forward but there may be a couple of additional utilities you need to install your computer prior to installing the OS on the phone. Full instructions are provided for each of those as well. In all, it took me about an hour to find everything and get it installed.
Once installed, it worked well. The biggest complaint I had with it is that it was built from an older version of Android so the user interface the old Android interface. That is not an big deal to me, but...
It does not come with any Google apps installed, including the Google PlayStore. It does have an app called F-Store where you can install third-party applications that do not track you. They also have an app called Aurora Store that will let you download apps from the Google PlayStore anonymously. But to me, it kind of defeats the purpose of de-Googling a phone and then just load it up with crap from Google.
In short, LineageOS is probably what I am going to go with for now.
GrapheneOS
GrapheneOS is also de-Googled Android OS. https://grapheneos.org/. This is the one OS that I was not able to install and test as they only support the Google brand Pixel phones.
From reading up on the project, they are going through every line of code with a fine-tooth comb. They have even gone through and rebuilt a lot of the standard libraries to make them more secure. This is DEFINITELY a project to keep an eye on, but I think it is going to take another year or two to fully mature. But they seem pretty focused on just supporting the Google phones, even starting some projects to rewrite the Google firmware in the chips to lock them down.
It does have a web-based installer as well as the traditional command line installer, so if you have a Google Pixel phone, this would DEFINITELY be one that I would look at.
/e/
/e/ is another de-Googled Android OS. https://e.foundation/. The focus of /e/ is beyond just an operating system. They are trying to build a complete "online community" based on privacy. It is a fairly new project so they do not have formal released versions for every phone. But they do have a good mix and they have many in beta testing. I expect within a year, they will rival Lineage for the number of devices supported. I was able to test a release version as the Motorola Z is one of the phones they do have a release for.
The operating system looks much nicer than Lineage as I think they started with the newer Android as their base. It does run well. My biggest concern with them is, I don't want an "online community"! If I wanted that, I may as well just stick with Google.
Conclusion and My Plan Moving Forward
One of my main goals moving forward is to quit doing business with as many "woke" companies as I can. I recently changed my e-mail provider after my old one went woke. I am also going to dump Verizon as my provider as soon as I find another provider that works at M.T. Acres. I found a company called Patriot Mobile https://www.patriotmobile.com/ that looks like a company I would like to do business with but their coverage map still looks iffy for M.T. Acres.
I think I am going to set up Mrs Inor's old phone with LineageOS and set up a cheap account with a new number with the Patriot Mobile people for a couple months and see if it works. If it does, I will drop Verizon and move our primary numbers over to them. I have a few other ideas as well but I will leave the discussion of those for later since this post is WAY too long as it is.
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