Google’s latest flagship smartphone raises concerns about user privacy and security. It frequently transmits private user data to the tech giant before any app is installed. Moreover, the Cybernews research team has discovered that it potentially has remote management capabilities without user awareness or approval.
Cybernews researchers analyzed the new Pixel 9 Pro XL smartphone’s web traffic, focusing on what a new smartphone sends to Google.
“Every 15 minutes, Google Pixel 9 Pro XL sends a data packet to Google. The device shares location, email address, phone number, network status, and other telemetry. Even more concerning, the phone periodically attempts to download and run new code, potentially opening up security risks,” said Aras Nazarovas, a security researcher at Cybernews…
… “The amount of data transmitted and the potential for remote management casts doubt on who truly owns the device. Users may have paid for it, but the deep integration of surveillance systems in the ecosystem may leave users vulnerable to privacy violations,” Nazarovas said…
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What is the advantage over Calyx/Lineage/iode OS on compatible devices? I just don’t want Google to have any of my money at all. Buying a privacy solution from them recoups their loss.
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One underrated feature of the Graphene OS is that you can set a duress PIN that wipes your entire phone when entered.
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Oh, I was mostly leaving the comment for other people who might be interested in the feature.
That’s not a bad idea. If someone steals the phone, they might inadvertently erase it for you if they find that post-it.
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Schools even have Cellebrite devices now, that is how prolific they have become. GrapheneOS has a duress password to wipe the phone and you can block all data or even power to the USB port while the phone is running. If you blocked all power to the USB port while the phone is on the only way to charge it is if it is fully turned off putting your encrypted data at rest. You can just disable data on the USB port options menu in GrapheneOS if you don’t want to completely turn off the whole port.
You probably already know this stuff I was just mentioning it for people reading this comment section. :)
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Mainly the locked bootloader that GrapheneOS offers. It’s more secure, and GrapheneOS emphasizes security over all else, but privacy features are part of that security.
It’s my understanding that Graphene has security as its main goal, not privacy, though it’s also quite private.
I like calyx, might try graphene some day. But I absolutely won’t run Google’s play services ala graphene. It’s sandboxed, supposedly, but why run it at all?
Calyx uses microG, a much smaller, fully open source emulator of Google’s services.
Because it is unfortunately required by some apps. microG is not a viable alternative, as it requires root access on the device, which drastically reduces the security. It also has worse compatibility than Sandboxed Play services, and doesn’t offer much of a benefit. It still downloads and executes proprietary Google blobs in the background in order to function. Apps that require Google services also include a proprietary Google library, making microG essentially useless. It’s an open source layer that sits between a proprietary library and a proprietary network service, using proprietary binaries and requiring root access. You gain absolutely nothing from using it, and significantly increases the attack surface of your device.
This is simply false, as I explained, only a tiny bit of what microG requires to function is open source
You’re far better off using Sandboxed Play services on GrapheneOS
Dude I’m looking at the source code, there’s only a binary downloaded for enabling Safety net. Why are you making false statements?
The legacy SafetyNet check bypass may not be around much longer especially because hardware based attestation will be gradually replacing it.
https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/111504057847795464
Below is a guide for app developers who want to support third party OSs in a way that does not rely on Google. Most apps work on GrapheneOS just fine already but there are some banking apps and NFC payment systems that do not.
https://grapheneos.org/articles/attestation-compatibility-guide
Sigh. It just doesn’t stop. But it’s ok, Pokemon go required attestation and so I simply stopped playing. Thanks for your links.
I’ve wanted to run graphene but absolutely do not want google code running on my system if I can avoid it. If only there were some way to run microG on graphene.
@RubberElectrons @multi_regime_enjoyer its not actually fully open source, it uses a lot of closed-source libraries, and its not as battle-tested as google’s official one so there really isn’t a reason to use it
Just about all of your identifying data is stripped out by the framework before interacting with Google at all: https://github.com/microg/GmsCore/wiki/Google-Network-Connections
That alone makes it an important tool. I’m not too worried about memory exploits as I don’t really install apps, but it’s an important feature in graphene’s toolkit.
For most people who want an Android alternative that’s open source but don’t have time to fiddle with it, calyxOS seems like a good solution. It just works out of the box.