Trying to escape Google’s ecosystem, but past purchases keep pulling me back. #DeGoogled #GoogleLockIn #PrivacyStruggles #TechDilemma #FOSS #DigitalFreedom #AndroidAlternatives
Trying to escape Google’s ecosystem, but past purchases keep pulling me back. #DeGoogled #GoogleLockIn #PrivacyStruggles #TechDilemma #FOSS #DigitalFreedom #AndroidAlternatives
GrapheneOS is great for privacy. But the need for banking apps, working notifications, etc get in the way of me using it for a main device. Plus, there’s the dilemma that in order to fully avoid being tracked by Google, you need to setup a separate user profile on your device for anything that uses Google services (ie if you want to use the playstore even with fake google services). I just switched to using an iphone and use decentralized apps for the most part. But my secondary device has graphene
Not sure what are you talking about. I’m using GraphaneOS as a daily driver and my banking apps work perfectly. The only ‘banking’ app that didn’t work is Revolut but I easily found an alternative and switched. The apps for two actual banks I use work without issues. Notifications work fine, no issues at all. I don’t have separate user profile, I have a work profile created with Shelter app. Everything just works. Work profile apps can’t access contacts or files from main profile. Google services are only available in work profile.
Unfortunately some really just don’t work, you got lucky. There’s a whole list of reports on GitHub about which ones work and don’t work, and unfortunately, the two I use the most didn’t, which is Navy Federal and PayPal. I tried both but they crashed everytime, and I couldn’t get past login.
Annoyingly, I just got a discover credit card, and Discover’s app works just fine, even though I don’t plan to use it nearly as much 🙄
But yeah some apps do not like how we don’t have safety net, hell, you can’t use Google Wallet and tap to pay which is a downer…
I did have issues with notifications in the past when using graphene, but my experience may have not been universal. But I was far from the only one experiencing this. Maybe they’ve improved it since my last time using it on a main device. It does seem that things have improved based on what you say though, so thats good.
Banking apps do require some level of google services. With work profiles, you’re putting faith in your apps being isolated in the hands of a third party, which is okay if you can trust it. But you also can’t control when apps in a work profile stop running, thus google services may still be running in the background of the work profile. Doing the really inconvenient method where you have separate user profiles seems more reliable for privacy.
This video speaks well about the privacy differences between user and work profiles: https://youtu.be/20C0FD7mGDY
Edit: typos
Yeah, ideally you would just use a dumb phone or some Linux phone.
Worst thing you can do is to use stock Android with Google account connected to everything (gmail, contacts, gpay, maps, calendar, play store).
Work profile is a great compromise, a lot better then using an iPhone.
I’d definitely jump for a Linux phone once they get their formula down. I was hyped for the Pinephone but realized they still need a bit of work.
No phone is truly private these days, but Graphene is the best we have. If we’re talking stock os, ios is slightly better. But I use it keeping in mind my data is still up for grabs.
Have you checked out the FuriPhone? First reports seem promising
I lost my hope when it comes to Linux phones. They will never get the app support Android has so you will have to run some kind of Android emulator anyway. If you think GraphaneOS has app and notification issues imagine what issues will this cause. I thought that Pinephone will at least solve hardware issues (as in that we will see a lot of clones and it will be easy to get some Linux phone hardware) but even this didn’t happen. So we still have no hardware nor software. Sadly Android is the only way to go. When google closes the source code we’ll be fucked.
Oh, getting your life tracked by Apple is better? Also didn’t know decentralised apps exist in Apple ecosystem
Stock ios is more private than stock android. I just have accepted that I prefer convenience over maximizing privacy because I’m lazy. And yes, there’s access to decentralized apps. If I was less lazy I could also figure out how to install third party apps too but it seems I’m not the only one who struggles with that