I know that GrapheneOS has a lot of security features that make it basically impossible to compromise your phone. And that it has a lot of control over permissions and has some privacy features. But it also has a Google Services compatibility that would allow you to use Google services, which would allow Google to harvest a lot of data from you; much less data, but still some. Now OSes like CalyxOS or Lineage have microG which in addition to giving you the APIs, it uses less battery and has the ability to use Mozilla network location to stop google from getting that data. CalyxOS and Lineage don’t have the crazy hardening modifications that GrapheneOS has, but Android is already crazy secure compared to something like Windows or Linux without a properly configured SELinux or AppArmor. Why have Graphene over Calyx?
No, not really. Again, Google only knows what you willingly tell them. Most of the privacy violations are from the Play Services themselves, not their apps. It doesn’t have those teeth when sandboxed in Graphene. It’s safe to assume that if a person installs Graphene, they’re also smart enough to not use a gmail acct for it that links back to them, doesn’t use email with it, and doesn’t volunteer anything they wouldn’t be OK with Google knowing in the end.
And that would a stupid move by the person, not a failing of the OS. No OS on the planet can protect against a foolish user.
If a person is going to intentionally install and use apps that sell as much data as possible, clearly not, but people that would do something like that are privacy clueless and also wouldn’t be installing Graphene in the first place.
That’s the main thing. I can easily use another email provider with no issues, I can install another OS that respects my privacy. But what if my dumbfuck friends and family use something like snapchat, instagram, or facebook messenger to communicate? I tried to tell them to use signal before but they wouldn’t listen. And I’m not about to stop messaging them anytime soon. And if I use those services, wouldn’t those companies have a good profile on me? Making the effort to be more private pretty useless.
Makes no difference what (their) messenger of choice is, If you send them an SMS, theyll get it. If they’re also on Android, Google Messenger is E2EE when its using RCS and it’ll also work with Samsung’s.