Users deserve to know what’s running on their devices.
They’re not wrong
This is a good time to remind people that if you install a custom ROM from https://xdaforums.com/ (that’s where most instructions are at any rate), you can install a version of Android with no google services whatsoever, including no play store
only if your device is rootable unfortunately
Not necessarily. LineageOS doesn’t require root; just a compatible device.
It also requires the boot loader to be unlocked, which is the same requirement for rooting a phone. Thus, you can only install LineageOS if your phone is rootable.
An unlocked bootloader and root are very different things
Rooted and rootable are also two different things. Rootable means your phone has the ability to be rooted. Aka an unlocked bootloader.
All phones are rootable if you’re determined enough.
(But the ease of rooting should be a consideration when getting a phone)
Where is the motorola graphene OS phone? This would be a great day to launch.
afaik this will be for corporations only and not sold to consumers directly
Oh, I hadn’t heard that. Is that a common business model for phones?
i mean it has been a thing for sure, motorola builds the radio and wifi systems in cop cars for example. the phone part may be new but it seems to be of the idea “corporations may need privacy but consumers don’t deserve it”.
GrapheneOS users, I don’t think, will have this virus. I could be wrong, though.
I just checked, since I run GrapheneOs, and had Google Play installed.
I don’t have Advanced Device Protection (or whatever).
If course, I really never open Play Store anymore, anyway, and I don’t let it run in the background.
I went ahead and uninstallled it, just to be safe. Having anything published by Google on my devices just feels gross, now.
Aurora store is better for obtaining Play store apps, anyway.
I’ve always used the Aurora store, but a privacy nerd my producer knows of basically said it was quite insecure and just recommended using the regular Play Store regardless.
Edit: This was on Fluxer where this was said.
but a privacy nerd my producer knows of basically said it was quite insecure and just recommended using the regular Play Store regardless.
Interesting!
It sounds to me like they fell for Google’s ad campaign against alternate stores. (Google has been in court for locking out competing app stores, and launched a campaign in response to try to convince others not to trust alternative stores.)
Aurora, has exactly the same set of packages as Play Store, but allows anonymous connections and provides substantially more end-user privacy information.




