this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2023
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Privacy Guides

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Swiftkey isn't a real option for me, it just sends my data to another one of the big 3 tech megacorporations.
What I've tried:

  • Degoogled my phone with UAD and used apps that can run in the background instead of relying on Google Play Services for push. But I kept missing important messages cause push didn't work reliably. It lead to a wild goose chase of which system apps can be disabled and which permissions revoked without losing core functions, none of which is documented properly anywhere. Location only worked outside sometimes and took 3 minutes for a fix. And it still may not even do anything for privacy because the underlying system is made by Google and could just ignore all of my settings.
  • Installed LineageOS. This solved the problems above. But my banking app refused to even launch on it.
  • Gave up, again used a debloated Android but kept Google Play Services and its dependencies intact and just used no Google account or Google apps. Now banking works, push works, location works. But Google still has unlimited root access to my device, contacts, calls, SMS, location, so really what's the point?
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

How feasible is it to interact with your bank or other necessary services in a browser vs using the play store app? I can see LineageOS being viable if you can make such a transition.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Impossible. I either need a phone or buy a TAN generator for 2FA.

I'm currently thinking about that, or just leaving a spare phone at home with no data on it and location disabled. But the banking app is also used to verify bigger credit card payments. And without having it on me, I would have been unable to pay for plane or train tickets while traveling more than once.

[–] varsock 2 points 1 year ago

honestly, having a spare phone that sits at home is a great solution. Your main phone can be a native pixel/grapheneos (not lineage, graphene has no issues with feature comparability). And the spare phone at run all the apps for, idk, your robot vaccum, smart home, etc. At home you have more control of data and connectivity.

we all have old phones that can be used as spares. My 8 yr old phone is the "remote control" for my house. Using accounts that don't tie to me, on it's own vlan, pi-holed, etc