this post was submitted on 27 Apr 2024
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DeGoogle Yourself

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I am in need of a separate degoogled phone for some things that require high level of privacy (nothing illegal).

I have 2 phones that I can use. One of them is my business phone (it has my business number, apps, data and that sort of stuff) which is now running an OS with all the Google spyware because it's necessary for the apps to work. I can reinstall everything on the second phone and use the first one as the secure device since it supports everything I need. The problem is that it has some issues on vanilla ROMs that I don't really want to deal with and the reinstalling will take a lot of time.

The issue with the second phone is that it is rocking an old MTK chip and rooting instructions are let's say a bit beyond my ability to understand. I still want to use it without Google if possible though. So can I degoogle its stock ROM with ADB or something? And is it worth trying or there will still be some vulnerabilities?

EDIT: to clear some possible misunderstandings, the reason of why I need a separate secure phone is that I am forced to use a very invasive proprietary app that I'd prefer just keeping on a separate device instead of trying to limit its spyware abilities with firewalls and that kind of stuff. I don't trust the last solution much. Also I can't use it in a VM because I need it to always be accessible wherever I am and yk carrying a PC is not an option

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Nope. Best cause of action is buy a google pixel and put grapheneos on it.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago
[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Solve ur own problems mate. Unless u wanna replace the phones ROM and can relock the bootloader not a whole lot any degoogling attempts can achieve.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago

They were just making the point that buying an entire new phone isn't worth it.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Lol hope you get banned for rudeness

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Ur the one begging for money that's pretty rude imo. Its just not a whole lot u can do without at least rooting.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I wasn't begging for money. I said that as a joke. You are being rude now though

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

So I've read a lot of this thread and I felt I needed to say one thing to you. I don't know why you need such extensive data security but that's none of my business.

What I wanted to say is that if you need this much protection for a business, ie you're protecting many other people's sensitive data, hire a professional to do it right the first time. Doing a half assed job then paying someone else to fix it is twice as expensive.

If you're doing this to protect your own personal data then the best way to do it right eventually is through trying and learning from your mistakes. Obviously try to avoid them but it's impossible to not make any.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

My business phone doesn't need special security. I only need it for one specific app

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I saw you said as much in your post but I felt it was important to double check. Good luck with your endeavor.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago

Thank you. I'll just switch all the business stuff to that second phone. Its old security patch may be an issue but well I don't have many other options

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (3 children)

You can try uninstalling as much Google crap as possible using the Universal Android Debloater

Then perhaps use a firewall like NetGuard in whitelist mode, to only allow selected apps to access the internet

As an additional layer of security, you can use NextDNS with the No Google blocklist, and block all connections to Google servers in DNS. If you need to access specific things like YouTube, you can whitelist them.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago

just gonna say , rethink combines both a firewall and a DNS blocker .

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Interesting, I was using https://rethinkdns.com/ until now, I guess NetGuard is a more straightforward approach to blocking?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

if I understand correctly the rethink app does also work as a firewall , so no . I've also found netguard to be less intuitive and to have a less readable UI .

if you are just using rethink as a DNS provider however then netguard (or the rethink app) can allow you to have more granular control over specific apps .

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago

I see, thanks

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

Mister/miss, I have no idea how to use advanced DNS stuff and firewalls (like at all). It's faster to reinstall everything on a different phone than learning all of that. Still thank you for replying

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

NextDNS is very easy to use, you can check out this video: https://youtu.be/WUG57ynLb8I

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

https://piped.video/WUG57ynLb8I

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago

I don't want to share sensitive medical and other personal data. I'll just say I have reasons not to do it now

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