Pixel Watch and GrapheneOS

other8026

[deleted] as far as I know, there are no plans to support them. You can see another mod left a reason why in this thread: https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/9616-grapheneos-on-pixel-watch-series/2

dandelion9536

Would the Garmin Venu watches be a good private alternative? I know smart watches in general are insecure, but in the absence of any secure option, I'd really love some kind of option that is at least private.

Also what is the recommended set up for a Garmin Smart watch?

mmmm

dandelion9536 its pretty bare bones and most certainly not polished, absolutely not on par with an apple/google/Garmin etc watch, but take a look at bangle .js - depends what you want then watch for, but my own personal research seems to indicate that this is the most private watch available.

mmmm

dandelion9536 I know smart watches in general are insecure, but in the absence of any secure option, I'd really love some kind of option that is at least private.

Apologies. I took this to mean any smart watch.

Aeon

mmmm
oh bangle.js looks interesting :-) thank you for the tip

dandelion9536

mmmm My questions were about Garmin and the Garmin Venu series specifically.

r3tr0

mmmm really nice thanks for the tip!

mmmm

Aeon disclaimer: I dont actually own one nor have I used or even seen one, rather just read about. 😉

dandelion9536

mmmm It does, but those are statements, not questions.

mmmm

dandelion9536 I would recommend not really worrying too much about it. You already hijacked a thread about pixel watches with a garmin question, and my insight has helped others. Its not worth getting all annoyed about it really, is it?

dandelion9536

mmmm I'm not worried. I'm just replying to your reply.

I didn't hijack the thread. Garmin watches had already been brought up here before I asked my question, and the thread's OT was already marked as solved. You replied to two questions about Garmin watches with an answer not related to either question. That's wonderful if it helped others who didn't have those two Garmin questions, but you replied to me, not them, and it didn't help me, because it wasn't an answer to the questions I asked. I'm sure offering recommendations on the best fuel for launching a rocket into space would offer insight and help to some people as well, but it would be no less related to the questions that were asked.

I'm not getting all annoyed. I'm just replying to your reply.

mmmm

dandelion9536 OK then? Just seems your constant attempt to reprimand me is a little superfluous, but for a second time, apologies for replying to your post unnecessarily.

matchboxbananasynergy

Think we can end this back and forth and get back to the topic at hand now, thank you.

scrampker

I have been running my Pixel watch on my Fold, and I'm waiting for PW3 to connect to my P9PF. That being said, please don't pretend like you are maintaining any level of privacy if you do this. Even if you somehow ran the watch without your GoS phone and attached it to a junk phone in a drawer just to relay notifications, you're still giving just about everything to Google.

I'm about 60% complete with my de-googling operation, which has taken 4+ years, and when I get closer to the end, there's no way I can justify having a Google watch. It makes GoS nearly pointless. I consider what I'm doing now as more of a learning experience. What works, what doesn't. I'd kill for a GOOD Linux watch. I do use a TicWatch Pro 3 GPS with limited app connectivity as well, since it's so good at sleep monitoring with SleepAsAndroid, but I'm sure there's some leakage there as well.

At this point, I think I'd rather China steal my data than Google/The US Government.

MeanMrMustard

scrampker
I'm experimenting with a fitbit watch in a GOS profile with Play services allowed to give as many permissions as the watch requires.
I created a burner gmail account for the fitbit but did NOT assign a gmail account to play services, play store or framework.
I'm curious what data I'm giving up since no apps, Google included, can see IMEI or SN of the phone, Google can't associate an account (unless it can get what it needs from the fitbit app) with my personal information, and the only information the watch gets is physical activity since information required to sign up is all bogus.
Yes, it can get location information but, again, can't associate it with an IMEI etc.
I'm also curious what play services can do given that many permissions with respect to other apps in the same profile that have access network access.

scrampker

PW3 seems to work fine, except I did have to add the compatibility mode to 'Watch.' Not a fan, but oh well.

scrampker

You'd be shocked what seemingly non-PII can be easily correlated with big data sets. I imagine it takes Google a few seconds to assign correct ownership to your fitbit watch.

If you actually care about privacy then these are not the watches for you. I figure by the time I am closer to wrapping up my degoogling journey, I will be ready to give away my Pixel Watch 3, and hopefully there will be a better privacy-minded solution. One should assume that if you are using Play Services, you basically made GoS pointless. I am sure it's a little bit better than stock, but by how much I'm not sure. Then, when you consider that the watch is running it's full OS with no limitations, think about all the data points like GPS, nearby hotspots, BLE, in addition to all your sensor data of course.

On that topic, I wonder if there will ever be an open source type watch that's actually usable.

de0u

scrampker One should assume that if you are using Play Services, you basically made GoS pointless.

If that were true, why would the GrapheneOS developers put in so much work making Play run sandboxed, only to make their own OS pointless?

Why in the world "should one assume" that?

ErnestThornhill

scrampker One should assume that if you are using Play Services, you basically made GoS pointless.

This is not true at all. To quote the project's recent response to a post on Mastodon: The purpose of GrapheneOS is not specifically to avoid Google apps and services but rather to provide a high level of privacy and security. Being able to use Google apps and services as regular sandboxed apps if you want is, in fact, one of the major features the project provides.

scrampker

Sure, you can distort what it means to protect your privacy and security to a point where feeding all your info to Google is still within that realm, but I don't think many people would agree. I'm not entirely sure what the sandbox does for us, since every app that uses Google Play Services can communicate to each other regardless. My understanding is that the sandbox just keeps Play from being able to see eeeevverrrything else that's not using the service. If I'm wrong, I'll happily eat crow. Oh and I'd love to see that post from Mastodon, if you have it.

Look, I'm in the same boat, I just got this new watch, but I know damn well that my privacy is completely destroyed by having this, and the associated services/permissions enabled. I'm slowly chipping away at actually de-googling (which is the main threat to our privacy on Android,) though until then I won't fool myself by thinking I'm somehow incognito.

I think a lot of people, (myself included,) would probably go 100% de-google immediately if we had some sort of app that would give us a clear dashboard of everything our phone/watch is sharing, in real-time. Enable a service, change a permission, and see in plain text what info is being shot over.

I'd also love more-granular control over these services, and I'd be interested in revisiting the spoofed play services stuff from MicroG.

de0u

scrampker Oh and I'd love to see that post from Mastodon, if you have it.

I put the text into a search engine and this popped out: https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/113138020718055697

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