Hi Grapheneos community
This section in the installation procedure – web based method – seems to apply to my circumstances as I’ve a new Pixel 7a that has no sim installed and was not carrier locked but does have SKU on the box and doesn’t show OEM unlock as a selectable option when I go into developer mode.
“On device model variants (SKUs) which support being sold as locked devices by carriers, enabling OEM unlocking requires internet access so that the stock OS can check if the device was sold as locked by a carrier.”
My question is -
If I provide my Pixel 7a with a connection to the internet through my home WiFi Access Point (which would have an associated MAC address – would Google record that – can I practically stop that from happening – do I need to) will that MAC address be retained in a record associated with the hardware identifiers of my new Pixel 7a (MAC address, IMEI and hardware serial number)
Because if that is so, I’m concerned that even after a factory reboot and a custom rom installation (I’m thinking try GrapheneOs see if I can make it work for me – I’m used to only using a phone as a phone – perhaps try LineageOs with Microg later if I need more functionality and less privacy security) that the unchangeable hardware identifiers will still be associated with each.
Won’t Google always know that my Pixel 7a unchangeable hardware identifiers were once with my home Wifi Access Point which has its own MAC address and ip address?
Or is the home Wifi MAC address itself not saved as part of any checkin ?
I did read Doug Leith’s paper Mobile Handset Privacy: Measuring The Data iOS and Android Sent to Apple and Google – from 2021 – its good in my opinion – he is good – and his other papers too seem to have been well received and he seems to have had some impact on getting some changes down by Google and Mozilla for instance but he used a Pixel 2 running Android 10 to see what device identifiers were associated together and now Play Integrity has replaced Safetynet so it could be Doug’s findings are now out of date.
If I connect with my Pixel 7a – right now – I believe the youtube app will send details about my device to google servers. It could be Android 15 might get downloaded straight away. It would be nice to be able to take things one sure step at a time – so it would be nice to just be able to alter the OEM update option and to not do anything else or give up a home WIFI access point MAC address (if I will).
Apologies for the length of this first post. I’ve tried to be clear. I’m trying to learn but I’ve got the clock on me a bit as I need a usable phone for phone calls before the 3G network closure renders my existing dumb phone useless on 28 October.