Long time iPhone user thinking about making the switch - good idea?

someone27281

hesitantapplegal
Iphone is already plenty secure compared to 99% of android phones. It's also fairly private IF you trust Apple. Beware, switching to GOS will provide you with a stock android experience, not the famous "Pixel experience". You WILL miss "cool" features you used in your iPhone. If you think the tradeoff is worth it, then basically this is the most secure and private android OS you'll find.

DeletedUser69

someone27281 Compared to Android in general, yes. Compared to GrapheneOS, hell no. Secure? Okay. Private? Not so much. Think before you blurt. I hope I haven't earned mysef another ban, pretty please. (In any case every ban makes me think about it more, maybe one day I will get there.)

someone27281

DeletedUser69 I literally said IF you trust apple, A.K.A privacy from apple is not included. Also I do believe iPhone is fairly secure even compared to GOS (yes, it is less secure, but not like my a mile). In fact GOS devs recommend iPhone if you can't run GOS on a Pixel for some reason.

DeletedUser69

someone27281 they don't recommend it (merely saying it's the second best option [but definitely not from a privacy standpoint] and you can run GrapheneOS on every supported Pixel (even the ones you don't update), so what was the comment about?

Mike_

someone27281
Nobody knows what the behind-the-scenes system apps in iPhone are doing. We don't see them and have no idea even what they are.

Ditto with the Modem processor.

I always thought the iPhone was private, but nowadays, not so much...

someone27281

DeletedUser69 the comment is supposed to mean that if for some reason you cannot use GrapheneOS on a Pixel, it's best to go for an iPhone bith from security and privacy standpoint. But you'll have to trust apple.

nanoq

Hi, I'm also a long-time iPhone user and have been trying GrapheneOS on a Pixel 8a for a week now.
The world is getting crazier and crazier, and I would like to keep my data private and not tell any tech company all the time where I am and what I'm doing there. In my opinion, switching to GOS is easier than expected.

DeletedUser69

nanoq Attaboy! In order to connect to a new platform you should disconnect from the old one to remove bias.

DeletedUser69

someone27281 but you can use GrapheneOS on every supported Pixel!

someone27281

DeletedUser69 I meant issues like App compatibility!

de0u

DeletedUser69 but you can use GrapheneOS on every supported Pixel!

Pixels are not easily available in all countries, and hardware support (repair stores) may also not be reliable in some countries where it is possible to buy a Pixel via secondary channels.

Guillaume

hesitantapplegal I switched from GrapheneOS to the iPhone because my wife also took an iPhone and an iPad. You change if you want according to your threat model but I just say one thing: on iPhone you have Spotlight and AirDrop and it's true that it simplifies life

DeletedUser69

de0u should I switch to iPhone for that reason? You know the answer. On the margin (again): I hate AOSP keyoboard.

de0u

DeletedUser69 should I switch to iPhone for that reason?

If you are already using GrapheneOS on a Pixel, presumably availability of Pixels is not a barrier for you. I am unaware of your circumstances with respect to the availability of Pixel hardware support or iPhone hardware support.

hesitantapplegal

Thanks for all the encouragement, guys! I just went ahead and ordered a Pixel 9 Pro, so I'm all in now!

Okay, so I've got a few other questions for when I set everything up. I've heard people mention using profiles, and I'm not totally sure if I need separate ones or not. But I do like the idea of having a main profile that's totally Google Play Services-free, and maybe keeping GPS on a secondary profile just for specific apps that need it. For example, I'm planning to use a VOIP service like MySudo for phone calls, and it seems like that needs GPS to work.

Does it make sense to keep that app in a secondary profile that's always running in the background? And if I'm in my main profile, will my phone still ring if a call comes in from the secondary profile? I'm also a little worried that keeping multiple profiles open at the same time will drain my battery a lot...

DeletedUser87

hesitantapplegal My main profile (usually referred to as 'owner' here) is also Play Services free. Some people utilize secondary user profiles in a completely different way. They use the owner just for management purposes and offload their daily usage to other profiles. I personally don't have that in my threat model, so I use a secondary user for some rarely used spyware apps. Shopping and smart home management mostly. The rest of my stuff is spread across owner (all FOSS apps, except GCam), work profile (with Play Services for Maps and some apps that rely on timely notifications or Play Services in the first place to even run) and Private Space (also non-FOSS apps, that don't need Play Services and are there for convenience).
You should ask yourself if it will be beneficial for you to compartmentalize the phone to an extreme extent or keep it simple. I don't know how reliable secondary user profiles will be for something like VOIP, I don't think you'll be able to take calls if you need to switch profiles first. And yes, running profiles in background will have more impact on battery life. Since I run my main tasks in owner, I have most things shut down during the day. Secondary user, work profile and Private Space are all disabled, location services are off, camera access off. Gives me some peace of mind at least. And a good 2 days of battery life.

hesitantapplegal

DeletedUser87

Thanks for sharing your setup! I'm not trying to go full-on Snowden or anything, I just want to minimize my digital footprint and not make it too easy for big tech to collect all my usage data.

But hearing you out, I'm wondering if it might just be simpler for me to use Google Play Services in my main profile after all. That way, I could run MySudo in there for VOIP, and also get notifications from Proton Mail and Calendar. Does that sound like a more straightforward approach for someone with my (pretty basic) needs?

DeletedUser87

hesitantapplegal you can still isolate it via Private Space or a work profile and leave it running. I wouldn't personally install Play Services into my owner profile since I can't put that to sleep. When Private Space or work profile get disabled, they stop background activity - that's why I set it up this way. And at least Proton Calendar shouldn't rely on Play Services. I also seem to recall that ProtonMail will work via WebSocket for push notifications (I might be wrong though).

hesitantapplegal

I think I get it now. Since I need my VOIP phone app (probably MySudo or Linphone) to be running 24/7, and it requires Google Play Services, I'd never really be turning off the work profile or private space anyway, would I? So, in that case, maybe it's just easier for me to put everything into one profile with Google Play Services and be done with it?

DeletedUser87

hesitantapplegal maybe it is. I avoid Google as much as possible, so I don't really use services that rely on them. My VOIP is barely used, so I only open the app when I need to call someone, I don't receive calls on that line.

hesitantapplegal

DeletedUser87

Do you mind sharing what you use for receiving phone calls? I used to listen to the Bazzell podcast before it got taken down, and I remember him always stressing how important it is to keep your SIM card-based phone number private. He'd say how it can be exploited in all these different ways, like how your location is always tied to it (unless you're in airplane mode), and how your provider keeps all your SMS and call logs forever. And then there's the risk of getting SIM swapped, which is just a whole other level of scary.

If I recall correctly, he used to use a Mint SIM card just for data, and then relied on VOIP for all his calls and texts. He'd only use his actual phone number when absolutely necessary, and would try to get people to use Signal instead. I'm curious, what's your setup like?

On my iPhone I just use mysudo for everything and no one knows my 'real' number.

DeletedUser87

hesitantapplegal that depends on your threat model. Just having your phone number exposed doesn't automatically mean everyone will try to hack you. Location is of course tied to it, but I can't change anything about that. I would need to run airplane mode at all times to effectively mitigate the risks, which would turn my phone into an iPod. I barely use SMS, my 2FA is almost completely based on FIDO, TOTP or e-mail (for less important services) and I don't really care about call logs, I mainly use Signal to call people if I ever call them. That fits my setup and my threat model. I would suggest reading up on that topic as you're throwing a bunch of different threats into one basket, which seemingly have no clear goal. The problems a journalist in China faces are not even close to what the average Joe in the US might have to deal with. If you need some help on threat modeling, I (and probably some others here) can of course assist you.