Hi there - I am thinking about re-installing GrapheneOS on my Pixel 8 pro. I used it a few years ago with a different phone and for a combination of reasons I ended up going back to stock.

Anyway, my main reasons for switching back to GrapheneOS would be from a privacy stand-point, as part of a general move from the large US companies. Security and then usability are also important to me.

Looking at my apps, I have a mix of my NAS apps, a few banking, fitness tracker, news, shopping (including Amazon and ebay) and music and a few others, no social media apps - I dable with reddit, but only in the browser. I would like to continue to use most of them, so I suppose I would need to install the Google app store. I am happy to forgo banking app stuff, and do that on my desktop and carry a credit card.

I am a relatively normal user, who does not need complete anonymity. Is GrapheneOS right for me, or should I look to use any privacy settings that are available natively with android?

    wetop
    I feel like the draw back of grapheneOs is basically no NFC payment and that the ui is a bit ugly at times (like the kind of weird gallery or the basic app symbols for standard apps)

    And it is possible that some of your apps dont work, but personally i did not have had that issue yet.
    you probably just have to test it.

    But personally when i switched like half a year ago, i was rather positivly suprised. Everything just worked for me.
    so i would suggest you to just try it out

        teezeh If your bank isn't too exotic, this should not be an issue.

        Ha, no, thanks for the list!

        dhhdjbd I feel like the draw back of grapheneOs is basically no NFC payment and that the ui is a bit ugly at times (like the kind of weird gallery or the basic app symbols for standard apps)

        And it is possible that some of your apps dont work, but personally i did not have had that issue yet.
        you probably just have to test it.

        But personally when i switched like half a year ago, i was rather positivly suprised. Everything just worked for me.
        so i would suggest you to just try it out

        Thank, I am moving towards that I think!

            wetop Most if not all apps will work. You can limit how much said American companies can pull from your phone by using separate profiles. Thou with stuff like Amazon, Ebay etc they will still be able to profile you just the way they did on stock via your interactions with the app.

            Installing google to get bank etc going is also okayish, since you again can put them in separate profiles and disable all permissions including network, no need for primary (google) account there either. As they mostly need framework to function.

                0xsigsev wetop Most if not all apps will work. You can limit how much said American companies can pull from your phone by using separate profiles. Thou with stuff like Amazon, Ebay etc they will still be able to profile you just the way they did on stock via your interactions with the app.

                Installing google to get bank etc going is also okayish, since you again can put them in separate profiles and disable all permissions including network, no need for primary (google) account there either. As they mostly need framework to function.

                Thanks. I need to understand a bit more about profiles, I don't think I used them previously.

                  Graphene OS is the perfect OS for you. It's about taking back control not about complete anonymity. While saying that, it is possible to make yourself more anonymous while using it. It just depends on your use case for it. You make it into your own, complete freedom and control.

                    groove_untie145 "make more anonymous" is not the right term, "allow less surveillance" would be more appropriate. Being anonymous (private from everything) is extremely hard, practically impossible for most. The fewer parties you trust, the better for you, though don't put all your eggs in one basket.

                        SgtSurehand Total anonymity is quite difficult. I’d argue it’s still achievable Buying a Phone/SIM with cash, using Monero, avoiding all personally identifiable accounts and services...these are real, doable steps. GrapheneOS gives you the tools to build that kind of setup, if that’s your goal. That doesn't mean it's impossible though

                          SgtSurehand "make more anonymous" is not the right term, "allow less surveillance" would be more appropriate. Being anonymous (private from everything) is extremely hard, practically impossible for most. The fewer parties you trust, the better for you, though don't put all your eggs in one basket.

                          I think my aim is more towards "allow less surveillance", I mean there are services I choose to subscribe to which I want to use. Its the organisations who perhaps take information without my consent and/or knowledge that I am looking to minimise.

                              wetop when it comes to app sandboxing GrapheneOS is definitely your friend and far superior to regular stock Android environment. It provides unique extra features you won't find anywhere else, but it isn't bulletproof and it is entirely up to the user how much they want to succumb to their need for convenience in order to destroy their own privacy.

                                wetop if you were to use GOS without ant regard for privacy you are still running a much better operating system than stock, in my opinion.

                                GOS is for almost anyone's use case.

                                    raccoondad ya totally agree.

                                    Im sort of new to GOS but since i really want to push my security and privacy up a good bit ive been slowly finding non-google replacements and setting the strongest restriction on apps then loosening them up if they dont work.

                                        e5busbafceqe yeah that's one way, even if you were to use google services and all google applications for your workflow, still would be an insanely more secure and private operating system.

                                            raccoondad I am not going to disagree with your statement but it calls for a privacy comparison with a setup where Google Play isn't used and the difference is tremendous.

                                                SgtSurehand True, but the amount of data that's shared w/ google services is still very small and non-important for my opsec model.

                                                Back when I was using stock, Google photos automatically uploaded nude photographs of myself on my google drive that I took with the standard photos app.

                                                At least with GOS, even with google services, I can control much easier if that happens or not.

                                                That's why I use GOS, for that total control of applications.

                                                    raccoondad rant:
                                                    For me it not only uploaded my gallery (while i thought i turned it off), it then said at some point that i have no more storage (because i canceled google one) and that they were going to delete them.
                                                    And that i could not recevie mails anymore since no sotrage is avaible

                                                    In the process of finding the option to download them, i also misunderstood something and did like delete local copies so that they were only in the cloud then..

                                                    And i did not find an option to actually download them, beside to do the "send me all the data you have about me" thing.

                                                    (Ofc it is possible that i just did not use the right options and stuff)