What is GSM n Google play store ?

AliCoil

I was told I needed to have gsm and play store downloaded from sandbox.

Given it permissions for network n notificarions (not signed in) and now my apps are working but what exactly is it and what does it do?

Is there any privacy concerns?

Thanks in advanced.

DeletedUser495

AliCoil https://grapheneos.org/usage#sandboxed-google-play

You can download sandboxed Google Play from App Store app in your app drawer. Your GrapheneOS will work without it but it provides necessary APIs and compatibility for apps that come from Google Play and rely on Play services for functionality.

AliCoil

DeletedUser495 Does it acess really anything else or just make apps work?

Thanks for your reply

DeletedUser495

AliCoil obviously, to be able to use Google Play properly and be able to download apps from Play Store, you need to log in with a Google account, so naturally Google will get some user and hardware and performance information and be able to track your activity on a profile it is installed on or via apps you install that contain libraries necessary to conduct these things.

You can control what it can access through restricting/allowing permissions but to collect certain information no permissions are necessary so by using Play services you more or less agree to a certain level of data collection. Saying that, it is by far not on the level you would experience when they run privileged on a regular Android device.

AliCoil

DeletedUser495

I don't download any apps from google, its purely there for notifications.

The apps are downloaded with Aurora store

DeletedUser495

AliCoil this does not change anything about how these apps are built, where they come from and their intended functionality (via Google libraries). To me, the only valid reason to using Aurora Store if you want to avoid Google tracking in absence(!) of Play services is to download proprietary apps to use without network permission, although this does remove potential for IPC (inter process communication) and communication over local network. If you want to prevent compatibility issues, and getting told of for using insecure ways for obtaing apps, just stick with recommended way, i.e. using sandboxed Google Play unless you can without a doubt prove your apps are genuine.

AliCoil

DeletedUser495

Thanks for your reply, I was under the impression all apps from Aurora store and verified and come from google itself

AliCoil

DeletedUser495

Also I've never really seen anyone reccommend using google play, most are using aurora store