Is this a good way to use Samsung watches?

lexyo

Hey everyone,

So, I just got my watch fixed and was trying to get it working with my Pixel 6 Pro, which is running a totally de-googled GrapheneOS.

Here's what I did:

First, I factory reset the watch. Then, I installed the latest Samsung Wearable app and the Gear S plugin. I gave them every single permission they asked for. After that, I went through the initial pairing process, and it automatically installed the Samsung pairing service – I gave that all the permissions too.

And what do you know, it actually worked perfectly!

Once everything was up and running, I went back and revoked network permissions for all the Samsung apps I had just installed. I did all of this on a fresh install of GrapheneOS, so there was no personal data on my phone for them to scoop up initially.

My question is, am I good to go now? Or is there still a chance my future data could be compromised? Like, could the watch somehow still be sending my data back to Samsung's servers even though I've cut off its internet access?

Thanks for any help

lars

I don't know how the Samsung watches work, but my Garmin watch has no Internet access of its own, only via the accompanying app.

Unfortunately, the Garmin app just doesn't work without network connectivity so, once I've got the watch set up, I just delete the app :/ I can get the data from the watch using an open-source utility on Linux.

That the Samsung app will work without network permission seems like a positive thing. In fact, it seems too positive, given Samsung's history. But no network permission is no network permission, right?

Lars.