Regarding France's stance on grapheneOS

jacksushi

Is it in theory possible for the service provider to detect that you are not running a stock OS?
What i am afraid about is that they would enforce a service ban for non stockOS users.

I would not be even shocked about them currently discussing/planning about it.

Any input on this ?

indigomadelin

jacksushi Is it in theory possible for the service provider to detect that you are not running a stock OS?

Yes, if you don't use a VPN
https://grapheneos.org/faq#default-connections
https://grapheneos.org/faq#privacy-policy

DeletedUser594

jacksushi Is it in theory possible for the service provider to detect that you are not running a stock OS?

https://xcancel.com/GrapheneOS/status/1961580353749225545#m

Combine using a VPN with the Standard (Google) [connectivity check] mode instead of the default GrapheneOS mode. Without a VPN, there's not much point in changing it from the default because there are other connections for updates, etc. which mostly should be left enabled.

Eirikr70

jacksushi That perspective seems very distant to me. The State might control the OS of persons of interest, but I hardly believe they would think about making GrapheneOS illegal.

secrec

jacksushi Is it in theory possible for the service provider to detect that you are not running a stock OS?

Not directly. They can INFER the OS as a result of atypical data network traffic when compared to the typical traffic for that device model.

GrapheneOS doesn't make any attempt at being stealth and makes several connections to servers that are ONLY accessed by GrapheneOS devices.

Oggyo

indigomadelin Yes, if you don't use a VPN

OK, but how VPN will save you in this case? You still need an active subscription (data) to access the internet.

aqua-ghostly

Oggyo

The way the ISP knows is by seeing that you are accessing GrapheneOS servers. If you VPN your ISP won't know this.

indigomadelin

Oggyo DNS requests and TLS SNI headers are visible to your ISP. Using a tunnel makes this traffic invisible to your ISP.

Oggyo

aqua-ghostly
I think the OP's question is not about the connections (incl. internet connectivity check), but most likely if the phone operator can determine the OS running on the device when it establishes a connection to the tower.
The device type/model is known to the operator as per IMEI.

Revliss

Regarding their stance and looking at similar past cases and personal experience, the developers are putting themselves at risk. Do not go there. Ever. Not even in 10 years.

Users may be at risk depending on their profile. I've seen officers going straight through pockets out of nowhere without asking. They tend to provoke you as well.

Revliss

Graphene is not for Hiding your activities, it's meant for Protecting your data. "I don't have anything to hide but I have a lot to protect."

23Sha-ger

jacksushi What i am afraid about is that they would enforce a service ban for non stockOS users.

That's unfeasible. Not in the EU at least, where anyone from other countries can freely enter and roam with a plan
from their own country. Service providers are for-profit businesses. They want to sell you more services/data, not
restrict you from connecting. Do you know how many junk devices are on an average nation-wide network?
Profiling all of them would cost a multi million effort without clear benefit. Can happen in countries like North Korea
where there are only few models of phone allowed and the ISP is government owned.