What is the Best offline Navigation most similar to Google maps, and why?

User2288 Here WeGo is an EU based company, so that's one, and then their business model is (mostly) not the end user (it's the car companies). The app offers many settings to deny/limit the extent of data collection, and they seem to operate entirely within their own API ecosystem (no third parties*).
Whatever all that means, what I see when I enable the on-line mode (but, after downloading maps the app can also be used entirely off-line) is that the app only accesses IPs from either their *.hereapi.com, and ec2...compute...amazonaws.com and all connections are through HTTPS. The only "foreign" IP accessed is that of amplitude.com(*), an analytics company. For myself, I'm comfortable with the trade-offs.

User2288

I guess if somebody really wanted to use offline maps in Google Maps and stop Google Maps from tracking, and uploading, where you have been, you could...

• create a new user/profile, let call it 'GMaps', then install Google Maps (without giving network access) into this profile.

• If you use Google Play Store/Services, or Aurora Store to install Google Maps directly into this profile, remove them completely afterwards). In fact, best to have no apps at all but Google Maps (and the default apps) in this 'GMaps' profile to be sure, since we are being extra careful in this scenario. Though, of course if you want, you could have a VPN app that you trust running in this profile too, to hide your IP address in the next step.

• Then go into Google Maps app permissions, enable network and then download the offline maps you want and once that's done, go back and remove internet permission from the app.

• Then only use this 'GMaps' profile when you need it, probably best to disable running in the background for this profile as well, in the user management settings.

• Also to be sure your efforts aren't pointless, never use any other profiles that are running any google services, or apps with google analytics, etc. etc. that also have access to your location. Or best not to have any apps at all with location access running whilst that profile is open (except system apps of course, don't mess with them.)

• Then when your Google Maps app tells you that your downloaded maps won't work and you need to connect to the internet, go into the Google Map app settings and completely reset the app by clearing cache and data. Then I am pretty sure it would be fine to give it internet access and download the offline maps again, without it uploading more than the immediate info it collected since it was reset.

• after downloading the offline maps, remove internet access for the app, and the process starts again.

• One more thing to also bear in mind is keeping the Google Maps app updated (as in the app itself, not the offline maps) without letting any of your 'travel data' leak. I guess you could do this in a few ways but one is installing Google Maps, and keeping it updated, in another profile/user (let's call this profile 'G-Updates') with the Play Store, or Aurora store, if you want. You can leave your 'GMaps' profile off while doing this, as it will update the app in all profiles Google Maps is installed in, when updated in the 'G-Updates' profile, but it will be unable to access user data from your 'GMaps' profile. You can even keep the Google Maps app disabled in this 'G-Updates' profile and the Play Store still updates it, no problem. I think in aurora store there is a toggle for updating disabled apps, haven't used it in a long time.

• there may well be far easier / less complicated ways to do that and I might have some things wrong, I am kind of tired and not sure why I started writing this long message as it's a fairly convoluted way to do things, but I suppose some people might want to do it...

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Yes absolutely that's an option, and I was not necessarily advocating for the solution I laid out earlier. There is nothing wrong with what you suggested, it's what I do sometimes. However...

Basically, it comes down to the fact that Google apps (and other apps too if they want) can fingerprint you in many different ways. If you have a Google apps on your phone, they may well be able to tell they are on the same device even if they are on a different profile.

Off the top of my head there are things like battery percentage, your public IP which VPNs can help with when in different profiles but your local IP address and DNS server if I remember correctly may be seen in certain situations. There are DRMs like widevine ID, though I know GrapheneOS has just released something to improve that! There is your phone state, which sim network you are on (again can't remember of the top of my head if this is still the case and which permissions are required for it). I'm sure I'll think of more ways they can fingerprint you after I get some sleep. There are also lots of things that GOS already helps protect against like profiling through contacts/storage.

Anyway there is still fingerprinting via location. Eg. If different apps use your location at different times while you are at home or work, if this data is sent/sold to/by Google, or if Google has your home/work address in some form or another from a data broker who sold it to them when you bought something and used your address, or if your address was in a data leak from when you applied for a loan, etc etc, (just random examples but you get the point), then even if you do as you say and use a profile with only GMaps, no Gservices and no sign in, and use it to get to and from work for example, it will be obvious after a while where your home and work addresses are and that could be linked to you as well.

Basically Google are masters at tracking/fingerprinting. Depending on how many apps you have and with different analytics baked in, Google may well still know who you are (or just have profile that links your activity in different apps and profiles that you think are separate) even if you do just use GMaps in a profile without GSF and without login to Google.

The method I just came up with earlier, would not even necessarily help at all with the fingerprinting issue. Google may well still know who you are, or at least have an identifier that links you across profiles.

All it does help with is, at least in theory, is to give somebody a way to use Google maps and not give them a whole load of data of where exactly you have been when you next download their offline maps. You still have to connect to download the maps but it removes the location history. Again, in theory.

Also again, I wasn't necessarily advocating for that method at all, using another map app that is open source would be the best in an ideal world. It was just a thought experiment.

Talking of all this, however, I feel I need to mention that thanks to GrapheneOS, we can even have the hope of any privacy from entities like Google and Apple. They have made huge improvements to make fingerprinting harder. The compatibility layer gives Google Services/apps only as much access as any other app instead of basically access to everything, the sensors toggle, the network toggle, the GrapheneOS server options for: connectivity checks, attestation key provisioning and now for widevine provisioning! Also the SUPL and PSDS proxies for location services. All of these are usually Google servers, so even if you used a 3rd party map app you'd still be using Google. And if you use Android Auto on a non GrapheneOS phone, your car manufacturer gets access to all sorts of incredibly privacy invasive stuff and presumably sells it to data brokers as well. Now GOS have just released Android Auto support, in a privacy respecting form, and it's already a massive boost in privacy for people who want to use that, and will only improve over time.

So It's basically only possible to have meaningful conversations about privacy thanks to this OS, without it, its just privacy theatre.

So yea thanks to the GrapheneOS team as always :D

Sorry for the long reply, I don't know if I managed to explain things too well but that's my understanding of things anyway.