Rationale of a GOS Newbie seeking advice (may help others, too?)

Maritime4165

Greetings! I am hoping experienced GOS users can give me some advice, as I have reached a decision point and I am unsure about how to best proceed. Apologies for the lengthy post, but hopefully this will also be of use to current/future GOS newbies as they think thru their requirements and setups.

For background, my goal is to reduce my Google footprint as much as possible for privacy reasons, but I also want to build a securely-sourced app library and config GOS to best practices. So, I replaced the stock OS on my P9P with GOS a couple of months ago and have been testing various profile configs and app sources to restore my “daily driver” apps, as well what their sandboxed G requirements are to function. I have done a lot of reading on this forum and elsewhere, and based on what I have learned (and tried), I have decided to stay away from Aurora and 3rd-party APK sites and rely on Obtainium, GitHub and AppVerifier (when sigs are available) for foss apps that work for me. I also decided to prioritize using PWA versions of my needed apps whenever available (still testing Brave and Vanadium for PWAs), but there are still a few apps (e.g. EV charging) that are only available in the Play Store. Again, security concerns over lack of app verification and anonymous G accts with Aurora appear to make Play Store the safest bet for needed Gapps. So far, I discovered that my needed Gapps don’t actually require sandboxed Play Svcs enabled to function for me once installed (I can live without a map of the nearest EV stations; just need the app to get the charger started via network permission).

However, I am still forced to use my legacy G acct to login to the PS, so my device is still tied to it, which leads me the fork in my road I have reached. I have been unable to create a new G acct without avoiding the dreaded QR code (SMS) screen. I have tried multiple devices (with and without public IP’s), gone to the local library terminal, tried my P9P hotspot, all to no avail. I tried adding a 2nd line (eSIM) to my P9P just for one billing cycle to get past the SMS during acct creation, but Google gave me a “suspicious activity” message and wouldn’t proceed. This leads me to a question: unless my carrier and G share user info, the only way G could know a 2nd line on my P9P is tied to my legacy G account (and the 1st-line used for legacy G auth), is IF there is a common hardware identifier to correlate them, correct?

If someone can advise me on how to create a new G acct via a different approach with detailed steps, once created, I intend to wipe/reset my device one more time and build my “production” config as described above.

As for my legacy Google acct, I have already exported my data with a complete “take-out” (mostly photo albums) and uploaded to Proton cloud with local copies, but still forwarding gmail to Proton and using GPay (considering a new Garmin device for GarminPay to replace my Sense 2 watch), until I can cut my legacy G-cord and only use a throw-away G acct as needed. But all of these considerations have me wondering, will it truly be possible for me to use my (formerly stock, purchased from G store) P9P with a new G acct that big brother cannot associate with my previous identity via my device/HW identifiers? For that matter, does Google really delete an account and remove all of its data anyway?

Or would it be better for me to start with a new-to-me Pixel purchased anonymously and change my phone #? OR, do I just continue with my P9P and a new G acct and do my best to avoid sharing any personal info with G moving forward and call it a day? It appears big-tech’s increasingly capable AI data surveillance, collection, correlation and sharing platforms are a privacy nightmare we won’t wake up from until we have (IF ever) strong GDPR-like laws passed by a congress that is incentivized to never seriously address the privacy rights of individuals in the US..
Again, apologies for the lengthy post, but hopefully knowledgeable/experienced GOS users can help me (and others) with feedback and suggestions to keep me on a reasonable path to doing the best I can to protect my privacy… Thanks in advance!

rb411

Maritime4165 Unfortunately, I don't know much about the best way to set up a new Google account, or if they'll be able to connect that with your hardware.

What I do know, is your carrier will still always be able to track you. Even if you buy a new SIM anonymously with cash, your phone's IMEI is still tied to you. The only way around this is to also buy a new phone anonymously with cash as well as a SIM, then keeping your phone in airplane mode as much as possible, especially around home, work, or any other places you frequently visit and could be connected to you.

Whether or not that matters to you depends on your threat mode, but it's something you might want to be aware of and the only thing I can give input on here lol

One other thing, since you mentioned Obtanium: they do actually allow you to download *some proprietary apps. I really have no idea how it works or how well it works as I was just made aware of it as well. When you click the Add button in Obtanium there's a "Crowdsourced app configurations" button that lets you search for proprietary apps available in Obtanium. If you only have a few apps from there you need, you could try checking that. Again I haven't used any of these and I'm not sure how well it works, but it could be worth looking in to.
I would be interested to hear from anyone else that has used it, as I'm thinking about deleting G Play services but I'm trying to figure out the best way to get the few proprietary apps I need.

Foggy

I managed to create a Google account without needing a phone number by using an old phone running Android 5 or something. Factory reset it, then as part of setup it asks if you want to create a Google account, and you do it there. As the setup app is ancient and baked into the phone there's no chances for Google to update it to ask for extra details. Then use that account just on your GOS phone - don't login on the web otherwise it will make you add a phone number (although supposedly you can skip that by setting up TOTP - I haven't tried that)

YMMV, and perhaps location/network dependent too.

Maritime4165

Thanks for the replies! I will try the other methods for a new G acct. I am still unsure if I even manage to create a new G login that Google won't be able to associate it with my legacy acct. I am going to post this as a separate question...