Should i return my Pixel

Fussyl

After reading the post below im very concerned. Privacy is very important to me and I thought its fine to use my home wifi with grapheneOS.
I used it without a VPN...
Good thing is I still have the option to return my phone and get a new one.
Should I get a new pixel, flash graphene on it and do it properly this time?

For people who are too lazy to read the post: this guy used youtube on his pixel with grapheneOS and he got ads for what he had googled on his PC half an hour before.

https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/3130-youtube-able-to-receive-information-via-wifi-connection-on-graphineos/13

guerrillas

Fussyl
If NSA is after you then sure, you can return your phone and get a new one anonymously. But I doubt that thats the case. Even if it was the case I don't see a benefit. Just reset it and use a VPN.

Albatross

I am not sure what you would gain from changing phones, unless I am missing something. Just install a VPN and keep it on. You could reset your phone first, but it sounds like just clearing browser data would be sufficient.

Fussyl

Albatross I

Albatross im not an expert but that sounds to me like my privacy level decreases alot. How does it not matter?
My idea to get a new phone is because im not sure if that mistake will have an impact on my privacy for as long as I keep using the phone I did the mistake with.
I hope I could explain myself good enough

itsjpb

Fussyl no need to replace the phone. sign up for and use a vpn if you don't already. the user in the other post experienced a situation of google's web products communicating to each other about devices on the same network. a vpn will block google from seeing that traffic and plug that leak going forward. you're unlikely to have leaked anything with long-term effects.

[deleted]

Fussyl if you perform a reset of your device the Software IDs will also reset. You can connect or not to a VPN next time. Google apps or also other apps can't access your hardware IDs but the privacy will be compromised if you login into your account in the mobile, even if connect using a VPN.

[deleted]

guerrillas really don't understand what are the beneficts of stay connected to a VPN the 100% of the time for a normal user, taking into account that most of the connections are sent using SSL protocol. In that case VPN can mask your real location but your privacy, if you login into Google (or any other service) and you connect to it, is not preserved

guerrillas

[deleted]
If you use multi-hop VPN then ISP only can see IP of the entry node and everything else can only see the exit node IP address. So your ISP doesn't know your exit node's IP address and your services doesn't know entry node's IP address. That gives you privacy from ISP and makes it difficult for ISP to link your activity in other services based on IP address.

If a lot of people use that exit node then you can blend in with others to have more privacy even if you're connected to Google account. Creating a anonymous/pseudonymous Google account over a VPN can take your privacy even further.

Hat

[deleted] The HTTPS request would encrypt the webpage content but not sure if the website address would be encrypted too.

[deleted]

guerrillas yes, you're right, but my question is if this really has a real benefict for a normal GOS user.
I think a not negligible percent of the users is worried about their privacy but not that much that use the device without login in their Google account or to use a alternative account.

guerrillas

[deleted]
I would say that everyone would benefit from using a VPN for privacy/security unless you need anonymity then you should use Orbot or ideally Tor Browser.

guerrillas

[deleted]
Even if you login to Facebook and Google you still have privacy from your ISP and you still have privacy from other services that aren't related to Facebook or Google. You even have a degree of privacy from those two too because there are a lot of people that use the same IP address. If I go to YouTube on my browser and I'm logged in to my account to use Play Store. Google could guess that its probably me because IP address matches the IP address that I signed in to Google account with but they can't guarantee that its me because I'm not the only one using that IP address. Unless I login, watch or search something personal that could be used to confirm that it was 100% me.

Fussyl

guerrillas
why not use VPN for anonymity. I thought orbot+ a VPN like mullvad was the best combo for that.

[deleted]

Fussyl Do you refer to https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.torproject.android when talking about Orbot+?

Fussyl

[deleted] yes