Installing GrapheneOS to use my "normie social apps". Am I crazy?

Raccoon

I basically need Facebook messenger, twitter, youtube and Apple music. Can't get rig of those, sadly. My question is should google sanbox services provide me with extra privacy in this case? Is the point of GrapheneOS relevant when I log in to just a single account. From my understanding, they can still track and collect data if you log in right?

BluishHumility

Raccoon Facebook messenger, twitter, youtube

These services are primarily interested in collecting information related to your behavior and usage within the app. The protection GrapheneOS provides is not related to this kind of data. Some trivial data points may be obfuscated, but as long as you are using the app--no matter what device you are using--the behavioral data collection is happening.

matchboxbananasynergy

Raccoon GrapheneOS is a secure OS, and a secure environment to run whatever apps you need to run. Furthermore, Sandboxed Google Play is a substantial improvement over what happens on the Stock OS, where Play Services have near-full control of the device.

GrapheneOS will always provide a privacy and security benefit, no matter which apps you use, by virtue of its hardening and additional privacy and security features.

[deleted]

Raccoon I use GrapheneOS with Google contact, phone, drive, weather, calendar. I also use facebook, tiktok, Google chrome... I have never received a single targeted advertisement. Stop worrying for nothing. I don't understand this craze about privacy! Don't enter any personal information and everything will be fine for you

roddyd

Yes, even when using apps that track you, there is still a benefit to GrapheneOS because you can control exactly what apps get access to and google play services no longer has access to the vast amount of data it does in most phones.

Any app can track you, but if all permissions except network are disabled then the only thing the app can track is what you do in that app. If you use different profiles to isolate "bad" apps then you can also completely prevent any tracking when not in use by ending that profile's session.

Resurr

Twitter and Youtube you can use on vanadium. Just add shortcuts to home screen. Not sure for apple music.. You could also use messenger on browser with notifications if that is possible on vanadium. Not sure

Raccoon

Resurr Thanks, the ease of use in Twitter and Youtube prevents me from using any foss. Newpipe has this weird list view, Libretube is better for privacy then newpipe but it is sometimes slow (seems fast after the newest update), video thumbnails is low quality, weird "Libretube" font, many features which I use in Youtube are now missing. I hate Facebook and Messenger to death but I need that for college. Will try messenger on the browser, but I often clear all data after each session so I dont know if that is even possible. From what I know, there is no "add exception" on mobile

BluishHumility

matchboxbananasynergy GrapheneOS will always provide a privacy and security benefit

Just to clarify, sandboxed Google Play does not provide any privacy benefit if you are using an app like Facebook or YouTube. The data collected about your behavior inside the app is the same as it would be on the stock OS. You can limit the visibility the app has into your device and you can deny location settings, but this is not the data they are after anyway.

An alternative front end like LibreTube can help preserve anonymity while streaming YouTube content, but there isn't much you can do about Facebook collecting behavioral data unless you stop using it.

cloverfear

BluishHumility Coming in late to this, but apps like Youtube and Facebook are absolutely HEAVILY focused on collecting data on what you do outside of the app. The sandboxing would make a difference because analytics like shopping trends, browsing habits and history, even the individual keystrokes you make could be obfuscated from those services. Cross-app behavioral analytics are one of the easiest ways to digitally fingerprint somebody.

nid

I'm one of these "crazy" people. I think that Google apps not having elevated privileges is already a huge privacy improvement. They aren't able to spy on you in the background anymore, only when you use one of their apps. They can't bypass the microphone, location and camera indicators anymore either.

I might be biased but I feel like I get a lot less ads that are related to what my phone could have "heard" after I installed GrapheneOS.

Resurr

Raccoon you could use YouTube through brave browser as you can minimise YouTube to play in background

Proctor

cloverfear

Agree with you here mate, are cross app behavior still a thing on GrapheneOS though?
Having twitter, YT, facebook & nextcloud on the same profile hurts privacy? Or facebook can't see the what's going on in Nextcloud or other encrypted files?

All this of course with permissions only set to network.

MineralWater

[deleted]

When you use google contacts they already know who you are. Some of your contacts will have your real name in their contacts and if more than one or maybe some business saved you under the same name you are identified.

Mwk

use Brave browser for having YouTube free from ads and having the ability to listen to music in the background I mean anything in the background really, I use it for music unavailable on Spotify

experience in using yt in brave browser is literally no different to app, no crashes, everything work seamlessly, functionality of liking videos and comments also no issues even though I'm not using the likes and comments as this is literally the way for them to track you

zynex

You can disable most of the known trackers for most applications with App Manager (F-Droid). This will not help for the algorithms on the server side, but at least some services gets disabled inside the app itself. Depending on the app, it could break it though. Together with AdAway I would argue you get rid of most tracking stuff?

IrukandjiRJ

Greetings, I have installed a light version of instagram and did not give any unecessary permissions, just wanted to browse my contacts posts, but I got a warning that a Google Pixel 6a logged into my account, which tells me even without any additional permissions it read more infor from my device I wanted, how can I prevent that ?

treequell

IrukandjiRJ I replied to you here https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/9515-keep-privacy-with-social-media-apps/2.

Please don't cross post.