Best Service Provider for GrapheneOS

neoen

Hi, I'm a newbie to GrapheneOS and tech security in general. I recently purchased a Pixel 7 and installed GOS on it. I subscribed to Phreeli, but have had so many issues that I cancelled my service with them. (I also just learned about some ethical issues concerning their founders.) Now I'm left with no service and I am wondering what I should do. Who should I go with. I would like to prioritize security and privacy, obviously. But I would like good service, meaning I'd like to use my phone to make calls, text and use the internet, and hopefully with good reception. Can anyone recommend a service provider for me? Thank you!

not-a-rola

neoen Can anyone recommend a service provider for me?

Anyone that suits you.

GrapheneOS always considers networks to be hostile and avoids placing trust in them. It leaves out various carrier apps included in the stock OS granting carriers varying levels of administrative access beyond standard carrier configuration. GrapheneOS also avoids trust in the cellular network in other ways including providing a secure network time update implementation rather than trusting the cellular network for this.

https://grapheneos.org/faq#cellular-tracking

Johnnyloans

neoen

Physical sims have been much more straight forward. Go with a service that provides this.

neoen

not-a-rola thank you

neoen

Johnnyloans Something like the Mint mobile prepaid SIM card?

Johnnyloans

neoen

Yes, this is a viable option. I've seen several people on this forum say they've had zero issues with mint mobile.

neoen

Johnnyloans Awesome. Thanks.

neoen

Johnnyloans I purchased a 3 month prepaid SIM card from Mint, put it in my phone, signed up for service through the Vanadium browser. Question, is Mint able to snoop on my phone activities?

otterfoghornrainfall

Can confirm that Mint has worked great for me, running GOS on a pixel 7.

neoen

otterfoghornrainfall Excellent. Thank you.

neoen

otterfoghornrainfall I purchased a 3 month prepaid SIM card from Mint, put it in my phone, signed up for service through the Vanadium browser. Question, is Mint able to snoop on my phone activities?

Johnnyloans

neoen

I doubt there is much of a "privacy" cell carrier.
Mint might see metadata and T-Mobile (the towers mint uses) could see data.

RCS text is encrypted. Safe. Possibly recorded by google messages.

Phone calls, not sure the status. This might be encrypted now.

Internet, yes. Can use a vpn to somewhere local in Cali to stop that.

Your location is estimatable based on the towers you connect to.

Can they see what else you do? No

neoen

Johnnyloans thank you

Johnnyloans

neoen

Youre welcome.

Sorry! Internet only to a limited extent.
E.g. You visited Netflix for 2 hours then stopped. They don't know the contents or info transferred

neoen

Johnnyloans Honestly, this is an esthetics experiment. Can one minimize one's life, become invisible, so that one can live elegantly, as opposed to the messy chaotic way that the masses do things? I don't mind not being on Netflix. Local libraries usually have an excellent collection of dvds, which have much better video and sound quality than streaming anyway. But the idea that Ryan Reynolds is "in my phone" is spooky.

Johnnyloans

neoen

GrapheneOS treats cellular, Bluetooth, NFC, wifi as potentially hostile at any moment. Mint and Reynolds aren't allowed into your phone.

Best you can do is avoid social media and use end to end encrypted messaging like rcs, signal, threema.

Avoid email and services from big tech Giants

If you must use social media, don't stop your scrolling to watch cool car videos or similar.

Then you're set :) that'll be almost all of data collecting gone.

Well, except for ring cameras, flock cameras, any other cameras that governments have installed that are managed by a private company and they are allowed to have the data...

neoen

Johnnyloans

Good to know Ryan Reynolds will not be in my phone. I quit social media years ago. I'm too old and ugly for it.

Instead of legacy calls, do you recommend VoIP?

As for the cameras like ring and flock, do they ping your phone?

Johnnyloans

neoen As for the cameras like ring and flock, do they ping your phone?

They will automatically read/track your license plate, face, gait.

neoen Instead of legacy calls, do you recommend VoIP?

Legacy calls is better I think. Has encryption now. Wont ping the phone.

VoIP won't help much because if it is encrypted, it'll only be for half of its lifespan most likely--from your phone to the VoIP provider.

neoen

Johnnyloans

I was hoping to keep my phone in airplane mode at least 23 hours a day. I would only access the cellular network occasionally for map services or if I really needed to make a call and didn't have access to wifi. So I was hoping to set up a main VoIP number that would serve as my main phone number.

Also, I just set up another user profile to hold my banking apps. I downloaded and installed Google Play but then it required I sign into a google account. Is there any way around this? I thought I'd set up a throw away google account, but how does one do this without it needed to send you sms to verify your account?

Johnnyloans

Nice plan

neoen throw away google account, but how does one do this without it needed to send you sms to verify your account?

I havent viewed any of these threads on the topic

Most recent:
https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/32217-how-to-create-a-google-account-without-a-phone-number

https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/29000-google-play-store-impossible-to-verify-phone-number

https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/7498-how-do-i-create-a-play-store-account-without-using-my-phone-number

neoen

Johnnyloans Thank you. These were helpful. But in the meantime I'm only installing apps through Fdroid and staying clear of Google Play.