Is grapheneos for me?

pxa47108

First of all I use most of the popular social media apps. That means that my privacy wouldn't be much improved when using gos, or if I'm wrong can you explain how the difference between stock and gos is when using social media?

Second, I use the pixel watch. I know that a lot of data is being collected. Is there any benefit of using grapheneos at all for me at this point?

I really love this project for security reasons, but privacy wise I'm unsure with my invasive usage.

[deleted]

pxa47108 Pretty sure the Pixel Watch won't have all it's features, and or wont work at all.
I believe the Pixel Watch rely on allot of proprietary firmware and software from FitBit for tracking workouts, sleep, and allot more, etc.

Someone can correct me if I am wrong.

Most social media apps works with Sandboxed Google Play Services since the Google Play apps are simply regular apps on GrapheneOS, you install them within a specific user or work profile and they're only available within that profile. Only apps within the same profile can use it and they need to explicitly choose to use it. It works the same way as any other app and has no special capabilities. As with any other app, it can't access data of other apps and requires explicit user consent to gain access to profile data or the standard permissions. Apps within the same profile can communicate with mutual consent and it's no different for sandboxed Google Play.

Phead

pxa47108 First of all I use most of the popular social media apps. That means that my privacy wouldn't be much improved when using gos, or if I'm wrong can you explain how the difference between stock and gos is when using social media?

Au contraire mon frère. Your privacy would be improved! By using Graphene you gain control over what your social media apps can see, or, in other words, what and how much data they are able to collect about you. How you would do that has been explained by the answers above.

The takeaway message here is you take control over your device, the software, your data security and privacy. Even if you let the social media apps roam freely on your device, having the power to restrict their access rights by many different means is reason enough to consider Graphene OS. Plus, the community is awesome, support is great and you might end up with some insights to privacy, security and related topics on top of that.

[deleted]

pxa47108 From OS security perspective you have nothing to lose, you can only gain from your experience using GOS. Developers have generously provided compatibility layer (I choose to forgo in order to minimize attack surface/privacy backdoor by installing bare minimum of carefully chosen additional software to sustain me) of sandboxed Google Play Services which make your device use very painless. That, with common approach to privacy such as using VPN, disabling location services when not needed etc. make Graphene best operating system to use on a mobile device to date. I have used it now for about 6 months, am very happy with it despite some limitations I have chosen to impose on myself and in all honesty, I would be heartbroken if it all of a sudden disappeared in a puff of smoke. I would like to use an opportunity and thank developers for producing such a wonderful OS and wish them many successes. I will as a token of appreciation make my donation soon.

matchboxbananasynergy

[deleted] Pretty sure the Pixel Watch won't have all it's features, and or wont work at all.
I believe the Pixel Watch rely on allot of proprietary firmware and software from FitBit for tracking workouts, sleep, and allot more, etc.

Someone can correct me if I am wrong.

It works. It requires Sandboxed Google Play and giving Play Services the "Nearby devices" permission.

spring-onion

Welcome!

When it comes to what you use your phone for, there is no right or wrong on GrapheneOS. The default permissions have been extended to include sensors and network, and there is also storage & contact scopes which allow for more fine grained control like giving an app only a subset of your contacts for example, or pretending it's got the storage permissions it asked for. You can also choose to isolate apps entirely from each other by making use of up to 32 different profiles.

What's important to remember is that you are always in control, and with that control comes the power to gain a privacy benefit. You can't stop in-app nefarious behaviour, but definitely stop outside snooping. I advise you to take a look at the features page, it's a very exhaustive list: https://grapheneos.org/features

Regarding your watch, I don't own one myself but take note of this thread, it appears to work:
https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/1236-pixel-watch-and-grapheneos

Orange

One major feature GrapheneOS have is extended number of user profiles. It's like work profile, except it pretty much behaves as if it's an independent phone, and you can create up to 32 of such spaces, from original 4. Most use this to isolate rather invasive apps to their own space, leaving them with not much to see. Profiles can be turned off, disabling all apps inside. This alone, in my opinion, is major gain in privacy. It's not like anything can stop the social media company from knowing your social media usage itself, but you can control a lot outside that.

evalda

Security enhancements GOS adds are very impressive too. Additional permission like Internet, storage and contact scopes. Sandboxed Play Services. Definitely worth switching just for those alone

Oggyo

For me, one of the useful features (which I believe doesn't exist in the stock OS) is app disabling.
I keep not frequently used apps dormant in disabled mode. This prevents the app from running, exchanging data, saves me traffic, and of course, battery.

nemo

I'm not sure if you can easily separate privacy and security. They kind of go hand in hand with the other.

Like if someone didn't know what the word privacy meant, you could explain it in terms of security. Much the same, if someone didn't know what the word security meant, you could explain it in terms of privacy.

That being said, GrapheneOS does gives you more control over your device than stock.

Blastoidea

I’m not sure there is such a thing as a “GrapheneOS personality” but if there is, I would not expect to find heavy social media use among them.

Pacienco

Blastoidea

Part of the goal of GrapheneOS is that it is usable by anyone regardless of their interest in privacy/security.

Blastoidea

Pacienco
If you have no interest in either of those, what is the point of using GrapheneOS?

pxa47108

Thanks for all the responses. My setup is currently practical and simple.

I use one single closed social media app (twitch - with an account, for live stream notifications) in combination with sandboxed google play without a google account and also without vpn in a work profile.
In this work profile are apps that should not connect via vpn. Like my e-mail apps or apps that (need to) know my identity. Also the google watch app is installed in this profile.

In my normal profile (not in the work profile) is a vpn connection with all kinds of opensource apps.
I would appreciate any tips.

pxa47108

i'll see if i can live without the rest of the social media apps, or if i have to go back to them. with twitter (which i might be able to live without), i know you can use it as a web app.

[deleted]

Strong case could be made that your position is exactly why you should choose GOS.

Think of it as an apartment building (phone), a property management company (OS) and tenants (apps). You're in the market to buy a building.

Nearly all buildings available for purchase lock you into one of two management firms that have complete run of the place - and will not listen to you, even though you own the building. Management will install the cameras and mics in every room, has a cozy relationship with the mayor who wants to know what books you picked up from the library and on and on it goes. On top of that, they allow the tenants to remove just about any door in the building and allow them to install their own cameras and mics in every bathroom.

But, there is a set of special buildings, let's call them "Titan"-class, where a choice exists. You can hire a top-notch firm - if you choose - to run your place. This firm won't put any cameras/mics anywhere, will install steel doors to all apartments and give you the keys to use as you see fit. There will be no drunk or shady tenants roaming the building going into every room - including your office - whenever they please. And sure, once in a very rare while a tenant may be disallowed to move in (or, rather, bring in some of their furniture), but they have to be extremely dumb/insane/delinquent for that to happen, so you wouldn't want their "functionality" around anyway...

In this light, should you choose to invite a bunch of very questionable characters to your place, last thing you'd want is a management company whose interests aren't aligned with yours.

User2288

Regardless of whether you use any privacy invasive apps or not, GOS provides a digital "environment" that you have "sovereignty" over and some meaningful semblance of security and privacy and trust. This is not the case in windows, mac, ios, or normal android. In those systems there is always a set of prying eyes or a "potential" set of prying eyes. GOS gives you as close a system to a "free from external influence" system as possible. Whether you have any use for this or not is for you to decide.

Within this trusted environment then you can choose to have privacy invasive apps. GOS gives slightly more ability to limit them than you'd be able to on other systems.

By bad practices you can also go as far as completely undoing all the benefits GOS gives and totally compromise the system. For example if you were to install a bunch of bad apps and give them all the permissions they want and also install google play store, and give it all it wants, and use a google account associated with your phone number. At that point you might as well stay on a a non GOS phone.

So,
GOS can be still useful even while having privacy invading apps. It can for example give a safe digital environment to save private data (images, letters, passwords, contacts, etc.), that you can trust is safe from any set of prying eyes. You can have a more private browsing experience and internet usage foot-print ( in conjunction with hiding your ip and good usage practices). You can have a phone which is not constantly location tracking you (bar network triangulation). With GOS, by default, your phone is not spying on you or everyone around you (which is the case on other phones).

GrapheneOS

User2288 It provides far more than slightly more ability to limit what apps can access.

https://grapheneos.org/features

Pacienco

Blastoidea

It should effectively be almost like using any other smartphone (Android family) OS, so you could use it just because it is an option on Pixel devices (hopefully allowing it to become a selling point).

Or you could be a minimalist and want to start with a lean base. Or you could like the aesthetic. Or (at this point in time) you want to try flashing a new OS on your phone for personal or public interest/information. Whatever it may be really.