Aurora Store vs logging in to use Google Play Store

Duct9143

The official documentation for GrapheneOS states that using the GPS is the most secure way of getting apps from the Play Store. Seeing as Aurora Store has not been updated in a long time and suffers from outages sometimes (probably due to rate limits), I was wondering what the exact implications are in terms of privacy if I were to log in to a Google account in order to get my apps and app updates through GPS directly.

I already use Google Play Services on my GrapheneOS device, but without having logged in. My questions are:

what exactly would logging in to a Google account do in terms of privacy (also in regards to apps that make use of Google Play Services). Would these all be somehow "linked" to the Google account I log in to in order to download apps through the Play Store?
is there a way to create a new Google account without providing one's real phone number?

[deleted]

Duct9143 is there a way to create a new Google account without providing one's real phone number?

I created one from within the Play Store app on GOS behind a VPN . I was allowed me to skip adding the number entirely, but your mileage may vary.

what exactly would logging in to a Google account do in terms of privacy (also in regards to apps that make use of Google Play Services).

You can run it in Owner and it'll still be a massive improvement over stock.

vvf69107

the login is profile wide and all related apps will link to it.
you can log in to aurora store with a google account. this may be a seperated login (like when using a browser) an therefore a good option, but i havent tested so no guarantee..

Duct9143

What if you were to create a second user profile with a Google account that only exists to update apps? Since app updates work cross-profile, from what I understand. Would this make sense?

lordiont

Duct9143 Since app updates work cross-profile

Is this true? I haven't tried it myself, but anyone that has either confirmed or dis-confirmed this, please chime in. If so, like @Duct9143 suggests, one could install Google Play Store-only apps in a secondary user profile with Sandboxed Google Play, and propagate those apps to the owner profile, and also update them from the secondary profile.