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cypherpunk

Dear GrapheneOS team,

i just wanted to thank you so much for your great project. This is really a blessing for the world. I am using Graphene, since more than 3 months now and can clearly state from my point of view, that this is the best existing mobile OS regarding security, privacy, anonymity, freedom and control. The world was really eagerly waiting for such a project to free ourselves from the Big Tech companies monopoly...
I hope, that this project will continue forever and attract more and more people over time. I try to contribute my way in promoting it in my company, frienc circle, family and so on...Unfortunately it is quite challenging (almost impossible) to get people on board...😂
To further support the dev team i just donated 250 Euro and will continue to do so on a regular basis...Push it forward my heroes!👍️👍️👍️

Best regards

I would like to thank the development team for new "Contacts Scope" feature that I, probably like many others here, have been waiting for a while.

Exciting and it works! I was able to remove all contacts from WhatsApp and add only selected contacts under a corresponding "Label".

Separately, I have again donated, this time about 100 bucks as small token of appreciation for all the work you do!

grom Correct. Preliminary documentation on the feature can be found here:

https://github.com/muhomorr/platform_packages_providers_ContactsProvider/blob/13_05-16_ContactsProvider/ContactScopes.md

GrapheneOS version 2023051600 released: https://grapheneos.org/releases#2023051600.

See the linked release notes for a summary of the improvements over the previous release.

A note about encryption in iCloud—enabling Advanced Data Protection will enable end-to-end encryption for iMessage: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202303#notes

7. Messages in iCloud
a. Standard data protection: Messages in iCloud is end-to-end encrypted when iCloud Backup is disabled. When iCloud Backup is enabled, your backup includes a copy of the Messages in iCloud encryption key to help you recover your data. If you turn off iCloud Backup, a new key is generated on your device to protect future Messages in iCloud. This key is end-to-end encrypted between your devices and isnʼt stored by Apple.
b. Advanced Data Protection: Messages in iCloud is always end-to-end encrypted. When iCloud Backup is enabled, everything inside it is end-to-end encrypted, including the Messages in iCloud encryption key.

Here's a breakdown of the type of encryption used in iCloud for every class of data: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202303#advanced

Renewably3997

I'm sorry to have caused so much trouble here.

That's hardly your fault. People tend to have strong opinions when it comes to technology, which naturally leads to clashes.

I'd like to move to GOS but, given my circumstances, I'm not sure if it would be an upgrade or downgrade in terms of overall privacy.

I used iOS for the past 10 years and moved to GrapheneOS last month with a Pixel 6a. My advice is to buy the Pixel 6a, not the Pixel 6, as you get a year more of support, and the size is most similar to iPhones. I'm quite happy with the experience. The people I was messaging used Android anyway, so I was SMSing them through iMessage. Little has changed for me, except I can now backup my Signal conversations, I have better battery life than my iPhone 8, and I trust my phone more. GrapheneOS also offers stronger security guarantees than iOS—have a look at some of the features. For one thing, Chromium-based browsers are more secure than browsers using the Webkit engine like Safari.

As for privacy, if all of your contacts use an iPhone, iMessage is more private than SMS messaging on Android for most threat models. If any of the people you're contacting move to an Android phone, they will be using SMS, which offers no privacy improvement. I would say iMessage's superiority in privacy is a precarious one designed to lock you in. These communications are important, but so long as you are aware they are not private, you might choose to say some important things only in person.

Who knows—maybe your contacts will be so annoyed by the lack of MMS capability that they'll offer to message you on Signal? This isn't my experience, but you can always hope.

Escaping from Apple has been a liberating experience. iPhones are hard to integrate with any of the other technology I own, so every time I wanted to extract photos or get files onto the phone, it was a harrowing experience. My Pixel 6a, on the other hand, connected right to all of my computers, offering at least two easy methods of transferring files, with transparent access to the filesystem. I also don't need to use Google Play if I don't want to—I can download APKs directly from the developer and manage updates with Obtainium. I don't even need to use a proprietary version of Android or iOS on my phone. I can use a free software operating system like GrapheneOS which is aligned with my interests, not Google's or Apple's.

Privacy is one of my top concerns, but sovereignty is another. Apple might offer you privacy, but they only offer it to you on their terms, and with caveats. If you're using an Android phone, you are not worthy of privacy in Apple's eyes, and they refuse to develop even a basic iMessage client for Android or provide Android developers with the ability to develop their own.

I really have no idea what sort of data Apple is sending to themselves every few minutes and it bothers me that the iPhone is constantly communicating with Apple even when I'm not using it.

GrapheneOS will not do this. Google Play Services might communicate with Google's servers, but you can choose when and how you use it by installing it in another profile. If you don't need certain apps only available on Google Play, you can eschew using these apps at all.

This is almost certainly to do with the fact that the system package manager handles the apps for all user profiles.

One way this problem is encountered is if you have the same app ( or another app with the same app ID - found at the bottom of the Apps Info page in Settings > Apps eg. com.someapp.somecompany ) which has a different signature - normally because it has been built by different party (often f-droid). They can not both be installed on the same device.

Alternatively if you are trying to install an older version of an app than the one thats already installed. You need to install the same or a newer version.

That's an Aurora store bug

https://gitlab.com/AuroraOSS/AuroraStore/-/issues/878

GrapheneOS version 2023020200 released: https://grapheneos.org/releases#2023020200.

See the linked release notes for a summary of the improvements over the previous release.

Max-Zorin
Please bear in mind that using a custom DNS will not prevent your ISP from monitoring the traffic as they will still see the domains you visit. If you want to hide from ISP then you need a VPN.

As for DNS, any of these will do it: https://www.privacyguides.org/dns/

They are also public which means thousands of people are using these so you won't be unique.

My personal favourites are:

Mullvad with adblocking (adblock.doh.mullvad.net)
Adguard (dns.adguard-dns.com)

You might also be interested in Adguard Private DNS which allows you to customise the filters. Its free for 300k hosts per month (overkill for me) and is also resolving to public Adguard DNS so your DNS won't be unique for fingerprinting.