Agreed, but company does not provide us devices. Everything I’ve said applies to my second phone running GrapheneOS, which I am using as my work phone. I’m trying to avoid setting up and running Play Services just for nice-to-have notifications when none of my other apps require it.

The Pixel Tablet with GrapheneOS is the gold standard, but there’s even more than just the tablets with LineageOS support if you are adventurous.

I was gifted a Samsung Tab A7 Lite, which is without LineageOS support. However, I’ve been able to flash TrebleDroid Generic System Images (GSI), which are vanilla AOSP images modified to support as many devices as possible. They come with no Google apps or services.

Nearly everything works as expected, performance is much better, and battery life is unchanged. I can even run Android 15 smoothly when Samsung will end support for my tablet with Android 14. If anyone wants a writeup to the best of my memory, feel free to reply.

If you are flashing GrapheneOS, it is a very simple and safe procedure. I’ve even interrupted the flashing when my laptop went to sleep, got the system corrupt warning, and just flashed again without a hitch. All that’s needed now is a browser with WebUSB support and USB cable.

Organic Maps. Living in a somewhat walkable area, it gives me good walking directions. I might be a bit out of touch though since I just commit routes to memory if I’m driving.

For the occasional satellite map, Google Maps unfortunately. If anyone knows of a privacy-respecting map with satellite views, I’d be interested.

It’s been quite a journey:

• Posting accurate personal info to my Google+ account when I first signed up
• Signing in to Google on my phone and browser
• Using an Android phone from eBay of dubious origin
• Sending confidential info via email
• Using the same gmail address for everything
• Signing up for things with my real info when it wasn’t necessary
• Handing out my phone number to loyalty programs
• Running hacked game APKs without checking for malware
• Using the User Agent Switcher extension on MS Edge, which was subsequently updated to include an infostealer
• Using browser extensions of unknown provenance

How to avoid:

• Ironically, Windows 10 started me on my privacy journey. Microsoft was in my face enough with privacy offenses that I began moving to Linux and investing time into my privacy.
• Don’t post unnecessary info to social media.
• Never email confidential info.
• Use a password manager, or at least some organized text file if you have an encrypted disk.
• FOSS software is more available and user-friendly than ever, always look for a FOSS alternative.

Work and networking (people) makes fully ditching Google, Whatsapp, etc. a practical impossibility for me. So I have a laptop, tablet, and phone dedicated to those purposes and nothing else. I check them on a schedule that my colleagues are aware of, at locations I consider safe. Otherwise they are stowed away, out of sight, and out of mind.

As someone who deals with Windows software and mobile apps of dubious provenance at a BYOD workplace:

• Get a separate device with sufficient horsepower to handle whatever work, school, etc. throws at it. Used ThinkPads and unlocked Google Pixels are a good bet.
• Pick a small and light laptop if you also need to have your primary one on hand. Preferably, both can use the same USB-C charger.
• Use that device for work-related things and nothing else. Assume it is compromised.
• Connect to a separate access point if you need to use it at home.

If a phone or tablet (preferably with GrapheneOS) will suffice, go for it:

• Recent Android and iOS versions have much stronger sandboxing than PCs and laptops in general. Spyware can still do a lot on mobile devices, but not nearly as comprehensively as on PCs and laptops.
• i.e. Commercial spyware can easily plant rootkits and kernel-level trackers on a laptop, but this would be much harder on an up-to-date mobile device.
• For Android devices that support it, limit work and MDM apps to a secondary profile and close that profile when not actively using the phone.
• Turn off cellular, wifi, bluetooth, and location when not actively in use.

If the offender is your partner, practice good digital hygiene, never let them touch your devices, and good luck.

When a colleague or new friend asks me to exchange contacts, I offer them the option to be part of my “main phone club” by getting Signal, Wire, or Element/Matrix.

I have a separate phone to handle SMS and Whatsapp. That covers 99% of cases, if they want something esoteric like Instagram/Snapchat/iMessage, then that’s too bad. I’ll turn off Airplane mode and check this secondary phone when I’m seated and comfortable like during my lunch break or when I get home. If, say, Johnny is running an event and needs me to text back whenever from 10 to 12, then I’ll generally leave my phone on for that time period. If there’s something sensitive but not particularly urgent, I’ll save it for the next time we meet in person.

If someone wants to message me at any random time of the day without prior notice and have a quick response back, they’ll have to join my main phone club.

A few years ago, when I cared little about my privacy, I would fancy buying a new car. Thanks to privacy concerns, I became proud to have my old car, which also happens to be highly repairable.

This stuff makes me grateful that my bank and your bank still maintain a fully-featured website. I would be quite upset if I were stuck with such an app and no website.

Would like to, but never figured out how to get the TPM 1.2 chip in my X230 to work with cryptsetup. Everything seems to be written for TPM 2.0 only.

same here but with hentai on searx.be

I miss print coupons. Hearing “get the app” or “there’s an app for it” makes me flinch these days.