android-prepare-vendor VS hardened_malloc

The developer of GrapheneOS is openly hostile to other similar projects (https://github.com/bromite/bromite/issues/2141 and https://github.com/AOSPAlliance/android-prepare-vendor/issue... are concrete examples). He's done things like relicensing one of his repos to GPLv2-only because a project he had a dispute with is GPLv3-or-later, and that way they can't use his code anymore, but he still gets to call his project FOSS.

Strcat has a long history of these disputes. Most recently he requested the AOSP Alliance also stop using "his" code.

https://github.com/AOSPAlliance/android-prepare-vendor/issue...

This was due to a sabotage from the GrapheneOS project. See: https://github.com/AOSPAlliance/android-prepare-vendor/issues/78

> Smartphones are a tragedy itself. Security theatre destroyed it.

If you're willing to buy a new device, then I recommend getting a Pixel on sale and flashing it with GrapheneOS[0]. No rooting required. Read up on it when you have a chance. Also, if you install the sandboxed Google Play Services layer (which doesn't require any Google account logins and has very limited access to the device) you will be able to run your bank app.

[0] https://grapheneos.org/

Relevant copypasta:

Fellow humans, there are alternatives to Google and Apple! Your neck need not be under anyone's boot! You don't even need to give up any functionality:

Data service:

The simplest thing is to buy a prepaid SIM and top it off with cash. The lovely people over at /r/nocontract maintain a big spreadsheet so you can filter by various properties of the available contracts.

Another way to go is to pay for a postpaid plan with a virtual credit card (VCC) like at privacy.com. It won't be linked to your name at the telco, but of course privacy.com knows who you are. There is also Abine Blur, and some others.

Yet a third way to go, which is nascent, is buy an eSIM with crypto. You can also buy prepaid VCCs with crypto.

An interesting new choice is PGPP https://invisv.com/pgpp/ who rotate your IMSI and do some other cool stuff. It works by e-sims.

All these methods make you /pseudo/nymous, but obviously you're still identifiable by subscriber number and possibly IMEI, to put aside correlational things like your traffic profile. You can help this problem by routing everything through a VPN. Then you're pseudonymous but the cell carrier knows nothing about you other than that you use a VPN. Pay for the VPN with crypto. Of course now the VPN provider knows your traffic, but you're much more anonymous to them than you are to a telco. You make your choices. Defense in depth. Etc.

OS:

GrapheneOS: https://grapheneos.org/ Very much like Calyx, but extra-hardened and with no MicroG. No involvement with Google at all by default. You can make a secondary profile in which you install Google Play Services to set up an environment where you can run unprivileged Play services + whatever crapware you need that requires them. Unprivileged here means it's like any other app: if you don't give it access to your location, it won't know where you are. If you end the profile session when you leave, Play Services stops running and stops talking to Google.

CalyxOS: https://calyxos.org/ Privacy-respecting Android distribution that replaces Google spyware with MicroG, so you can have your cake and eat it too. Most everything will work as you're used to, but it does still talk to Google to make that happen.

LineageOS: https://lineageos.org/ The successor to CyanogenMod, will work with many different phones. More privacy and control than stock Android.

There are also many others: Sailfish, Replicant, e

Hardware:

CalyxOS and GrapheneOS run best on Pixels. The path of least resistance is to get one of these phones and run GrapheneOS with Google Services installed in one profile or other.

You could also buy a Librem 5 https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/ If privacy and security and hacking are really important to you.

Or a pinephone: https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/

Neither work very well by regular standards, but they're cool :-)

It might be worth to switch to GrapheneOS if you have Pixel phones: https://grapheneos.org/

It is a more serious project than LineageOS in the sense that they take security very seriously and they take their development more professionally too. There are no disadvantages to using GrapheneOS compared to LineageOS.

You can see a comparison here: https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm

If it still powers up but just won't boot you could try installing https://grapheneos.org/.

On 4thgen Pixels and up you can install GrapheneOS which is a security and privacy focused Android build. It does not come with any Google services pre-installed but you can put them on. https://grapheneos.org/