Privacy and Smartphones

Most of us are aware iOS and Android aren't the most privacy focused operating systems, at least if you're concerned about corporate data collection. However, Android is open source, and while much of it relies on Google infrastructure, some folks have modified it to be more privacy focused. From what I know, /e/OS is the most common of these. Sadly, whether you go with /e/OS, GrapheneOS, or even Ubuntu Touch, you'll be fairly limited on devices. 

For technological reasons I have very little knowledge about, it is extremely difficult to make an mobile operating system that simply works on 9 out of 10 devices like Linux is to PC. So every alternative is either proprietary to an expensive "privacy" phone that often has worse specs than the average budget Android, or an extremely popular phone (like the Google Pixel) that a privacy focused OS has official support for. 

As someone who loves unique phones, like the ones I grew up with, I hate the idea of being forced to get a Google Pixel just to keep my data from being perpetually harvested. It seems /e/OS has the most options, and because they allow microG, most Android Apps will work on an /e/OS device. So I'm currently looking through all my options. For those with a decent amount of expendable income, maybe it is possible to simply have two devices, one for privacy, talk, & text, and one for Apps and Games. 

This has been my hyper-fixation for the last couple weeks so I just thought I'd post a little rant about it. If all you care about is privacy and you can do without common socials, maybe check out GrapheneOS, it seems the best in those regards :)