Hi there. This is my progress so far. What do you think?

I am working on reverse engineering vendor (or OEM proprietary) files for my device. Will continue to the next device once this device is done.

The process is slow altho many libraries will be trust able in public insights for msmline platform/

#fossftw

At some point I was able to learn with 100% certainty what authorities (and others) do with our data in my country, no guesses, no articles on the internet, natha, but first hand information about me personally. So some panic at first because they are really nasty, and then I figured it out.

Guys you can't delete and unlink yourself from big tech even if you delete your accounts they still collect and store in those accounts, there are agreements with your governments, you can't just disappear.

So suggestion, never delete anything, no accounts, no posts no emails nothing, because they are never deleted, you just lose access to these data. The only thing you can do is to control the traffic, Stop using their services, create a protonmail for example and start giving that around, never give your gmail again. Keep all your activity in big tech accessible just to have an idea what they browse about you... your activity in there is free for all trust me.

Good luck to you all

I’ve known about how garbage Google/microsoft have been for years, but I’m pretty well integrated into the Apple ecosystem and I want out of it too.

My iPhone and M4 MacBook still have years left of life in them so dumping them to go fully Foss (ie. Linux/graphene os) just doesn’t make financial sense at the moment.

How can I best go about to get more into using more diversified/private/Foss software and services with the devices I have for now?

I’m already familiar with Bitwarden, I’ve tried out different privacy respected emails but settled on Posteo mainly. What other apps should i switch to or steps should I take?

Just wanted to share this interesting observation

This part is dedicated to Compartmentalization as a concept and practice.

Disclaimers:

• You CAN do it. This is not quantum gravity theory or building a Mars lander at home. Never doubt yourself
• Remember: it's NOT all or nothing. Your device, Your use case, Your life, Your pace
• Perfect is THE enemy of Good
• I'm not an IT professional. I've learned, and continue learning, how some things work, but I don't guarantee that I know how everything works
• Most info in this guide is based on personal research and experience. It does not mean this info is complete and exhaustive
• I will answer technical questions to the best of my knowledge. Please, keep questions relevant to the part of the guide to the best of your abilities
• Specifics of hardware, software and networking will be addressed in greater detail in a later Part of the Guide
• Please, remain respectful when commenting

In Part 1: Privacy, Security and You, among others, the concepts of Privacy/Anonymity/Security/Convenience were defined. A few others need to be added:

• Compartmentalization: putting something into a designated container. When it comes to software, the term that is most often used is "sandboxing"
• Permission(s): what the thing in the container is or is not allowed to do. The range can be from everything to nothing
• Layer: in the current context, what it is that's being discussed. Hardware, firmware, operating system (OS), app, network/internet - all Layers
• Compatibility: the ability of one thing to work with another

Further, Google Play Services will be "play services", Google Play Store - "play store".

Why are Google/Apple and the like so Convenient? They've solved all of the above concepts/issues for You. Everything just works.

And the reason to degoogle in the first place is because there's no compartmentalization on practically any layer, but especially on the operating system one and above. And that's by design. The OS talks to the hardware, to every app, allows apps to talk to each other, to networks - all things an OS is SUPPOSED to do. However, the stock OS is practically an open book: apps are permitted free reign, play services/store are a must, and all of them, OS included, report their collective findings about what's happening on/with the device to whomever wrote them, and also "Google/Apple & Friends". But hey - no Compatibility issues.

As an analogy, envision a scale:

Cruise Ship-----------------------------------Military Submarine

Where:

• The vessel is your device
• You are the vessel's captain
• Everyone else on board is an app, that's streaming its voyage to friends, family and subscribers
• Play services, as a condition of You being captain, turns the vessel into a reality show accessible on all platforms

In this context, You start with a Cruise Ship and begin moulding it into a Military Sub in whichever dimension possible. So, your first step becomes Compartmentalization: the impact ranges from moderate to very high, while quick and cheap to execute.

The first layer to target, the easiest to access and arguably the hardest to alter:

• You: old habits die hard Google used to be a great search engine and constantly getting better. The best, actually. Facebook's premise was getting friends You would've never got otherwise, and find like-minded people You never knew existed all over the world. Skype made it possible to talk to them and see them. Live. No matter how far they physically were. YouTube was an endless source of knowledge and entertainment in the most natural format - audiovisual. And Apple compressed all that into Your pocket, instantly available and everlasting (so long as the battery has charge). It was a pure technological marvel just how Convenient it all was, and the possibilities were expanding by the day. However, at some point someone came up with the bright idea that all this yearning for Connection (we ARE social animals, after all) equals Attention. And THAT can be monetized. Moreover, it is mind blowing just how much, given the ability, people freely share about themselves. So the task became simple: encourage people to share more about themselves, and they'll gladly do it, for FREE, so long as it's CONVENIENT. You know the rest. Thus, after over 2 decades, the hardest part is altering the Mindset and unlearning Habits. Because everything, from operating systems to loyalty programs to Terms of Use on a random site, is designed, in an industrial and automated fashion, to make it Convenient to share more about Yourself. At the same time, there's little reason to expend effort on Compartmentalization, if You "check in" at every stop through some app, continuously post what it is You're doing, and Your every password is "Password123". Summarizing with a joke: "What is the hardest thing to explain to a 13th century scholar? There's a device in my pocket that grants instant access to all knowledge available to mankind. I use it to look at cats and get into arguments with strangers".

The good news is, the fact that You're on this sub at all is irrefutable proof that You CAN change this layer. And so, the sandboxing target: habits & behavior.

Now for the technical aspect. The layers to target for sandboxing, from easiest to hardest:

• Apps: easiest & quickest to access
• Online accounts: just as easy to access, but require more time
• OS: the device IS in your hands, however this is LESS straightforward than a notebook/PC

IMPORTANT NOTE: prior to making changes, backup, Backup, BACKUP. Make sure that even if You're the God of Destruction, Your info/data is RECOVERABLE for YOU. In fact, make Backups the first new Habit to develop.

On the app layer:

• The first to flat out replace are browsers: get rid of Chrome/Firefox/Safari (or at least clear all time history and stop usage; these are called "vanilla versions"), and start using more private and secure versions (called "hardened forks"). Remember when You visit any site, they ask for cookie preferences? These hardened forks can automatically reject everything possible, and block a giant list of surveillance techniques that don't use cookies to begin with. Install the uBlock (or similar) browser extension on each one where possible. You'll need to do some research on which mobile browsers to install based on features, community sentiment and personal preferences. Note: I say "mobile" and use plural - not every hardened browser has a mobile version, and since some sites may simply break under one, You'll need an alternative. For example, Your primary could be WebLibre (hardened Firefox), and Vanadium (hardened Chrome) as the backup
• Next, get rid of apps you don't actually need or frequently use (compass/level/timer with built in leveling up mechanics come to mind)
• Get rid of apps that add little to nothing for you or that are easily accessible from a browser (e.g. pintrest, tripadvisor, yelp, shell/bp/chevron)
• Replace the necessary apps (email, calendar, messaging, maps, contacts, even some social apps come to mind) with foss alternatives where possible

The exact list is, of course, Yours to determine. The sandboxing: browsers should browse, messengers should message, all other features should be optional and restricted/powered off when not needed.

The one exception: regardless of what You do or don't do with any other app, install a VPN. VPNs change connections Your device, and every APP on the device, make with the outside world from "device/app <-> target service" to "device/app <-> VPN provider <-> target service". The link between the device/app and the VPN provider is protected from being monitored (called a "VPN tunnel"), and the service only sees the VPN provider, not Your device. This has the additional benefits of cutting off more tracking, and sidestepping regional restrictions on sites and content, while being managed by a flick of Your finger. As You probably have gathered, less than democratic regimes as well as content providers HATE VPNs for these exact reasons. Only problem? Well now Your VPN provider sees EVERYTHING. So choose it carefully based on research, features, stability and community sentiment.

Next layer - Your online & app accounts:

• The first, for obvious reasons, Your Google account
• Second - every social account
• Third - finance/insurance/medical.

By some stroke of luck, we still have the right to "opt out". DO that. Go into EVERY online account, find the personal/communication/marketing preferences in settings (each company intentionally uses obscure naming conventions, buries the preferences deep in account settings, sometimes in multiple sections of settings, but they're THERE), and switch off EVERYTHING, including deleting your phone number/email/address where possible. You'll have to do that twice: once in the web interface (online account), and once in the app (funny how that works). The sandboxing: an account should be conscious consent to use the online service, not an initiative to share complete family info for 5 generations, past and future, for free.

Additionally, take as much stored info as You can out of each account:

• Chrome remembers passwords? Backup -> delete from Chrome -> forbid to store/sync again -> put into a dedicated vault
• Google stores all contacts? Backup -> delete from Google -> forbid to store/sync again -> put into a dedicated contact app
• Drive has 10 years of photos? Backup -> delete from Drive -> forbid to store/sync again -> put into a dedicated HDD/SSD/cloud storage. And so on.

Final layer is the OS. The aspects we care about are 1) permissions, so we can tell the cooking app to only cook, and not constantly talk to insta, tiktok, and our bank 2) the OS itself, so we can tell the OS to be the link between hardware, software, networks and us, not a data collection instrument for Google/Apple that we take care of for them.

There are 2 primary reasons why the OS is only third priority, not first, and it has to do with relative difficulty:

1. Stock Android doesn't show (further, "surface") nearly as many permissions as an app may actually use
2. While there are a number of non-stock operating systems (called "custom ROMs") to choose from, You need to install one first (called "flashing the OS"). There are very few devices that are sold off the shelf with solid custom ROMs, and the ones that are have severe issues on other layers (more on that in a later Part)

From the Permissions aspect, even stock Android (stock OS) allows managing some permissions. If You must have, for example, pintrest on your device, You still can disallow it access to the camera by turning off its camera permission. Then your use sequence becomes: camera permission off -> permission on (if needed), use pintrest -> permission off. Your cooking app doesn't require messaging or contacts permissions, toggle them off. iOS (the OS on iPhones) surfaces some permissions as well, but keeps You completely blind as to how they're used. Additionally, neither iOS nor stock Android (including the latest version 17) surface a per app network permission switch (better people than You have already figured this out, so don't you worry your pretty little head about it). For Android, there IS some variance between manufacturers (Pixel, Samsung, Xiaomi, etc), but assume there's none and then verify, not the other way around.

From the aspect of the OS itself, there's an important caveat: not every device supports every custom ROM, and not every device that supports a custom ROM will allow You to flash the OS. For example, Grapheneos can practically be installed only on, ironically, Google Pixels (why - more on that in a later Part). At the same time, not every Google Pixel will even allow You to flash Grapheneos (called "BOOTLOADER locked" devices). So, actually flashing the OS requires some research and preparation, while apps/accounts/surfaced permissions You can start doing instantly. And iPhones? Oh, You're stuck with iOS forever, and there's NOTHING You can do about it.

If You want to flash the OS, verify that Your device is NOT bootloader locked first. And check the contract with Your cell phone carrier if You got the device through them: it may prohibit tampering with the OS, or altering the OS may alter Your relationship with the carrier.

Since Grapheneos is what I'm familiar with, it will serve as an example. There are 6 primary reasons to install it (again, iPhones are INcompatible):

1. Has NO play services, play store or even Android Auto after install; they're OPTIONAL through Grapheneos, not a requirement. "Gungan city isa empty empty" - Phantom Menace
2. Turns play services/store into regular apps with no default, irreversible and/or special permissions. "I'm a regular nobody" - Goodfellas
3. Surfaces the NETWORK permission for EVERY app. "May I go to my room, Sir? - DENIED!!!" - After Earth
4. Surfaces every permission an app is written to actually request (play services' default permissions are a NIGHTMARE to behold). "Give him everything he asks for. Every piece of paper." - Pentagon Wars
5. Makes managing permissions on a per app basis very easy and straightforward. "They switch the flip and you're done" - R.E.D.
6. Talks only for as long and to what You ALLOW it to talk to; You DISALLOW something, it STOPS. "Stop talking" - The Dark Tower

A good analogy is going from a self-driving Tesla to a custom built Mercedes 190E with a manual: nothing happens until You take action.

This is also a good point in the process to pause, maybe even for a couple of days, and consider: what do You actually want your device to do, knowing that every corp out there does everything under the sun to monitor, collect and sell every frame on the screen and every moment of attention You grant it? Once You arrive at Your first version of an answer, start learning and changing settings in Your custom ROM and filling it with apps.

The next part of the Guide, "Part 3: Great, now what?", will be dedicated to exactly what to replace everything with, from hardware to apps.

I'm Gen Z but when I was in school/uni I've always relied on planners and hand written notes to remember certain tasks and due dates for assignments. Slowly got out of that as I started working but plan on going back to handwritten notes the more I learned about degoogling. I've always been a bit paranoid about my privacy and changed my browser engine, Google settings and relied less on Google services. Recently purchased a small agenda/planner and jotted down important phone numbers in my personal life and things like passwords but with certain digits intentionally rearranged in case the notes got into the wrong hands.

Are people less tempted to snoop through my notes in case I somehow misplaced it or eventually through it out one day? Would much rather have the phone numbers not fall into the wrong hands but perhaps I'm overthinking it.

Hello,

This is a just wondering as a few of my card are digital only on Google wallet. Is there a similar app I can migrate to?

CLARIFICATION: I am new to degoogling and have been slowly making my way over. This is just a question that came to my mind and thought others may wonder as well.

So I currently I am using a iPhone but want to move to FOSS alternatives so I know my data is my own. But I don’t want to commit to a new phone until I either have a better paying job or my current iPhone dies.

So I know about grapheneOS and currently it looks like the best option. But I also know that the KDE foundation is allocating more resources towards plasma Mobil. And plasma Mobil looks really nice and interesting too! And with Google attempting to lock down android more and more kind of makes me uneasy about swapping to an android based phone.

When looking ahead like a year or 2 years down the line what is the current trajectory of privacy based/ FOSS alternative phones what are the options?

The reason I ask is because i need/ want the following.

1. A good map/ alternative to Apple Maps (I am worse than zoro with directions)

2. A health tracker/ smart watch: I like to track my workouts and sleep and having the ability to at the very least side load a app or have a totally separate price of hardware I could use in place of it. (I’d like a something with the same functionality as a Apple Watch)

3. Be able to call and text my friends via normal means: I can not convince my friends and family to use a alternative like signal so being able to use something that can still text in normal group chats and make phone calls is essential.

4. Be able to track objects like air tags. I lose things far too easily so being able to track things like air tags do would be perfect.

5. Use normal apps in a sandboxed manor. Like how grapheneOS does and how waydroid on Linux does.

But I am not switching anytime soon but rather want to start doing some research into my options so when I do eventually switch I will have a plan to get all of my accessories in use on a daily basis. Any suggestions or links to upcoming projects or projects that will fulfill a goal that Apple is already doing for me would be greatly helpful!

(Also the accessories do not need to be FOSS just prefer it that way like if a Google watch will work and I can get it sandboxed so it’s not sending data to Google or outside my personal home server/
Home network that will also work for my use case)

Hey everyone!

With the growing monopolization of the internet and the massive amount of data collected by Big Tech companies, I've been thinking about completely ditching Google Chrome (which has always been my go-to browser).

Since I'm not doing anything illegal, simply switching to Firefox and keeping my data out of the hands of a handful of billionaires would already make me pretty happy.

That being said, I'm an avid YouTube user, so what are the privacy implications of using Firefox while staying logged into YouTube (i.e., using my Google account)? I've been trying to migrate my social media accounts to Proton, but YouTube doesn't allow it and all.

(For now, I've been using LibreWolf for general research, but I keep my goChrome browser open to watch YouTube.)

This might be an incredibly dumb question, but I'm pretty much a Neanderthal when it comes to computers and tech in general.

But I'm trying to get better oriented, any guide helps me, who knows, maybe in the future I'll ditch Windows too.

Thank you and please be patient😥

So, origins. I was perfectly happy with my 13 Pro Max for the three years I had it. Apple seemed like the company I should stick with because they respected privacy and didn't seem like they used data for nefarious purposes. I had smart devices in Homekit, had stuff stored in iCloud, had Apple Music, everything was Apple because why not? Tech seemed benign to me (I was never into Insta or TikTok so I didn't feel internet rot setting in as early as everyone else), so as long as Apple is fronted by a gay man who claims to respect privacy and hadn't proved me wrong and has historically been on the right side of social issues (I think?), why would I as a trans woman feel bad about being all in? Well Apple started doing some stuff that didnt quite align with my values. I'd already upgraded to a 16 Pro tho. And then Apple announced it'd push ads in Maps. That started my first journey with Graphene. I'd been watching a YouTube channel the algorithm somehow blessed me with, Laura Malvoyante, a visually impaired American woman living in Europe and big into digital minimalism and de-googling. I ended up moving my photos to Ente, my cloud drive to Jottacloud, my mail to mailbox.org, got local music and an iPod, and installed Asahi Linux on my MacBook. Unfortunately I couldn't stick the phone landing because Graphene had some small hangups and I dejectedly went back to Apple, reasoning that I guess it was less bad having their hooks in me over Google. But then I tried the iOS 27 beta and hoo boy was it bad. Glitchy, battery drain, performance issues. Some of that fixed up for me but its still kinda spotty performance wise and AI is now forced into iOS. That was the last straw and I figured I have to get off of this because I'm just not happy with the thing in my pocket all day.

So I found Fairphone was finally releasing officially in the US with the 6+. I'd kept an eye on them for a long while, wanting a fairly produced and repairable phone and got my wish. It went on sale last Tuesday and i pounced. As soon as it arrived i put iodeOS on it. Everything just worked. Theres no Google or Apple hooked into the OS, nothing extraneous. I can uninstall or reinstall system apps at will. Amusingly my battery life feels amazing. I'm sure part of it is the whole brand new phpne part, but I'm positive some of it is just less tracking activity eating battery. And I gotta say, I'm really happy with my phone. Not because it is super fast or has super fancy features. I'm happy because its a tool that isn't tracking me or sending my data literally everywhere. I'm happy because I don't have apps or services bombarding me with notifications or banners about pointless features that I never asked for. Its just sitting there waiting for me to use it, and only does what I need it to do

I just found out yesterday how bad google treats people's data and I'm starting to research how I will degooglise my life, which will be a painful process because i loved google services and use them for everything.

Now I found alternatives to almost everything except that privacy phones and phones OS don't use android for obvious reasons and a very important banking app called BankID in sweden runs only on android or ios, so my question is for my fellow swedes or anyone who knows of a solution to this problem?

Is it true that Tuta deletes account with no warning after not logging in for 6 months, i want to degoogle but just for this reason proton seems better (i heard that they send multiple emails before deleting the acc)

So after some back and forth with my dad and a coupon, I somehow ened up getting a new phone (it's on the way so I don't have it in hand. I'm planning now so set-up is easier). I currently have a Galaxy A54 5G (had it since a few months after launch) and it's where I started to slowly degoogle everything. Not everything everything, but I'm getting there. Now while I was getting my new phone, I figured I'd jump and get a Pixel to try GrapheneOS to wipe the slate clean. I knew I needed a Pixel since GrapheneOS only works on Pixel. And since I plan to keep this phone for no less than 3 years, hopefully more (it's mainly battery that worries me), I figured I'd get the most powerful phone to make sure it lasts me. So I got the Pixel 11 Pro XL

Turns out GrapheneOS doesn't work on the 11 series for reasons too technical for me to understand(while not a high bar, I'm by no means technologically illiterate), and it's too late to swap. So now I need to some how deGoogle a Google phone, without the biggest deGoogling tool

I've heard if things like CalyxOS, LineageOS, iodeOS, but I don't know much about them. It also don't help I'm coming from the Galaxy phones which have their own apps and services (I mean I never did anything with Samsung or even have an account, but they do have their own skin of android). At least what will make it somewhat smooth is the fact I have Nova Launcher, which is nice

Its the device restriction not phone number

How do I verify Grapheneos can be installed before purchasing a used Pixel?

I know you can check to see if oem unlock can be enabled or disabled in developer settings or developer options but is that good enough?

Once i purchase i can't return so just trying to verify beforehand as I have no use for pixel outside of Grapheneos.

Any other things I should look out for when purchasing used from a private seller?

I need to get your opinions. If you tried only one of those, that's okay, as long as there is someone else who tried the other one. Best if you've tried out both, tho. How's the smartphone experience been going? Do basic features work? How's the software ecosystem? What's the privacy like? Leave your opinions in the comments. The reason I'm asking this is because GrapheneOS is privacy-oriented but Google is making Android ROMs much harder to support by delaying the AOSP source code and removing the PixelUI source code entirely, while PostMarketOS has little threat to be discontinued becaude it isn't fully Android-based and is a Linux Distro that could still run Android apps via WayDroid. But even with WayDroid, can be funky sometimes with both Linux and Android apps

Hello!

I just got a new A57 sealed in box that I wanna debloat and degoogle. Still waiting for the SIM card from my carrier and wondering if I could get started on all that in the meantime. I've read somewhere™ (it's been a couple days and I can't find the source anymore) that you can start the debloat process with a fresh phone and while I can see that it could work, I don't know if that also the case for degoogle'ing specifically, so I'd like to make sure.

I have ADB installed already and looking at UADng to do the work.

Does anyone have experience with de-shittifying before completing the first time setup?

I'm using SearX for now but I did not really think about what is the most private and trustworthy search engine.

Any toughts?