Is it worth unlocking the bootloader on my phone? It’s a Samsung with One UI 7.0 (I’ve been avoiding upgrading to 8.0 since they don’t let you unlock it after that). I just want to avoid having Google Services and AI installed. I use my phone to take photos of my art / send it to friends on signal and hate the idea of it being scanned by AI. I use a camera and gallery from fdroid but somehow the default photos app still has access (I know because it makes GIFs of pictures I took even though I marked permissions as “not allowed”). I also would love to get rid of the default apps I don’t use. While I can unlock the bootloader (for now), I can’t install a custom ROM because there are none compatible with my phone, so will I just be forced into using 8.0 at some point anyway? :( ATP I’m pretty much ready to give up smartphones and get a digital camera for anything I don’t feel comfortable feeding to tech companies.
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100% worth it even without a custom OS.
I have been using my rooted S23 since it came out. Rooting it made it possible to edit the hosts file (to block malicious ads and domains), run a firewall (to block internet connectivity for certain system apps that I will not remove in order to retain certain functions) and use a VPN, all at the same time.
More specifically, I rooted my S23 following this guide: https://topjohnwu.github.io/Magisk/install.html
I created a custom hosts file using AdAway: https://github.com/AdAway/AdAway
I block internet connectivity for certain apps whose removal would break certain functionality with AFWall+ https://github.com/ukanth/afwall
These are the apps that I block: https://pastebin.com/SViEKXXd
I only unblock Google Play once every month to update system apps. The rest of my apps I install with Obtainium: https://github.com/ImranR98/Obtainium and I manage them with App Manager, with which I also disable internal trackers, dangerous operations and permissions: https://github.com/MuntashirAkon/AppManager
The above App Manager also has integrated UAD: https://github.com/Universal-Debloater-Alliance/universal-android-debloater-next-generation/
Sorry for all the unsolicited advice. Finally, rooting your device/unlocking the boatloader introduces the technical risk of anybody with the skills being able to manipulate your device if they physically get their hands on it. Which is just fear mongering and doesn’t say much, since you hopefully wouldn’t trust your device even if the bootloader is locked if it has been in an unauthorized person’s hands.
EDIT: unlocking the bootloader on recent Samsung devices pops a physical fuse inside the device. Even though this doesn’t affect any functionality and you can relock the bootloader if you ever wanted to go back to stock Samsung One Ui, this makes it impossible to hide the fact that the device’s bootloader once was unlocked. What repercussions this entails - if any - you will have to decide for yourself.
EDIT2: am I remembering correctly that some Knox functions stop working after popping the fuse? Like secure folder, payments or whatever? This doesn’t affect me, but for OP’s sake.
Good luck! 🫡
Or install Shizuku and Canta.
If you don’t want to waste time connecting to a computer you can go into developer mode, enable debugging with WiFi, and then link to Shizuku. Start the Shizuku deamon and then open Canta. You can get all the bloatware off in the Canta interface.
That’s absolutely right. Haven’t used wireless debugging in a long time.
My biggest beef when someone asks a question about improving security and privacy on a commercial OS and people say “just buy a Pixel/Fairphone” is that, besides not really answering the question, it complete ignores reality outside first world countries.
Not an expert, but I’ve been looking into this and it seems like grapheneOS is the way to go if you really want control and security on a modern phone with timely updates (you would have to switch devices). The timely-ness of updates/patches on other platforms is a big criticism that I saw brought up a lot in disussions online. Not sure how much of a problem that truly is, if at all, but it is something to look into before committing to a big change.
Also one thing to look into before doing anything drastic would be taking advantage of shizuku with something like Canta. As I understand it, shizuku is like an inter-app request mediator that is able to abuse wireless debugging access to grant root-like permissions to linked applications without requiring root access or an unlocked bootloader. This should allow you to do some serious debloating.
From what I have read, living without google play services is possible to an extent (using FOSS alternative), but can be difficult / not 100% due to how google has positioned the bundled play services specifically as an authority in modern android
Thanks for the suggestion. I think I’ll try tweaking things with shizuku first but will definitely consider getting a phone that supports custom ROMs in the future. I just have this one because it was inexpensive and had headphone jack (another thing that’s gone the way of the dodo). :)
Besides having a go at removing apps you can install NetGuard https://f-droid.org/packages/eu.faircode.netguard and then block all apps including system apps from using network. From there allow only the apps like Signal you want to give network access to. Drawback is that NetGuard needs an internal VPN connection to work so you can’t use a VPN services and NetGuard at the same time.
Can’t you use AFWall+ as a traditional firewall anymore?
Thanks. Requires root though. https://f-droid.org/en/packages/dev.ukanth.ufirewall
I thought that was the whole deal with unlocking the bootloader.
Are you sure the animations it’s giving you are ai? Android recently got the thing where the phone actually takes a short movie and picks a frame, processes it and hands it to you as the “picture”.
If it was me and you’re comfortable with getting a second-hand phone I would sell or swap your samsung and buy a Pixel to install a custom ROM on it.
Sell and get Fairphone 6 with e/OS. Use Murena service if in US. If somewhere else, there are probably several providers.
EOS is in no way better than Google or others. It is a Google replacement. Not a google services alternative.
They, with their services, still collect just as much info about you, in non-encrypted ways. The moment e decides to sell your info, or lock you out or share it with authorities (just like how google did it), you can do nothing against it.
The permanent solution to not having your data raped through any means is not giving anyone your data in the first place (for example, encrypting it with a key only you have access to, like proton enables you to), in which category Murena is just as bad as google or any other shady data hoster.
This is ridiculous. You can still use VPN. It fakes geolocation, spoofs IP, and you can still implement other security measures. I just want Google to have competition so they don’t have all the power to themselves. MicroG can be removed and it’s not hard.
