How can I increase my privacy on non rooted verizon phone?
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How can I increase my privacy on non rooted verizon phone?
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Hi welcome to fdroid
Sure you can block unwanted connection with a secure dns like self hosted pihole or nextdns.
Use netguard to block unwanted access to internet to the apps that don’t need internet like calculator and all and you can block system apps also but do it carefully.
Use a secure email provider proton tutanota ctemplar disroot mailbox startmail etc
Use password manager
Don’t use chrome at any cost
Use firefox or mull fenix bromite brave
Use ublock origin
Use organic maps or osmand as a maps
Use signal matrix briar like apps
That is all i recommend for non rooted device.
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For me essentials are:
- custom firmware phone
- Faraday bag
- Using no apps requiring phone number
- Using no SIM
- Using just selected f-droid and github apps
- No antisocial media
- XMPP app like Conversations (login as existing account in app after finding a free xmpp server online and creating your own account). No need to pay for server if you don’t want to host your own.
- No email on phone.
Turning OFF wifi, bluetooth and location (and using airplane mode) does not stop the 24/7 permissionless collection of location data by Google and Apple (ie. It’s only for third-party apps). A mere placebo, you can say. Only solved by custom AOSP firmware.
Rob Braxman Tech. If there is a better privacy channel anywhere, I’d like to see it.
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increase my privacy on non rooted verizon phone?
Sell or trade it and get a non-carrier branded phone. Then, try an independent custom ROM and Post Install - DivestOS Mobile
A lot of your suggestions are consistent with the above link, but here are some contrary thoughts.
Using no SIM
Yes, but at that point the device is almost just a tablet, and not really a phone. Except, it can still send those radio signals that can be received by cell towers and other entities.
No need to pay for server
If you don’t pay for the service, you and your data may be the product.
No email on phone.
The list of what you do use the tablet for must be short, but I can see reasons for this lack of convenience. Alternatives include using tor browser and accessing email infrequently, and not automatically.
odysee link
Rob Braxman Tech. If there is a better privacy channel anywhere, I’d like to see it.
Sure, he has some valid concerns and points; however, I have to lump him in with all the others who basically scare people into switching to different trackers. While, of course profiting from it.
Why? See all the 3rd party javascript, including, yes the Google he rants about. Screenshot #1:
Screenshot #2:
Suggested alternatives for retrieving the video:
# get available formats:
torify youtube-dl --list-formats https://odysee.com/@RobBraxmanTech:6/dump-phone:8
# retrieve one:
torify youtube-dl -f hls-140 https://odysee.com/@RobBraxmanTech:6/dump-phone:8
offtopic, but torify is deprecated in favor of torsocks due some leaks it has
and for that usecase I recommend passing --isolate to torsocks
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Agree with justsomeguy. On your device, without knowledge , root , simple you cant.
Android 12 have in the playservice+google apps more than 500 background process. Some of them start also if you disable the entire app. Then , some service are capable to bypass you personal DNS. To put the hands on those devices is a hell.
Basically those phones do what they want.
Do you want know how the things works for those companies?
Try to read this: https://www.scss.tcd.ie/Doug.Leith/pubs/additional_material_neversleepingears.pdf
The alternative is a product already cleaned and in any case you’ll need some experience to finish the job of protect yourself by those parasites.
Avoid famous brand.
The Volla phone X is technologically old but a good compromise just in case.
torify is deprecated in favor of torsocks
On my GNU/Linux system, and hopefully on most modern ones:
torify is now just a wrapper around torsocks(1) for backwards compatibility.
but the “isolate” option sounds like a good one. Thanks!
Doug Leith article
That article is badly flawed and unfairly biased in favor of one organization, and against another. It was not peer reviewed. It was not published in a journal. The assumptions were not “even” and they ignored data leaked to other 3rd parties. Search Nervuri issues if interested in (edit: part of) what they ignored. Edit: They also ignored what happens when users install apps that require microg, or popular apps such users will likely install.
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Thanks for the advice. I’ll read it soon as possible. https://nervuri.net/ right?
I just fall in the Samsung trap because the pen (Note series) .
In real now I don’t trust any big company, any .
About that article, I can just have some assumption on the Samsung side. Checking the connection and services in background in my phone and tracking the ips I ended to discover it around the web.
Seems that people is totally anesthetized and trapped in their self. This is sad but seems that we bring with us that part of the nature where we want to be guided by someone else than us. Nothing , introspection absent.
Can you link me some more specific articles (or similar) that uncovers those kind of issues?
(ps: one guy - devel - on Xda , told me that google and samsung can bypass the dns setting by their choice if they consider relevant do that. He patched the code but won’t share it publicly because otherwise it will come patched in no time in the next release). Geez , we are a few bunch of people that try to think , the other billion don’t care anything more than the color of the icons…
Sorry for the speculation , are just too many days I try to understand what going on around those arguments and the prospectives are not good , time waisted , energy lost.
Yeah, It doesn’t make sense, why have a cell phone then? 
Truth in advertising, I do too (use a phone without SIM). Some reasons:
- already own it
- prefer smaller screen size
- fits in pockets better than tablet
- how many phone numbers and phone services does one person need?!
- WiFi or Bluetooth or wired or shared/tethered connections are widely available
- can make emergency service calls, in case of emergency
- If librem 5 or pinephone, you can switch off modems.
Unfortunately, “rooted” sometimes means user has super user powers, sometimes means (poor usage IMO) installing a custom ROM. IDK which you mean, but assumed the second. To improve a standard, vendor OS significantly is not feasible IMO, because you will likely disable so much, you break things you want to work.
Edit: This recent post describes a four fold path some have taken: Difficulty for dunce to setup an account to download F-Droid apk - #13 by TheLastProject
Truely if you want privacy try pine phone pro with your linux os and it is far better than the most devices.
For other devices.
Now rooting device gives a better privacy but i don’t recommend that cause most of the time users makes mistakes and that cause major issues and removal of stuffs in which there are some dependencys that sometimes track you and removing stuff can break os.
You follow my older comment was a good start if you can’t switch to pine phone or install graphene or calx os
Volla Phone/X is a literal compromise.
They use a very old BSP afact.
X is using Linux 4.9.190 released August 25th 2019
Non-X is using Linux 4.4.146 released August 6th 2018.
Either that or they are not publishing newer kernels, leaning them towards GPL violation territory.
Yep , do you know a good alternative that offer newer hardware , a decent battery and could use eventually other system than android? (for ubuntu touch maybe this is the best alternative also if is still lagghy and bugghy).
I’m in difficult to choose (suggest) a device that is degoogled and at the same time powerful and “modern”.
The Volla X run from 1/3 to 1/10 of my N20U (and lack in several hardware spec) but have a clean system and big battery.
ubports uses the same kernels on that device and in general doesn’t even support disk encryption 
Edit:
no one in the community can even easily rebase that repo to a newer Linux kernel because it has squashed commit history.
and all the other kernels used by ubports are the same story, extremely outdated kernels fork from Lineage
I’m surprised no one mentions this - UPDATE to the latest Android security release updates - if not, maybe consider getting a Librem phone or Pinephone or other Linux phone. A lot of security updates recently: