I currently use an iPhone, but given the recent attacks made by the US president and members of his administration on my country (tariffs, annexation threats,etc) I am loathe to support any company based out of that nation any longer. Obviously I know that it is likely impossible to get a functional mobile experience with zero US corporate involvement, but what is the least possible I could do and still be practical? A degoogled fair phone device? Something Chinese running a custom rom like lineage os?
I want to sell my iPhone and Apple Watch ASAP and get something that won’t have my sending money to the US via my app purchases (store cut), monthly services (iCloud), and my data being used/sold.
Thanks!
Devices
- Fairphone 5 (Netherlands)
- OS: LineageOS, CalyxOS
- Or buy it new from iode (France), they also sell other phones as well
- Shiftphone 8 (Germany)
- Is the only Android phone with hardware kill switches (for mic and camera)
- Working on CalyxOS and LineageOS support
For OS comparission
I would add the Mudita Kompakt to the list. It’s from Poland and runs on a de-googled AOSP. With a 4,3 inch e-ink screen it is a niche phone though.
I have the Fairphone form iode with their OS on it. Best phone I had so far and the System ist pretty much set up the way I like it out if the box.
For OS comparission
It’s worth noting that graphene doesn’t have automatic calls recording, and the Devs have been weirdly aggressive about deleting and banning people that ask for it.
Graphene OS just has weirdly aggressive devs.
I guess it’s very “on brand” for the devs of a privacy project to be extremely paranoid.
isn’t it more security focused than privacy?
I use GrapheneOS and have reviewed a lot of the documentation in the OS and built in apps. They like to pair the words privacy and security together in that documentation. The info sheet for the chromium degoogled browser they developed called Vanadium is very focused on both aspects. I personally think the two concepts go hand in hand.
Its also the first time I’ve used a non-firefox type of browser in almost a decade. It feels weird, but they are good at describing why it’s more secure in GrapheneOS due to its superior ability to maintain app sandboxes, which is a big reason I use the OS. Full control over what apps can see on my device.
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I have a Fairphone 5 and am very satisfied with it. Would definitely recommend
- Fairphone 5 (Netherlands)
Can we be real for a minute?
The kind of companies involved in android may have started in the US, but they’re international.
Buy a Samsung, it isn’t like it only puts taxes into one country’s coffers. Same with Google, which is headquartered in the US, but their phones aren’t actually made here. So you skip pixel devices, and feel all good about it, but if you actually get enough people boycotting them, it isn’t the us that takes the hit. It won’t even hit the pockets of the shareholders.
Who would take the hit is the people at the bottom, making the hardware, and that’s going to be whatever country has people willing/forced to work for bare minimum.
Some things, yeah, you can completely boycott and only US companies take the hit, which still isn’t really going to hit a big enough company because most of them are an international conglomerate’s property anyway. It might fuck over something like Arizona Iced Tea since that’s still a family owned company. But anything that’s publicly traded? Nah, it’s theater unless you boycott everything that conglomerate owns, and it ain’t like any of the nestle botcotts have hurt their bottom line in the decade or so it’s been going.
Phones though? There’s nothing you can buy that isn’t going to enrich Google in one way or another, at least indirectly. You can get close. Pine phones, fairphone, stuff like that where you have the ability to cut them out. But even going with a pixel and cutting google out from out still has feedback effect into Google’s influence via the secondary market keeping their brand with higher values, making their hardware look better than it is.
I get it, the shit is stirring, and you want to slap back.
But the only real way to slap back for real is to abandon smart phones. Some of those, android free, you can cut things down and maybe avoid sending funds into us coffers. LG dumb phones still exist on the secondary market, and they were decent. So I don’t doubt there’s other brands out there making phones that are decoupled enough that it might only be pennies instead of dollars.
