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.
What choice do I have? Not using a phone? Not being able to message my relatives when not bringing a laptop to school?
After I unlocked the bootloader and flashed custom software, the privacy invasive OS from Xiaomi is gone, unless they embedded a spyware into the bootloader, which any other company could also do.
But I do use Linux on my laptop and try to avoid useless and privacy invasive smart home devices (which is all smart home devices).
Don’t worry. When I will be able to afford it, I will switch to a GrapheneOS phone.