I know that stock Android itself is spyware.

What tips about setting up my stock Android phone would you give me? It’s not factory unlocked so I’m sticking with Google Android.

Things I’ve done:

  • Stopped and disabled all apps that I don’t use or need.
  • Replaced all apps that I can with FOSS alternatives from github using Obtainium.
  • Not installed things that I can just check on my laptop like email.

Is there anything else that I can do? Thanks in advance

Edit I’ve also:

  • Changed my DNS to Mullvad DNS
  • Restricted app permissions to only what they need
  • Not signed into the phone. I don’t even have Gmail account.
  • Peffse@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    2 days ago

    So one of the gotchas about stopped/disabled apps is that other apps can still call and launch them. I frequently saw my apps pop back up even after being disabled, since I used SuperFreezZ to monitor them. https://f-droid.org/packages/superfreeze.tool.android/

    The alternative to that would be an ADB disable. IIRC it takes the app away from userspace completely. It doesn’t touch the system-level though, so a factory reset will bring it back.

    If you can’t handle setting up ADB and it’s hoops, there is an app combo that can set up a bridge and run the ADB disable for you: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/io.github.samolego.canta/

    • s38b35M5@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 day ago

      This looks cool, but the dev seems pretty unavailable for updates for the past few years. Does the app still seem pretty solid in spite of that?