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.
  • crankyrebel@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    1·
    9 months ago

    I assume you are using F-droid app manager, and also added IzzyonDroid repo to it? There you can get a lot of apps, like firewalls to block apps that call home when you don’t really use them. Replace most of your apps with open source alternatives from F-droid. Get an email hosting alternative that isn’t one of the big (spy, data mining) companies. Use decentralized privacy focused social media options. What type of phone manufacturer do you use and is it unlocked? You could use an android privacy rom like CalyxOS, that is what I use, completely de-googled, uses MicroG instead of Google Play services. A VPN would be my last option to add, especially when connecting to outside wifi.

  • spinning_disk_engineer@lemmy.caEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    To the extent that you still need to use standard apps, consider disabling your advertising ID. EFF has a guide to this at https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/05/how-disable-ad-id-tracking-ios-and-android-and-why-you-should-do-it-now

    This won’t stop google of course. You should probably also install a firewall, like other people here have suggested. And keep in mind, disabling features entirely is different from not using them. For example, if location services is turned off, then even google maps doesn’t know your location (in theory anyway), whereas if it is merely unused then google will still check periodically.