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Iโ€™ll ask my question from yesterday here, it might get more traction:
This is maybe a stupid question but for folks using GrapheneOS to avoid the likes of Apple and Google, what do they use for cellular service? It would seem to me that youโ€™re still eligible to lose some privacy by using a cellular provider?
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Some just use their normal provider since it's inevitable, some will choose to pay for an eSIM with a foreign number / cellular data plan with a service like silent.link (Paid with Bitcoin) which would be more private but still held to the constraints the cellular network has as a whole.
In some cases GrapheneOS users don't use the mobile network at all (No SIM + Airplane mode always on) to avoid dealing with it, but it's really up to your preferences in how much you think cellular service privacy is a risk.
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Thanks for this response. This is helpful. I guess for me, if this were to replace my every day phone, I would need some kind of cellular service. Otherwise, how do you expect to use the device out and about, outside of your home network?
@siggy47 any insight here?
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Some people use a portable cellular network router which they can turn on-off when they need it. Some router firmware have also been hacked to change Cellular network identifiers like IMEI, but they would involve you buying multiple data SIMs and switching them every time to switch the other identifiers like IMSI: https://github.com/srlabs/blue-merle
Public WiFi does exist, you could in practice use Public WiFi with Per-connection randomised MAC address and an OS-wide VPN so the Public WiFi network wouldn't see what you're doing. If for some reason you need to hide you are using GrapheneOS then select the captive portal to use Google's server or no server (you would need to find an HTTP-only website of choice to captive you).
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Awesome, thank you for providing all this useful information!
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I was about to say ask @final, but he's already on it!
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Tried to upgrade to Graphene recently (early summer), but my pixel 4a had a problem with fast battery drain in the background. Don't know if this problem is fixed in newer versions, but I had to go back to stock firmware.
I might try it again a little later. It's worth noting.
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I never thought I had to buy a Google phone to degoggle it ๐Ÿ˜ƒ
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Think about it for a moment: You're a company trying to collect as much data as you can, make as much money as you can, and then sell a Google phone to people who want to get away from Big Data. Very clever in my opinion, you earn money as a company in any case ๐Ÿ˜‚
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Google is ๐Ÿ’ฉ we all know ...
but they made an extremely secure phone (hardware), props to them!
That's why GrapheneOS only supports Google Pixels.
If you combine both a secure hardware (Google Pixel), with a secure software (Graphene OS), you get a perfect phone, specially if are you are a Bitcoiner.
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