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Ask HN: Smartphone for privacy-consious users
I'm having a really hard time figuring out what's the best way to obtain a privacy-friendly smartphone.
1. Android with unlocked bootloader and AOSP + F-Droid apps: this looks like it would work but it's really hard to find up-to date info about what manufacturers/models allow to easily unlock the bootloader, and what are the best alternatives in terms of AOSP distributions, what's the best source of information?
2. iOS: is it possible to run iOS while preventing Apple from gathering personal data? Does the above require jailbreaking? Is jailbreaking still commonplace/viable as of 2018? And even then, does iOS have an equivalent of F-Droid?
3. custom OS, such as the Librem by Purism, however these are either very expensive or yet to be available on the market. Or is there any alternative that I haven't heard of?
4. just use a dumb phone. Has anyone here tried it? How did it work for you?
- RandomGuyDTB 8y agoI actively use a #4 (the Samsung Freeform 5) as my main phone. It supports calling and texting, but that's about it. Works decently for its purpose but you have to remember that you lose the ability to view emojis and read group chats on a dumbphone, plus the web is slower than molasses and you have to send a text if you wanna tweet with it. I don't recommend this and I'm getting supplies to upgrade to an iPhone 4.
- mastazi 8y agoThank you, so it has some form of basic web browser right? That would help if for any reason I need to urgently get online even though I suppose it would be a nightmare if you tried to surf the web for longer periods of time.
- RandomGuyDTB 8y agoIt's a nightmare for any amount of time. The web browser is simply unreliable and I haven't been able to use it at all. I don't recommend this phone for anything other than texting and calling, even the music player sorts by name rather than track number in the album listings.