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You can use stock Android without a Google account. You can avoid the Google Play Store, disable most google default provided apps, and sideload apps of your ch

You can use stock Android without a Google account. You can avoid the Google Play Store, disable most google default provided apps, and sideload apps of your choosing. You can use a browser (such as Firefox) that the phone vendor has no control over. You can even install an alternate app store. This sounds like what the parent is doing, and it's the best mainstream experience for anybody looking for a privacy and security oriented mobile device (while still actually having control of their own device). With a Pixel phone, you can go further, unlock the bootloader and install a third party OS that does not even include Google services installed at all. Of course, on the other hand, you could sign up for every google service, load all their apps, and consent to all their tracking, in which case you give away everything. Google makes it very easy to do this. But either way, it's at least your choice. Unlike Apple, which thinks it certainly knows best what code should be allowed on your computer and how it should be placed there.

d3nj4l 6y ago
Doesn't GPS on android use Google Play Services for location? In many apps, I'm asked to turn on Google's location services if I have them off. Would that not automatically send data to Google, even if you aren't logged in?
- SahAssar 6y ago
  That's because those apps use google play location services, not because GPS on android in itself requires it. If you download apps from FDroid most won't use or require google play location services.
- Youden 6y ago
  Yes. But depending on how far you're willing to go to get around it, there's a solution: MicroG [0]. It's basically an open-source Google Play Services implementation and it supports a number of different location providers like Apple and Mozilla. There are a bunch of ways to install it but the easiest is probably their LineageOS ROM [1]. [0]: https://microg.org/ https://microg.org/ [1]: https://lineage.microg.org/ https://lineage.microg.org/

d3nj4l 6y ago

Doesn't GPS on android use Google Play Services for location? In many apps, I'm asked to turn on Google's location services if I have them off. Would that not automatically send data to Google, even if you aren't logged in?

SahAssar 6y ago
That's because those apps use google play location services, not because GPS on android in itself requires it. If you download apps from FDroid most won't use or require google play location services.
Youden 6y ago
Yes. But depending on how far you're willing to go to get around it, there's a solution: MicroG [0]. It's basically an open-source Google Play Services implementation and it supports a number of different location providers like Apple and Mozilla. There are a bunch of ways to install it but the easiest is probably their LineageOS ROM [1]. [0]: https://microg.org/ https://microg.org/ [1]: https://lineage.microg.org/ https://lineage.microg.org/