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I just swapped from Android to an iPhone for privacy concerns. The other side of the fence is pretty user hostile as well. Google makes you disable a lot of fun

I just swapped from Android to an iPhone for privacy concerns. The other side of the fence is pretty user hostile as well. Google makes you disable a lot of functionality on the phone if you try to get out of their invasive tracking. And they are constantly nuking apps that I use like Google Play Music and Google Inbox. Maybe check out PinePhone if you're interested in hacking something together!

extremeMath 6y ago
Wait until you download all the same apps and get 0 privacy benefits. The problem is barely Google. The problem are the Apps you download and giving full permissions.
- RealStickman_ 6y ago
  In terms of privacy you should be mostly fine if you stick to F-Droid and use microG instead of Gapps.
selfhoster11 6y ago
You can deactivate pretty much all the Google apps you're not using. I use VLC, Firefox and K-9 Mail instead of the default Google apps and have been doing it for ages. Pretty much doesn't break anything, other than some banking apps that immediately assume you must have Gmail installed, so they direct you to that instead of your default email client. That's not a big deal, you can just open your email client by hand. A small price to pay for giving less space to Google on your phone.
- oneplane 6y ago
  But you can't disable play store and framework(s) without losing a ton of integrated facilities. Probably also why the integrate most ad and tracking stuff in there.
  - Wowfunhappy 6y ago
    > But you can't disable play store and framework(s) without losing a ton of integrated facilities. But can’t those basically be considered part of the operating system at this point? I can’t disable Apple frameworks on my iPhone either. Mind, iOS of course does less user tracking.
    - freeqaz 6y ago
      > But can’t those basically be considered part of the operating system at this point? That's exactly why I switched because the idea that I can't disable Play Services is bonkers. It does look like MicroG (open-source replacement) is maturing a lot recently though! > I can’t disable Apple frameworks on my iPhone either. Mind, iOS of course does less user tracking. Apple makes their money up front by me purchasing the device. That's why they're expensive. They are a hardware company. Whenever you use an iOS feature for the first time, you are prompted with a privacy policy statement that is presented in both a summary and a long form to be read before you click agree. And they have an icon that they show you whenever data will leave your device. With them being the forward about it, I trust it way more. If you don't believe me, go and read this[0] privacy policy on (arguably) the creepiest feature that Apple provides you (Siri). Some quotes from it: > Siri Data is associated with a random, device generated identifier. This random identifier is not linked to your Apple ID, email address, or other data Apple may have from your use of other Apple services. > Siri Data and your requests are not used to build a marketing profile, and are never sold to anyone. That immediately hits me differently from Google's policy (I read it a long while ago now), and it makes me view Apple with enough of a positive light to make the ecosystem jump. 0: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210657 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210657
      - gowld 6y ago
        > Apple makes their money up front by me purchasing the device. That's why they're expensive. Apple also charges 30% of much of your software and content purchases, and the hardest isn't particularly expensive relative to similar competitor hardware.
dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago
For these rasons I use two phones. Apple for banking and communications involving personal data and Android for Gmail, music and ebooks.
- pc86 6y ago
  Which one do you use the calls/texts?
  - dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago
    Iphone for my family, Android for everyone else.
kop316 6y ago
Right now my android phone is GrapheneOS with no Google Play Services/Apps. I download everything via F-Droid. However like you said, there is a lot of functionality disabled. I have a Pinephone and hope that sooner then later that I can use it full time.
pc86 6y ago
I used Play Music and Inbox as well, and also just switched (3-ish months ago?) to an iPhone. The YouTube Music app is not that bad, but definitely missing a feature or three that I used a lot on Play. It also seems to need to be manually started every time my phone connects to Bluetooth whereas Play would start automatically if it was the last thing that was playing on that BT connection.
- keanebean86 6y ago
  Youtube music's biggest drawback is being required to subscribe to listen with the screen off. I was willing to change interfaces since I thought google play music was reasonable. Then my free trial ended. I switched to Spotify and I'm glad I did.
  - freeqaz 6y ago
    I use Spotify for 95% of my listening. Their ability to sync songs that aren't on Spotify though is pretty bad, and that's why I used Play Music. There are just some albums/bands that I want to listen to that aren't easily available without having the raw MP3 somewhere.
Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
>I just swapped from Android to an iPhone for privacy concerns. Understandable, if Apple's claim on Privacy is to be trusted, then it does seem to be a better alternative to android when it comes to privacy; But for a power user android ecosystem offers more without rooting, is not dependent upon 'trust on a company alone' and there's no separate power-user level ecosystem for iOS without jailbreaking. e.g. • AOSP, so there's LineageOS as aftermarket alternative, /e/ with e foundation phone or Fairphone, dozens of other alternatives. • Firewall VPN for android are more refined e.g. Netguard (open-source) even allows selective blocking of connections per address/ per app; this is the closest thing to Little Snitch on macOS. • Tasker allows automation to such an extent that, several things which required writing apps can now be performed by creating tasks. Tasker is Siri shortcuts on steroids without Siri.
danmg 6y ago
I'm considering HarmonyOS for my next phone.
- sudosysgen 6y ago
  What makes you consider HarmonyOS? Just curious.
iknowstuff 6y ago
Fun fact, Google allows end to end encrypted backups, but Apple - due to pressure from the FBI - decided to keep access to your iCloud backups. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-fbi-icloud-exclusive/exclusive-apple-dropped-plan-for-encrypting-backups-after-fbi-complained-sources-idUSKBN1ZK1CT?il=0 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-fbi-icloud-exclusiv... So if you use their cloud services, both Apple and Google have access to your photos, but Apple has access to all of your whatsapp and signal conversations, while Google does not (if you decide to password protect your backups). And you have to use iCloud if you want to keep your 3rd party chat history safe, unless you jailbreak to extract it from the file system. iMessage is of course purposefully flawed to allow for MITM.
- pseudalopex 6y ago
  Signal on iOS blocks even local backups, FYI.
- mafredri 6y ago
  This is not true for Signal, the conversations are safe as they are stored on device only, not in iCloud. https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007059752-Backup-and-Restore-Messages https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007059752-Ba...
tandr 6y ago
Yeah, death of Google Play Music will be remembered, and mentioned in the same saga as Google Reader's demise. I would love to know how many subscribers of Google Music have they lost during this transition to YouTube music. Not that I think Google actually cares, and seeing how big companies BS themselves from inside, they probably sooth themselves with "it is temporary", "we will catch up on features", "they will come back".
- LegitShady 6y ago
  Everyone who paid for Google music for moved over to YouTube music. I don't think they've lost much yet. I hate the YouTube music app but the music and playlists are still there.
  - tandr 6y ago
    Yes, I moved it too. Then cancelled the subscription altogether. I just cannot stand how badly everything sounds on it (everything is so "flat"). With Apple One now being announced, I am investigating if I can move everything there, but keep my Android phone for now.
- vidanay 6y ago
  They lost me (I switched to Spotify), the problem is that now that I have cancelled my YouTube premium, YT is INCREDIBLY PAINFUL with ads.

extremeMath 6y ago

Wait until you download all the same apps and get 0 privacy benefits. The problem is barely Google. The problem are the Apps you download and giving full permissions.

RealStickman_ 6y ago
In terms of privacy you should be mostly fine if you stick to F-Droid and use microG instead of Gapps.

selfhoster11 6y ago

You can deactivate pretty much all the Google apps you're not using. I use VLC, Firefox and K-9 Mail instead of the default Google apps and have been doing it for ages. Pretty much doesn't break anything, other than some banking apps that immediately assume you must have Gmail installed, so they direct you to that instead of your default email client. That's not a big deal, you can just open your email client by hand. A small price to pay for giving less space to Google on your phone.

oneplane 6y ago
But you can't disable play store and framework(s) without losing a ton of integrated facilities. Probably also why the integrate most ad and tracking stuff in there.
- Wowfunhappy 6y ago
  > But you can't disable play store and framework(s) without losing a ton of integrated facilities. But can’t those basically be considered part of the operating system at this point? I can’t disable Apple frameworks on my iPhone either. Mind, iOS of course does less user tracking.
  - freeqaz 6y ago
    > But can’t those basically be considered part of the operating system at this point? That's exactly why I switched because the idea that I can't disable Play Services is bonkers. It does look like MicroG (open-source replacement) is maturing a lot recently though! > I can’t disable Apple frameworks on my iPhone either. Mind, iOS of course does less user tracking. Apple makes their money up front by me purchasing the device. That's why they're expensive. They are a hardware company. Whenever you use an iOS feature for the first time, you are prompted with a privacy policy statement that is presented in both a summary and a long form to be read before you click agree. And they have an icon that they show you whenever data will leave your device. With them being the forward about it, I trust it way more. If you don't believe me, go and read this[0] privacy policy on (arguably) the creepiest feature that Apple provides you (Siri). Some quotes from it: > Siri Data is associated with a random, device generated identifier. This random identifier is not linked to your Apple ID, email address, or other data Apple may have from your use of other Apple services. > Siri Data and your requests are not used to build a marketing profile, and are never sold to anyone. That immediately hits me differently from Google's policy (I read it a long while ago now), and it makes me view Apple with enough of a positive light to make the ecosystem jump. 0: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210657 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210657
    - gowld 6y ago
      > Apple makes their money up front by me purchasing the device. That's why they're expensive. Apple also charges 30% of much of your software and content purchases, and the hardest isn't particularly expensive relative to similar competitor hardware.

dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago

For these rasons I use two phones. Apple for banking and communications involving personal data and Android for Gmail, music and ebooks.

pc86 6y ago
Which one do you use the calls/texts?
- dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago
  Iphone for my family, Android for everyone else.

kop316 6y ago

Right now my android phone is GrapheneOS with no Google Play Services/Apps. I download everything via F-Droid. However like you said, there is a lot of functionality disabled. I have a Pinephone and hope that sooner then later that I can use it full time.

pc86 6y ago

I used Play Music and Inbox as well, and also just switched (3-ish months ago?) to an iPhone. The YouTube Music app is not that bad, but definitely missing a feature or three that I used a lot on Play. It also seems to need to be manually started every time my phone connects to Bluetooth whereas Play would start automatically if it was the last thing that was playing on that BT connection.

keanebean86 6y ago
Youtube music's biggest drawback is being required to subscribe to listen with the screen off. I was willing to change interfaces since I thought google play music was reasonable. Then my free trial ended. I switched to Spotify and I'm glad I did.
- freeqaz 6y ago
  I use Spotify for 95% of my listening. Their ability to sync songs that aren't on Spotify though is pretty bad, and that's why I used Play Music. There are just some albums/bands that I want to listen to that aren't easily available without having the raw MP3 somewhere.

Abishek_Muthian 6y ago

>I just swapped from Android to an iPhone for privacy concerns. Understandable, if Apple's claim on Privacy is to be trusted, then it does seem to be a better alternative to android when it comes to privacy; But for a power user android ecosystem offers more without rooting, is not dependent upon 'trust on a company alone' and there's no separate power-user level ecosystem for iOS without jailbreaking. e.g. • AOSP, so there's LineageOS as aftermarket alternative, /e/ with e foundation phone or Fairphone, dozens of other alternatives. • Firewall VPN for android are more refined e.g. Netguard (open-source) even allows selective blocking of connections per address/ per app; this is the closest thing to Little Snitch on macOS. • Tasker allows automation to such an extent that, several things which required writing apps can now be performed by creating tasks. Tasker is Siri shortcuts on steroids without Siri.

danmg 6y ago

I'm considering HarmonyOS for my next phone.

sudosysgen 6y ago
What makes you consider HarmonyOS? Just curious.

iknowstuff 6y ago

Fun fact, Google allows end to end encrypted backups, but Apple - due to pressure from the FBI - decided to keep access to your iCloud backups. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-fbi-icloud-exclusive/exclusive-apple-dropped-plan-for-encrypting-backups-after-fbi-complained-sources-idUSKBN1ZK1CT?il=0 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-fbi-icloud-exclusiv... So if you use their cloud services, both Apple and Google have access to your photos, but Apple has access to all of your whatsapp and signal conversations, while Google does not (if you decide to password protect your backups). And you have to use iCloud if you want to keep your 3rd party chat history safe, unless you jailbreak to extract it from the file system. iMessage is of course purposefully flawed to allow for MITM.

pseudalopex 6y ago
Signal on iOS blocks even local backups, FYI.
mafredri 6y ago
This is not true for Signal, the conversations are safe as they are stored on device only, not in iCloud. https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007059752-Backup-and-Restore-Messages https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007059752-Ba...

tandr 6y ago

Yeah, death of Google Play Music will be remembered, and mentioned in the same saga as Google Reader's demise. I would love to know how many subscribers of Google Music have they lost during this transition to YouTube music. Not that I think Google actually cares, and seeing how big companies BS themselves from inside, they probably sooth themselves with "it is temporary", "we will catch up on features", "they will come back".

LegitShady 6y ago
Everyone who paid for Google music for moved over to YouTube music. I don't think they've lost much yet. I hate the YouTube music app but the music and playlists are still there.
- tandr 6y ago
  Yes, I moved it too. Then cancelled the subscription altogether. I just cannot stand how badly everything sounds on it (everything is so "flat"). With Apple One now being announced, I am investigating if I can move everything there, but keep my Android phone for now.
vidanay 6y ago
They lost me (I switched to Spotify), the problem is that now that I have cancelled my YouTube premium, YT is INCREDIBLY PAINFUL with ads.