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It is entirely irrelevant because cell phone companies add “analytics” (spyware) as part of their firmware stack… which Google and anyone else cannot block. Us

It is entirely irrelevant because cell phone companies add “analytics” (spyware) as part of their firmware stack… which Google and anyone else cannot block. Use no cell towers or agree to be tracked. Lol.

muppetman 3y ago
There's a BIG difference between "My mobile carrier, who knows how much I spend with them on a monthly basis and my home address, probably date of birth and other customer details, also happens to know where I physically am" and "This piece of malware on my phone is intercepting every message I send"
eru 3y ago
> It is entirely irrelevant because cell phone companies add “analytics” (spyware) as part of their firmware stack… which Google and anyone else cannot block. Who is that third party cell phone company adding spyware when I buy my Pixel phone from Google? (Of course, Google can add spyware themselves; but they can also block it.)
mszcz 3y ago
If you buy your phone from a carrier. If you buy directly from a vendor I don't see how they (carriers) would be able to inject it. Radio firmware however is, as I understand it, a completely different thing...
- acka 3y ago
  Radio firmware has been a misnomer for a very long time, because the so-called baseband processor it runs on has access to and can control much more than just the radio. As far as I know, radio firmware on current phone SoCs has full, unlimited read/write access to all of the available RAM and can preempt and modify any process running on the application processor, so any indications regarding authenticity of any software running on the application processor - as provided by software running on that same processor - are effectively moot. TL;DR: He who controls the radio (firmware) pwns your phone.
  - tiberious726 3y ago
    That's not true anymore, at least not for all phones: https://grapheneos.org/faq#baseband-isolation https://grapheneos.org/faq#baseband-isolation

muppetman 3y ago

There's a BIG difference between "My mobile carrier, who knows how much I spend with them on a monthly basis and my home address, probably date of birth and other customer details, also happens to know where I physically am" and "This piece of malware on my phone is intercepting every message I send"

eru 3y ago

> It is entirely irrelevant because cell phone companies add “analytics” (spyware) as part of their firmware stack… which Google and anyone else cannot block. Who is that third party cell phone company adding spyware when I buy my Pixel phone from Google? (Of course, Google can add spyware themselves; but they can also block it.)

mszcz 3y ago

If you buy your phone from a carrier. If you buy directly from a vendor I don't see how they (carriers) would be able to inject it. Radio firmware however is, as I understand it, a completely different thing...

acka 3y ago
Radio firmware has been a misnomer for a very long time, because the so-called baseband processor it runs on has access to and can control much more than just the radio. As far as I know, radio firmware on current phone SoCs has full, unlimited read/write access to all of the available RAM and can preempt and modify any process running on the application processor, so any indications regarding authenticity of any software running on the application processor - as provided by software running on that same processor - are effectively moot. TL;DR: He who controls the radio (firmware) pwns your phone.
- tiberious726 3y ago
  That's not true anymore, at least not for all phones: https://grapheneos.org/faq#baseband-isolation https://grapheneos.org/faq#baseband-isolation