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This is a tangent, but I've always wondered... is it silly of me to be hesitant to use Android for the fact that Google owns it? I'd trust a jailbroken iPhone

This is a tangent, but I've always wondered... is it silly of me to be hesitant to use Android for the fact that Google owns it? I'd trust a jailbroken iPhone to do my bidding (and not be sneaky) more than an Android phone, but perhaps I'm being a bit crazy. Still, it's hard to shake the feeling of an all-seeing eye watching everything I do when I use Android. I installed it in VirtualBox and there were at least five different options I had to turn off just to ask it to please not transmit my data to Google's servers: Auto-backup, location info, usage statistics, crash reports, and a couple others I'm forgetting right now. Google has a vested interest in knowing as much about you as possible. Apple may have the same interest -- like I said, I'd trust a jailbroken iPhone rather than a vanilla one -- but they make their money by selling you hardware and apps.

dingaling 13y ago
If you're wary of Google, just don't create an account on the phone. I've recently de-Googled a number of Android phones, and the cleaned-up experience is wonderful. Long battery life and plenty of apps from F-Droid or Amazon. Browser-sync is nicely handled by Firefox Sync, which you can self-host. Ideally it'll be a rooted phone and you can also delete all the com.google.*.apk files, too, so none of their apps run in the background ( uselessly spinning and burning CPU cycles in case you suddenly decide to create an account ).
- sillysaurus2 13y ago
  Awesome! Are there any resources I could read to learn how to de-Google an Android phone? Thank you so much!
  - dingaling 13y ago
    It's fairly straight-foward on the lastest versions of Android that allow you to freeze apps, rather than having to root and rename the apks. Here's a list of the apps that are safe to remove, noting the Google ones: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2299805 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2299805 If the phone has a Google account already configured, lock-out the phone by changing the account password on a PC. If its rooted, delete the accounts.db file. Apps that I usually then install for the user: - Osmand to replace Google Maps - F-Droid and sometimes Amazon App Store - K9 Mail ( you can even point this to G-Mail quite safely! ) - Firefox in place of the stock browser
  - yapcguy 13y ago
    Once your phone is rooted, use Titanium Backup (there may be similar apps on F-Droid for free) to uninstall the Google apps and services you don't need.

dingaling 13y ago

If you're wary of Google, just don't create an account on the phone. I've recently de-Googled a number of Android phones, and the cleaned-up experience is wonderful. Long battery life and plenty of apps from F-Droid or Amazon. Browser-sync is nicely handled by Firefox Sync, which you can self-host. Ideally it'll be a rooted phone and you can also delete all the com.google.*.apk files, too, so none of their apps run in the background ( uselessly spinning and burning CPU cycles in case you suddenly decide to create an account ).

sillysaurus2 13y ago
Awesome! Are there any resources I could read to learn how to de-Google an Android phone? Thank you so much!
- dingaling 13y ago
  It's fairly straight-foward on the lastest versions of Android that allow you to freeze apps, rather than having to root and rename the apks. Here's a list of the apps that are safe to remove, noting the Google ones: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2299805 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2299805 If the phone has a Google account already configured, lock-out the phone by changing the account password on a PC. If its rooted, delete the accounts.db file. Apps that I usually then install for the user: - Osmand to replace Google Maps - F-Droid and sometimes Amazon App Store - K9 Mail ( you can even point this to G-Mail quite safely! ) - Firefox in place of the stock browser
- yapcguy 13y ago
  Once your phone is rooted, use Titanium Backup (there may be similar apps on F-Droid for free) to uninstall the Google apps and services you don't need.