#Privacy phones, developers and being hardheaded
07-07-2024
#What is a privacy phone you ask?
Simply put, a privacy phone is usually either a hombrewed Android rom, some odd ball company (in some cases, a government agency) that produces a (usually) Android phone that is in
black or maybe PineOS. Semi-privacy phones would also include GrapheneOS (the better) or LineageOS (the lessor). Purism is a good choice, however, it's over priced. Fairfone's can
be considered privacy phones with the right OS (CalyxOS).
I've recently heard about Bittium, but have no experience with it.
Also, looking at an article on techhq.com while I fact check myself, looks like there is one for Mac as well.
Anyway, I use GrapheneOS - for the most part, my experience has been OK.
Privacy phones share a common philosophy with the smolweb/smolnet, that is "no bloat", so consider a privacy phone a google(less) alternative. Ironically, all installs of the
GrapheneOS system occurs on a Pixel of some flavor. Yes, it appears not to make sense, but the Pixel has a some what open architecture since the boot loader can be unlocked via
developer tools - that means it can be rooted.
Modding an Android is nothing new, privacy phone - some promise the moon, others just do what they need to do - anonymize your data and cut out the services you don't need (read
Samsung Push services or having to log into Google/Gmail). So in fairness, a privacy phone limits the data your phone provider can gather. To be fair, a VPN would be a good layer to
add to make sure most of your data is encrypted.
Alot of MMS and data ports for the web occur over http, especially on AT&T, so it's not secure on a stock phone. Also, the apps one installs literally determine one's security posture
on a phone - keep this in mine. If you choose to use GrapheneOS or similar, only install the apps you need, possibly use F-Droid and if you need something from the app store, Aurora
Store is a good option (though that guy is getting some of your data - read the F-Droid section on 'things you may not like').
So yeah, it's a trade off, but if you are using a 'full featured' Samsung phone with all the Google, you are giving them everything about yourself.
Another thing I like about GrapheneOS is that they make it (easier) to find developer tiles and turn off sensors. Why is this important? You and your phone glow like Christmas under
night vision - literally. The IR Sensor on the front of the phone is always on by default and scans your face constantly. If that wasn't bad enough, both digital (cheap stuff from
Amazon) and analog (real Gen 3 tubes) can see this 'beam' from your phone, even in your pocket ...
So yeah, privacy phones are good for stopping both digitial and kinetic threats.
However, for serious blokes, if I had to do it again, I will get one of these :
https://pine64.org/devices/pinephone/
##GrapheneOS
GrapheneOS, by far is the better option for most folks that want to get a cheap privacy phone that is easy(er) to configure.
For the most part, I love GrapheneOS - other times, I want to rage on after an update breaks something. Approaching the GrapheneOS community is a mixed bag if you run into an issue
some days you get a good person (from what I read) or you get a RTFM type (like I did). Me, I'm hardheaded because I did what good IT people do, I tried evverything I could think of
before I approached the developers. I read XDA Developer forums, Google Android Forums, their forums - any help pages - I went the mile. Rebooted, changed cables, changed chargers
everything. Well, when I did post over there, I was told my phone was too old (even though it's in extended support) and that I was doing something wrong (ok, I admit, I do alot of
things wrong). Neither myself or the developer I spoke to handled it well - so I unloaded. When you come from a community where most things work, and folks are using vintage
computers (made south of somewhere of 2020 by two decades atleast) to create networks, you tend to get a little touchy when a community outside of your own says you are doing it wrong.
The problem is most Pixels have issues, hell most Androids have issues - the main issue that one finds is the debris/moisture issue. I've been in controlled NOCs where the average
humidity is in the low 60's and the temps are almost too cool not to wear a jacket. Even in this literally pristine for computers environment (with air filtering), an Android phone
can give this "USB shutdown, debris detected" or the really odd one (if you are in a controlled environment) "Moisture detected, USB inactive".
Why the hell someone hasn't published what package causes this issue so we can side load it out of there, I don't know.
While GrapheneOS is privacy focused - they don't like you messing with the OS once it's installed. I get it, if you understand basic Security baselines and that most code is just a
glorified Jenga puzzle - pulling out an APK may not be advisable.
However for everyone out there - here is a protip - I bought the phone. If I own the phone, went the mile to get a privacy OS, then I want to disable stuff beyond what the baseline
provides. The damn moisture / debris alarm would be one of them - why they included that part of the Android code, who knows (techinally - I understand why this done - I just wish we
could opt out of that alarm); Graphene does make it easy(er) to disable the sensors.
#Being hard headed
I was in the infantry as a kid (read that correctly, I wasn't even legally an adult when I joined (not deployed), with a combat unit. I signed at 16 years of age to go in, I graduated
highschool early and did just that ... went to boot camp. My unit was deployed to Iraq at the time, so I got to do alot of stuff that I did not want to do at 17 - busy body stuff.
Still they got back and somewhere in there, I turned 18 one summer. To cap it off, I went to one of the Military colleges (I don't know, because I hate myself, who knows) - so I've
got some habits from all of that ...
Plus I fought alot, both in the marital arts and being a dork.
My filter is literally zero in some cases, but as sweet as Southern Charm in others.
I like my crap to work, and having been raised on a Tandy ( I still have my first programming book from when I was 8-10 years old: Computer Monsters) - I also know this world as well.
So with as much rigor that this meathead nerd could muster, when both my phones broke after their respective updates in one week (both models were different, but both were pixels), I
went out to figure out why. I tested outlets, chargers, looked at code (AND FORGET ABOUT ASKING ANYONE FOR THAT ADB COMMANDS OR WHAT PACKAGE IT IS - IT'S LIKE THE HOLY GRAIL OF
ANDROID) - checked settigns, looked at cables, rebooted, rebooted the reboot, then rebooted the reboot agian. After trying every cable under the sun, I realized most folks had this
issue with Pixels (if you ask GrapheneOS, they hadn't heard of the issue - but their forum is full of the 'not charging' issue) - while it's not specific to Graphene, it is an issue.
I have no idea where Graphene pulls it's CVE fixes, or if it just monitors Google's upstream for security patches to the Android OS and then applies it to GrapheneOS - I really don't
know how they do this. I'm glad they do. I'm grateful to Graphene. I've sent them my love in the past.
However if both phones go down in one week with the same issue - yeah, it could be me or something I'm doing - but you know I'm going to suspect its the OS update. This past week, a
Windows update killed my buddies computer, and with the magic of wmic - I got him up and running with the GUI failed to do so. So updates were on my mind.
When I landed on the GrapheneOS forum with my issue - I thought I was ready, I had done the work - hell, I could have been posting on the FreeBSD forum and deflecting 'RTFM's'
like a champ. After my initial post, I thought I had covered all the bases. When the first dev snark arrived, I swatted it down with vigor. I had read the guys posts before, he's
pretty well known on that forum for being the initial wetblanket most GrapheneOS users encounter. I doubled down on my swat with a follow up. Well, when the admin came in with a ban
hammer (with just a bit of knowledge that I had donated to the project in the past), I cooled my approach - he gave me just one chance to stay on course, or leave. (Fair, not my
community, not my monkeys).
Meathead, remember?
Maybe I *was* wrong - stated, the developers didn't think it was the update and I wasn't sure about their assessment - but I know the first thing to do in any tech situation is to
baseline. I bought another phone (that wasn't made way back in 2020) and am in process of taking my other two phones to the doctor to get new ports and batteries. I even pledged a
bug bounty if these actions didn't resolve my issue. Because, that's what you do - you don't tell people giving you a free product (with updates) to 'fix it'. You offer an incentive
that benifits you, the developers and the community as a whole. You only have the right to complain in two ways - either by doing the work or paying up; there is no middle ground.
Submit patches or submit bucks - period.
Regardless, I know that figuring out a logging process will also help find the issue (and if it IS me or something I did, I'll own it.)
### In closing out this rant after trying to make SDF's PICO editor work with Gemini's formatting (ugh line breaks)
So I have a list of things I'm going to do to baseline the issue and the GrapheneOS devs are basically saying it 'is' a hardware issue, charger, cable or phone - it could be. After
assuring them I had not touched the abd shell on my phones, I let the know I'd check out the hardware first. If it's not, I still pay. I promised to issue a bug bounty
after I opened my big mouth, so really, I do hope that my phone doctor 'does' fix this issue when he replaces the ports/batteries...
So would I recommend GraphenOS? Despite their issues of late with the Pod Father, I would still recommend them for most people - my own mother uses GrapheneOS (not a joke). I do know
they are overworked and I really don't know how they get paid other than donations; so I AM grateful to the developers there. While I don't agree with their belief that no one should
touch the shell after GrapheneOS is installed (I've literally seen this behaviro in older HAMs before when I tried to mod my radio chips), I get it - in both cases.
Yes GrapheneOS is awesome, their developers are OK (no ... they are excellent) and their solution meets a need that really must be met - in some ways they are kindred spirits (or like
relatives that come over for the holidays ...)
