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 the 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 canbe 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 theGrapheneOS 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 viadeveloper 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.
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 postureon 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 theF-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 evvery thing 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 cab les, 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 net works, 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 jack et. Even in this literally pristine environment (with
air filtering, AC and moisture control), 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. I guess turn on dev tool's logging to
find out what package/process is loading at the time.
While GrapheneOS is privacy focused - they don't like you messing with the OS on
ce 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 without further hacking the phone); Graphene does make it easy(er) to
disable the sensors. That part was amazing to realize.
#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. (More on that in a laster post).
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 PULL
OR WHAT PACKAGE IT IS - IT'S LIKETHE HOLY GRAIL OF ANDROID) - checked settings,
looked at cables, rebooted, rebooted the reboot, then rebooted the reboot again.
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,
bug fixes, patches, or if it just monitors Google's upstream for security
/ bug 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, this was the first time I ever had an issue.
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
pa st), 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 c heck 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 behavior 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 ...)
