As my FP3 died after about 2.5 years (in a similar way as described by several threads, eg. here), I gained hope that the newer generations must be better, as Fairphone is able to offer them with 5 years warranty. So I ordered a FP5.
It arrived, it looks good, I am looking forward to put it to use. But, I am not gonna use it with a google account.
Having used LineageOS and IodéOS on previous devices, I did some research which custom rom would be a good choice for the new FP5. Especially some threads in this forum (e.g. here, here and here) and kukets’ blog are great resources for this.
So far there is only /e/os available, while calyx, iodé, lineage or divestos are work in progress, while grapheneos is unlikely to support FP5. Hence it would be interesting, what privacy enhancements could possibly be implemented on FP5 stock android by medium experienced users that can follow guidelines and use the command line, but cannot develop the tools themselves.
The research helped me to understand that even the privacy focused custom roms are not completely free of connecting to and relying on the google universe. In the end it comes down to how much convenience you are willing to give up for how much security and / or privacy improvement and at which effort.
Since 80% is usually better than striving for perfection, I was wondering how far we can get on stock rom de-googling and if there are any good resources to follow.
Some aspects that come to my mind (for which it would be great to know if they are possible and in the best case create a list of guidelines that could help achieving them):
- removing unwanted (google) apps via adb (eg. app store / google play services)
- disabling or setting custom servers / settings for DNS, SUPL, NTP, connectivity check (captive portal), etc…
- enabling tracking protection / control app web access
- if wanted: installing microG, magisk
- … (what else should be added here?)
If a satisfactory degree of privacy can be achieved on stock rom, it would have the benefit that some features, that are much better supported there than in the various custom roms, will remain available (mostly thinking of full camera functionality support, see also here)