Rooting the phone is a security risk, yes, but the biggest risks are ignorant users ( I am not tech savvy, blah, blah), false assumptions what security and/or privacy is, false assumptions what an OS variant prioritises, the general bloat of OSes and apps these days and app stores that sperad a non-existing feeling of security.
What rooting really means today, is owning your device again.
Every desktop and server OS is ‘rooted’ by default.
What happens on Android and iOS is trying to barricade the user and its apps from doing anything malicious or even only stupid. A futile and dangerous attempt to create scissors which can’t be used in a harmful way.
Sensor blocking can be unabled into every Android in Developers Options, Quick settings developer tiles, Sensors Off. In fact, I’m using every day. You lose things like adaptative brightness, LiveDisplay and so on but I don’t care.
It’s a global change. But as I said before, can be achieved with other tools like XPL-EX.
As for security, sure. That significantly reduces the Android model where you are a mere user, unlike GNU/Linux distributions where you are an admin.
“Privacy people” like privacyguides advocates love to say “there is no privacy without security”
Avoid Fairphone at all cost until they proove a Customer Service, otherwise you might be buying an expensive paperweight. Look at the reviews in Trustpilot.
Buying a google pixel would be a terrible idea when you aim to degoogle… eho knows what they are adding to their hardware/firmware to enable tracking and bypass privacy or to make it impossible to de-google some parts.
Installing grapheneOS on a Fairphone would be a much better idea.
This is completely wrong. GrapheneOS cannot be installed on a Fairphone at all (try if you think you can), and a Pixel with GrapheneOS is the most private combo available to us today.
I did not realise that GrapheneOS was essentially tied to Google pixel… that’s bizarre! I am finding it odd to see so many Pixel users posting on the FP forum… perhaps very few FP users even considered a Pixel since it is the antithesis of F ethos.
Fairphone has the unique benefits of using recycled and fairly traded materials plus less CO2 emissions - and this is throughout the supply chain, rather than maximum exploitation of mining for material and economic and social exploitation - including human rights abuses - in the supply chain, which especially affects the developmental world eg DRC.
Fairphone has the best buys consistently for
Having said that, the official /e/OS isn’t as good as the community /e/OS, there is a little bloat in places (reduced in current Android versions) and security patches are much later.
I thought there might be an alternative by now re: cell phone tower tracking… I presume tracking when using the Internet is the main issue since there are various voip options that wouldn’t need audio calls, and possibly dual SIM options. 2FA doesn’t need SMS btw - due to accessibility issues alternatives are on offer even when companies pretend otherwise. Various services will do it for you too. Using Internet via wifi or hot spots is an option but unsure if that means no cell tower tracking.
This is a smart ‘cell’ phone. If you have a SIM card and use it, your provider can track you to some extend, since it is not very accurate and should only be available to your provider.
If you use Wifi, Google has almost all Wifis located. This is often more accurate than cell tower triangulation and might be available to apps on your phone.
Therefore, when you are online, your location is available to some parties.
There isn’t any cell phone tower tracking at home because there isn’t a signal… wifi is not necessarily tracked in a meaningful way in some environments such as using wifi with a very very large number of people on it eg large business.
The post was about FP vs Pixel but the focus seems to be on tracking and only tracking… why not engage with the benefits of FPs, which is presumably why the OP is posting on the FP forum. Seems like more Pixel users are replying than FP users.
More pluses with FP
much longer warranty
the price being so much lower compared to equivalent Pixels, although its even less if you get open box or used ones,
FP6 has military grade certification for hardware
availability of community builds means you are very likely to get well over 7 years of updates (grapheneOS sounds like a max of 7 years, and honestly that’s the time I stuck with the previous iPhone)
choice of de-googled OS
The only other handset I considered was a Nothing one.
did you get the reg FP6, the official /e/OS build or do your own install, which is going to get you a far better experience. I wish I had gone for community /e/OS rather than official but improved builds for Android 15 brought important improvements all the same.
FP5 /e/OS official privacy and anti-tracking options, I particularly like that you can choose which trackers to deny or allow per app, so things like gaming apps still let you earn rewards for watching ads, and microG allows many more apps to run which usually depend on google play store or google play billing.
I last used a google Android way back at Android 5 so some of these might be in stock Android.
Regular Fairphone 6, with their official Android (not /e/OS). I needed this because I have a bunch of banking apps that are crucial, and /e/OS is problematic with those.
Right off the bat even with the official Android one banking app installed fine but refused all transactions until I phoned the bank and explicitly authorized my new device, which has never been the case before or since with them.
Then I set the yellow button to the flashlight and found the flashlight starting and stopping randomly unless I used the button when the phone was unlocked.
Then I took a bunch of screenshots by accidentally pressing the volume buttons together with the on-off button. I know they’ve “fixed” this in a newer release by allowing users to disable that combination for screenshots, but the placement of the volume buttons remains one of the poorest design choices for anything I’ve seen in a few years.
The quality of the mic and speakers is abysmal.
I had frequent screen refresh rate stutters.
Setting up the phone to charge slowly had no effect for months - it still got hot and charged quickly.
The official severely overpriced phone case makes thumb access to the on/off button (which is also the fingerprint sensor) very difficult and requires re-registering the fingerprint if it had previously been registered without the case in order to work reasonably well.
But the biggest problem was that the phone just died with no warning and no provocation while I was out, which made me unable to call emergency services when one of our group had a sudden health crisis. I draw the line at that and for that I will forever recommend against Fairphone to all who will listen.
I’ve had a Fairphone 3 before that I liked, I gave it away to someone else and got a Fairphone 4 that I never really liked and I was often told that the sound wasn’t heard well in calls, I still have it intact unused in the closet and at the moment I’m using a Pixel phone with GrapheneOS installed and I’m happy with it.
You did not mention the other contender to Fairphone - the Samsung Xcover… I had to buy one as Fairphone ignored my service tickets and I had a Fairphone 4 with a duff new battery. I thought the mighty Samsung might have been the best route to easy service support. Hey, when I called the helpline they did not even identify their new model 7! I had to wait for hours trying to convince them that it existed. NOBODY on Samsung supplier list could suggest where to get a spare battery! I now have support tickets to Fairphone (month un-answered) and support tickets to Samsung coming back with inane A1 suggestions of no help whatsoever.
My suggestion is to get the cheapest throw away phone and forget the ethical claptrap.
