Hi,
I heard that Android devices already spy on you via the firmware, no matter what OS you install. There are “indie” phones that avoid this, such as the Librem 5 or PinePhone. They even have hardware switches for turning off some components.
How does the Fairphone fare in this regard? It uses some Android component, I assume?
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Hm, I don’t know anything about it. First time I heard this, to be honest. Do you have any article/source to back these statements?
At least this PDF (didn’t check the video yet) doesn’t mention anything on firmware- or hardware-level spying. It’s inherent to the Android OS and how Google contributed to it. There are alternative operating systems like /e/ or LineageOS that try to remove such Google-specific implementations hoping to improve privacy.
I don’t know exactly about FP2 but for FP3(+) there’s /e/ officially available to be installed, thereby replacing the Google-dependent Android that’s pre-installed on the phone.
For FP2, I think, there used to be some alternative as well… So basically you’re free to change the operating system if you dislike Google’s practices.
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You are right, it is on the OS level. (But so far down that I don’t figure most roms bother to change it.)
I suppose what I am asking is whether there are similar mechanisms that just happen on the hardware/firmware level. Because if the location reporting happens there, there’s not much of a point to changing to a google-free. Then it’s impossible to have such a device that doesn’t spy on you.
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