Submitted by KBMNEGA
In my previous post about the future of tech, I discussed my concerns about big tech, and some of the changes we could make as a society to remedy the trends. However, as a developer, I’m in the position of being able to do something about my individual situation right now. Even though it isn’t accessible to everyone yet, someone who isn’t afraid to tinker a bit with their devices can effectively remove their dependence on big-tech platforms right now.
In this post I’d like to discuss what I view as the most important step away from big tech—the phone. We’re going to explore how I replaced all proprietary Google code from my phone using LineageOS, and minimized the interactions with external Google services using microG and an Open Source ecosystem of apps.
Rather than breaking down every step and installation command to “de-Google” your phone, this post provides an overview to explore some of the concepts and explain the many choices you’ll have to make along the way—and the tradeoffs of those choices. Some of the choices I made may not be right for you, but my hope is that this will help demonstrate how all the pieces go together.
The Phone OS
Apple’s iOS
The two main phone operating systems available are iOS by Apple, and Android by Google. Of the two of them, Apple puts a high emphasis on external privacy, but you pretty much have to trust Apple because the code is almost entirely closed source; we don’t know exactly what data is sent from your phone to Apple. And even though Apple seems to be making good choices at the moment, and their business model focuses on selling products, not necessarily information, once your data is sent to Apple’s servers, you no longer have control over it in any concrete way. Any change in leadership, business ethics, or business model means that all bets are off; your data is already available to them to do with as they please. We can’t make decisions completely based on the present—we also need to consider the potential future. Data is Forever™.
Continue reading “Getting off Big Tech: De-Googled Phone”
