this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2021
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Privacy

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Privacy phone options (lemmy.ml)
submitted 3 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Hi I am wondering if using a brick phone/flip phone vs an android with grapheneOS/calyxOS is better for specifically being tracked by companies?

Purely on the fact that there is so little attack surface or any apps that can be used to track you and your location on a flip phone but there is the drawback of not having encrypted messaging. which is better and why?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 children)

USA centric info below:

A lot of the flip/dumb phones that are newer/would support things like Voice Over LTE (VoLTE) are either KaiOS or Nokia's Series 30 (or a variant of that).

KaiOS isnt that "dumb" and has got some funds/interest from Google, and has apps like WhatsApp - https://www.kaiostech.com

The Nokia devices that don't have KaiOS are like the 225, they come with Facebook preinstalled though I am not sure if it's an app or a web wrapper/link - https://www.nokia.com/phones/en_us/nokia-225-4g

If you're looking for pure tracker protection things like this could work (since you're not doing anything but calls and maybe SMS) but as you point out there is a productivity trade off - how far you are willing to go depends on your threat model and what you can live with.

GrapheneOS is more secure but is not always as private, there have been multiple discussions over the difference and the GrapheneOS website still calls some of these out if I recall. It is better in the fact that there is no Google, but the point isnt to be as private as possible but rather be secure (which comes with some privacy by default).

I don't have a good answer for you, but hope some that info helps.

Edit: forgot to add, but you could try out Linux devices like the PinePhone or Librem 5 - if you like to tinker and get involved they're good options, but some people don't find then usable depending on what you've come to expect from a mobile phone (the software is still being developed, it's moving fast but will have hiccups compared to other devices). Worth a look though if any of that sounds interesting!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago (1 children)

i had a flip phone w kaiOS , the biggest benefit for me was not being able to get on instagram. it felt just as bugged as any other ive had. also chris weres video on the nokia feature phones shuts them down pretty hard - not the model you linked too, but i imagine similar design philosophies

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago (1 children)

I wish the USA carriers weren't restricting devices that don't have VoLTE, there were some better older options that wont be feasible going forward (next year or so).

Thanks for the name/recommendation, hadn't heard of his video but will check out. I used KaiOS on a fliphone for a bit, but didnt like how I couldnt change the Google based shortcuts to other things (could have been model specific, not sure if it's that way on others).