Most people resign themselves. “I'm being spied on anyway.” Wrong. With the right operating system and a careful selection of your everyday apps, you can regain a good deal of privacy.
Discussion
I'm thinking about a setup like this:
Two mobile phones.
One of them, my current phone, the "official" one, the one where I'm a "part of the system": Google maps, Google photos, Gmail, my fiat bank app, etc. You know, free tools, convenience.
But nothing freedom or Bitcoin related or Monero related on that phone.
No Bitcoin newsletters in Gmail.
No wallet apps.
Another phone, get a brand new low end device, this would be my "privacy phone".
Android with play services as usual, but create a new Google account, never log in to my real/old Google account from this phone, always use VPN to hide what I'm doing from my ISP, and on this phone, have my Bitcoin wallet apps, Cake wallet, Nostr apps, etc.
With this, I think I will get the user friendlies of the standard Android, no need to deal with Graphene. Yes, Google will track me, but they will not know it is me, because I will be using a fresh new Google account.
Does it sound like a viable plan?
It is always a trade off... I'm not going for perfection on privacy front. I'm looking for a good balance.
Viable plan. I've been doing just that since 2020.
But even on my "harmonised" phone, I don't install anything I don't need.
This!
Mass surveillance is big business, a rickety jenja tower of cheap hardware, buggy software, midwit automation and human insecurities.
Mess with their workflows even a little, and you will turn into a puff of missing values scattered across their database.
Unless you're Snowden. That guy will have his own specialised team stalking him even after he dies.