I want to know if it’s reasonable to expect a degree of privacy with stock android.
Trinity College in Dublin has done a few studies in this area over the years. Here’s a Forbes article about them (apologies in advance if it is paywalled).
Switching to open source, privacy-respecting apps is the most important part of obtaining privacy on Android and it sounds like you’ve done that. Whether you need to have the absolute highest level of protection against Google is really something only you can determine. For me, “stock” Android with as many FOSS replacements as possible is good enough.
Whether you need to have the absolute highest level of protection against Google is really something only you can determine.
Yes that’s what I’m trying to determine lol but I haven’t been able to know what it is Google has the power to do with stock android.
Thank you for the link to the article!
Google play service have unstoable access to everything on they have like root rights + vendors spyware like on miui there are dozens of bad system apps
Understood (I think) so just to be clear, Google could be collecting:
- All signal Messages
- Device Location at all times
- Anything displayed on the screen
- Audio around device (microphone) at all times
- All files on the device
Is it accurate to say they have the power to do that with stock Android?
Not so sure about the signal messages if they’re stored properly encrypted by the app. But yeah, technically they could probably take screenshots. You could do a MiTM with a https proxy and look at wireshark to see what it sends.
You could do a MiTM with a https proxy and look at wireshark to see what it sends.
Surely a professional must have looked into this by now?
Also I don’t see how Google wouldn’t be able to read Signal messages if they have full unstoppable access to everything? If the user can read it, surely Google can too?
What are your “other precautions”?
Let’s say the user is taking no other precautions. What information is being shared to Google with stock android?
Your location, contacts, nearby devices, nearby WiFi, search history, voice query recordings, which apps you install and use and when, a log of activity on your phone, your advertising profile, which accounts you set up on the phone, possibly facial recognition for photos you take, who you call and message (if using default apps) including which phone numbers you connect to, events in your calendar, browsing history (if using default browser) and YouTube activity (if using the YouTube app).
Those are the main ones that are usually mentioned in articles about this. Some of it won’t apply if you use only open source apps and no Google apps. But some of it is baked into the OS and the Play Services, and difficult or impossible to avoid.
Thank you! Location and search history are particularly troubling especially when a user is not even using Google to search. Can Google still see contacts if not using their contacts app?
Can Google still see contacts if not using their contacts app?
Probably. Android has a contacts database with which your contacts app interacts. And Google Play Services, which you can’t disable in stock Android, has access to everything, including this database.
Plus they can use location to see who you meet up with, and get their info and their contacts’ info from their phones. One way or another, Google can build up a pretty thorough profile of your social circle.
Google Android, no. Custom ROM, yes.
Depends. Can you share the device name in question? Also, if you use the default OS or a custom rom with/without play services.
OP explicitly says stock Android, not a Custom ROM.
