Got a pixel? Check out calyxos, it's a free system upgrade that rips out anything google but allows almost everything to work, even the play store and all your usual games and bank apps.

Calyxos.org

E: nevermind. It was great while it lasted.

Aurora Store, Fdroid etc. Graphene or similar OS. They got greedy - now they get nothing.

me laughing in de googled phone. my phone as never had had my gmail address typed in it.

Good thing I mostly use F-Droid (because finding anything useful on Google Play is a pain)

Twinsies

Are these the only packages Google uses for this purpose?

Doing this Bricked my phone.

I dont understand... Its describing what android does. How can that be rage bait?

Nobody will rage over any of this. Its common knowledge already. Its the same thing that has been discussed for years.

Yeah this is what passes for tech journalism nowadays

Part of the problem with this stuff is that the corporations using it are very hush-hush about what exactly they use it for. The privacy policy just lists what they may collect (everything) and what they may use it for (anything).

I disagree that we need to find mismanagement first.

Never mind that Google is 100% opaque from outside and is not subject to inspections by its users.

Even if Google had an open door policy inviting and empowering any and all citizen auditors, I would still disagree that Google gets the benefit of doubt by default, and only after something blows up can we begin asserting our interests.

I think we can assert our interests any time, for any reason, and for no reason at all, with arbitrary aggressiveness, limited only by our own practical considerations.

Instead of waiting for things to go wrong, we can protect our interests before there is even a chance of things going wrong.

Can.

Will we? Each person has to consider their situation pragmatically, but if they considered everything and decided to assert themselves, we would be idiots to insist Google gets the first dibs, they have the initiative, and so how dare we want to limit Google in any way without first PROVING harm. Horse. Shit.

I take the same view toward any monopolies in general. We should not bother proving harm. We should break all monopolies as a matter of principle, even if they are "harmless."

And Google shound be given as close to zero information as possible. As a matter of principle.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Is Google Play Services sampling your location so that it can send it in to Google HQ as part of a secret location tracking operation that runs without user consent or knowledge

Yes they track your phone's location and movement constantly, but it's not a secret.

For an example of the evidence you seek... Google SensorVault location data was how they identified and convicted the January 6 terrorists. You might argue that complying with warrants isn't misuse of the data, but I'd argue that both the data itself, and the level of precision and detail, shouldn't be captured and logged in the first place. And I'm fairly sure that most google customers have no idea how pervasive and extensive the tracking is.

When you open the maps indoor you get immedieate location. This is not from GPS but from Wifi and cell tower data. This is only possible because your phone constatly transmits your location and network data. You can also call it surveilance because its 24/7 logging and processing of your location data.

If you don't collect the data in the first place, there's nothing to mismanage.

Rather than users having to prove that Google is mismanaging OUR data, Google should prove it has a need to collect, aggregate, and sell access to that data beyond surveillance capitalism.

The default option should be that only fully anonymized data that is essential to device functions should be collected, and this should be validated through an independent audit. Everything else should be opt-in.