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[–] 52 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (7 children)

Use Aegis.

The MS Authenticator contains analytics & telemetry & way too many permissions and should not be used: https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.azure.authenticator/latest/ (it looks more like a scam than legitimate, but that's exactly what Microslop is in 2026...)

For comparison, Aegis is a legitimate app that only does what it should do: https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.beemdevelopment.aegis/latest/#permissions

Any other authenticator also works with any MS service so there's no reason at all to use the MS Authenticator unless you like handing over more data to MS for no reason. EDIT: According to comments, your company might have the option to enforce usage of MS Authenticator only. But this doesn't seem to be the default, at least in Germany where I've heard from 2 sources that they can use any authenticator app for M365 for example.

By the way, Graphene OS is NOT rooted, but what does truth or sane app behavior even mean anymore for Microslop in 2026... Just stop using that garbage.

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  • [–] 8 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    Agree for personal use.

    Professionally I've had situations where Ms authenticator was the only option because the only 2FA they allow is push notifications on the authenticator app. :(

    I even used freeotp+ for my ORG 2FA and aegis for my personal so I could easily keep them split ( and you can export / securely store the backups somewhere ).

    Time to get corps to ditch Microsoft >.>

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  • [–] 7 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    Professionally I’ve had situations where Ms authenticator was the only option because the only 2FA they allow is push notifications on the authenticator app.

    If a company requires me to install specific apps that may or may not work on my device, I expect that company to provide me with a device that can be set up for their stuff.

    I've run two separate phones for nearly 15 years now: my personal phone, and a work-issued phone. The work phone is turned off and left on my night stand as soon as I get home, and only turned on again when I'm getting ready to go back to work. I don't carry it 24/7 as some have been led to believe, for some reason. It's really nice to have that separation. And work pays for it.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago

    Peach. Separation is where it's at, and companies should be required to provide technology required for work.

    In an ideal world "No, I don't want that on my personal device" should be sufficient, but it's a lot harder to argue with "No, I literally cannot install that on my device; it's incompatible. Provide an alternative for me."

    I'm finally taking steps to walk the walk re: phone separationβ€”I'm hoping the Click Communicator pans out, since it seems like the ideal work phone. (I get a stipend for tech, so I can get whatever I want. I've been pocketing the extra cash, but it's time to get an actual work phone.) I'm just hoping I can wait it out and ignore the Authenticator warnings until then, or maybe look into Magisk Hide or whatever.

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago

    We do need to get corps to move away from closed source protocols like MS, Google, Meta and others push notifications though. Those are not in anyway safer and are just basically trap to force people to use their apps

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (1 child)

    Anybody have a good reason to not use Authy? I've seen Aegis mentioned quite a bit but nobody supporting/dunking on Authy. I thought they were one of the more popular choices.

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  • [–] 100 points 8 months ago (36 children)
  • [–] 47 points 8 months ago (35 children)

    Unfortunately not for me. I use Graphene and my company uses M$croslop.

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  • [–] 86 points 8 months ago (15 children)

    Work stuff should be on a work phone.

    I don't understand why either the worker or the company would ever allow the use of personal devices for work.

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  • [–] 7 points 8 months ago (9 children)

    my work pays my cell phone bill if I install Microsoft teams, and frankly that's a pretty good deal

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago (5 children)

    With that money, get a second one and it's it only during work ours. Doesn't even need connection, use WiFi of tethering.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (4 children)

    that sounds annoying. I'd rather just have it all on the same device. I can enable and disable work apps on a schedule if I'm bothered. I don't want to deal with two devices really

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (3 children)

    If youre in the US and your company is paying your phone bill, they are legally allowed to access your location via cell towers at any given moment. That, in combination with the fact that they can also legally take the phone from you (You have company trade secrets on that device if you install their software), I dont see the point in risking not having a 2nd device.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (2 children)

    you're gonna have to cite some sources here because I don't think there is actually a legal requirement for these things.

    the work apps require Internet access to even open and the contents are encrypted. this has all been figured out

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (1 child)

    Legitimate Reasons for Employer Device Access There are valid reasons why an employer might need to access an employee’s phone, regardless of ownership: Legal Compliance: To comply with legal requests such as subpoenas or investigations. Security Breaches: To investigate potential security breaches or data leaks. Violation of Company Policy: To investigate violations of company policies regarding acceptable use. Employee Termination: Upon termination, to retrieve company data and ensure a smooth transition.

    https://www.aeanet.org/can-an-employer-take-your-phone/#Can_an_Employer_Take_Your_Phone_Exploring_Workplace_Device_Confiscation

    Let's be generous and say your employer considers your phone a personal device even though they pay for the service.

    For an employer to legally track a personal phone’s location, they need explicit consent from the employee and must have narrowly defined policies.

    https://legalclarity.org/can-my-employer-track-my-work-phone-location/

    Is there anything stopping them from hiding a tracking policy in your contract? Did you fully read the contract to check? Would allowing them to pay for the service count as consent in court? IANAL, but why would you risk it, when you could just have a work phone you only use for work.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago*

    You stated that employers can use cell towers to track your phone.

    This is not true. If my employer pays for my cell phone service then it is not "their" phone. It is mine because I still own the device.

    Moreover, they do not directly pay for my cell service. Instead, I am reimbursed monthly.

    They do not have any special permissions or legal basis they would not otherwise have by doing this.

    And yes, I have read my contract (you should too!)

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  • [–] 14 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    Because they are cheap and their tech lead is probably incompetent.

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    This is Walmart in a nutshell. A majority of the work phones at my store (used for stuff like inventory management) are Samsung Galaxy XCover Pros from like 2016. They were trash the day they released and they're especially trash now. The company is very slowly replacing them with Pixel 8s (like one every six months comes in). It is legitimately frustrating.

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  • [–] 20 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    It's a dark pattern but you can use any MFA provider with Microsoft services.

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  • [–] 21 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    Not necessarily. Microsoft's authenticator has an option where you have to tap a notification to approve, which isn't a standard TOTP thing. If your company requires that version of MFA, you pretty much have to use Microsoft's authenticator.

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    Aw shit, this sucks because my company uses this authentication method.

    I guess when the change finally happens I'll just be saying 'you owe me a phone for this'. Absolutely no way i am going back to Android just for this on my personal phone.

    One possible workaround is to add more options to your security info in your work account. For example, I added my number and also a specific password as an option last year when I moved onto Graphene and had to update that info. Would that be an option?

    Unsure if that would even work or if those options are more for account recovery (when no longer have access to a specific device)

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    If it cane down to it, I'm sure you could find an old phone or tablet to use just for that for work.

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    You can use a different authenticator with M$ accounts. Just choose to set up with a different app. Aegis is nice.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (2 children)

    Iam using aegis for my private logins. As I understand does Aegis not support MS Entra Logins.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    Gursd they'll have to buy you a work phone

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  • [–] 0 points 8 months ago* (1 child)

    Great, so you have nothing to worry about, unless your Graphene phone is rooted. (Which would defeat the entire point)

    The article is shit. Microsoft is not blocking any GrapheneOS. It is only blocking rooted phones.

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  • [–] 51 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    That's fine.

    Any job that wants you to use certain software can provide a device it'll run on for you.

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  • [–] 11 points 8 months ago

    Amen to that. Even if your computers will run it, provide the device. I'm not installing shit on my home computers.

    My job has suggested it to me. I say "you know how all these computers run Windows?" They nod. "Mine doesn't. It's a Mac." That usually shuts them up. Never mind that most of what we run will, in fact, run on a Mac, and there's very little a shitty Wintel box mass produced for the enterprise can do that my Mac can't do. I mean, I can run Deus Ex natively on the work computer, if I wanna catch hell for it. (But it would be fucking hilarious, especially if I'm at the part where JC Denton hands in his "resignation.")

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  • [+] 20 points 8 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (5 children)
  • [–] 12 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    Yeah, and Microsoft policy is just about rooted phones.

    There isn't any reason to mention GrapheneOS, unless it is to generate unwarranted outrage.

    Which seems to be working on a lot of folk on here.

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago

    Well it could just be part of the collective corporate alliance that will always do anything they can to make any kind of freedom cost more for everyone. GrapheneOS is taking your freedom and not feeding on the corporate-issued fodder, and well, they don’t like that. So this is just one more small difficulty added to that choice.

    This kind of thing is only the beginning. It won’t be long before absolutely nothing will work on any freedom-oriented OS, software, hardware etc.

    Some fires need to start, and soon.

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    privacy guarantees

    security guarantees, not privacy guarantees.

    With root you can actually control what kind of things each app does and stores, and check what data it transmits to remote servers. But it also breaks/weakens the android security model, where apps can do, store or transmit stuff protected from the eyes of the user of the phone.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago

    But it also breaks/weakens the android security model, where apps can do, store or transmit stuff protected from the eyes of the user of the phone.

    Which just sounds insane to me. It's security through obscurity, which is in and of itself a bad plan, to protect 3rd parties against you ... on your own frigging device.

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  • [–] 18 points 8 months ago

    Oh no

    Anyway

    Microslop authenticator might not work for my zero Microslop accounts, lack of Microslop sloperating system, OR their piece of shit cloud platform that I refuse to touch?

    WHAT WILL I DO

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  • [–] 17 points 8 months ago

    Fuck em. I just got grapheneOS and I advised my workplace we will need a workaround for authenticator.

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  • [–] 15 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    Unless on Motorola devices (soon).

    I hope it's like FairPhone where you get to choose android or Murena/e/

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  • [–] 12 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    We wouldn't want any Graphene OS device to fulfill the requirements necessary to be certified. That would make it useless.

    'Rooted' doesn't mean rooted, it means the Google API it checks against says no. And is unlikely to say yes on any device that isn't 'official Android', with Google Apps having System access.

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  • [–] 18 points 8 months ago (12 children)

    This is what I fear will happen to GOS on Motos. Google decides to mark them as rooted so buh-bye banking apps and others that require a "secure" os.

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  • [–] 15 points 8 months ago (6 children)

    Except they're not rooted - GOS devs don't even approve of root usage

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  • [–] 16 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    It doesn't matter if they are or not. Google can deem them modified or not secure devices and they can do fuck all about it.

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  • [–] 15 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    The difference being that Motorola is a well established device manufacturer and not just a community project with minimal funding. Google using play integrity to exclude a competitor could be very easily seen as an abuse of market power and they already have problems with antitrust laws.

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  • [–] 0 points 8 months ago* (3 children)

    Always has been.

    Banking on a phone is insecure, and this is one reason. Never use banking on mobile.

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  • [–] 9 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Honestly thank you for posting this. Lest I would've lost my Google and Microslop account.

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  • [–] 14 points 8 months ago

    I mean...okay?

    I have a work phone for this exact reason.

    work phone stays on my desk. I have removed the microphones. I turn it on at the start of every day, and turn it off at the end of every day.

    good luck with that plan Microslop. looks like Microslop is trending too!

    1000003153

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  • [–] 6 points 8 months ago

    Now this is shitty. Our company allows only authentication with the app, and I was really happy to give up the shitty phone they offered and just carry one.

    I saw the news earlier this or last week, but as my grapheneos is not rooted, didnt think much of it.

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  • [+] 5 points 8 months ago (4 children)
  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago

    Microsoft Authenticator do support a closed proprietary protocol to interface with Microsoft/Azure logins instead of TOTP and HOTP, which requires an internet connection. So if you need this, no luck for you. If instead you just need TOTP and/or HOTP, then take a look at aegis or mauth.

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  • Cool, the fewer people using Microslop apps, the better.

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago

    Fuck Microslop and fuck Google.

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  • [–] 0 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Microslop Authenticator might exclude GrapheneOS in the future due to root detection

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