I'm looking to get a custom ROM that has good compatibility with my device. Would you recommend /e/? I couldn't find a tutorial on how to install it with Linux but I don't think it should be that hard to figure out.
this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2025
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Privacy
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Not necessarily, there are tons of things that are very secure but not at all private.
But.. having a massive attack surface and known security issues and thinking your data is somehow private because you use a FOSS application is silly.
EDIT to answer your edit: partly. I mean regular timely security updates seems to be a struggle for most of these android OS but also because it provides a bunch of privacy by default options that these other android ROMs don't such as a private relay, default RCS messaging, and makes them easy for users.
You do have a good point. However, I can’t consider a proprietary operating system like iOS truly private. It may be secure (certainly more so than stock Android and some random custom Android based ones) but if I can’t be sure that my operating system isn’t spying on me, then security alone doesn’t matter much for me tbh. Apple’s operating systems are no exception to this.
So, in a ranking that considers both security AND privacy, iOS being the second one is questionable. However, if the ranking is based solely on security, then I have no issue with it.
sigh
My evidence is something being proprietary and in the hands of big tech (in this case Apple). What makes you blindly trust in Apple's words?
I didn't like my tone in my last response so I apologize.
Something being propriety isn't evidence of anything nefarious nor is something being from a large company. That's not evidence at all.
I'm not trusting Apples word, the privacy feature examples I've mentioned are proven working methods. Unless you have some source showing that RCS or their private relay don't work in someway.
I don't know about you but if I don't know what a program that I can't inspect the code of does, I'll just assume the worst case scenario. I can't prove it but you also can't prove that it isn't doing something shady, can you? So what if I am using Private Relay? Apple will know what websites I visit or what I do with my phone as long as I use their proprietary operating system and who knows who they'll give it to. And with this, I am saying it again: Apple's operating systems are no exception to this rule.
So you actually inspect the source code of everything you use?
This whole line of reasoning really only works if you have the expertise to understand the code in the first place. Otherwise you are just shifting trust from what the company tells you to what a third party looking at the source tells you. Sometimes that works but its in no way fool proof.
There is open source malware. FOSS /= trustworthy the same as closed source /= not trustworthy.
If you don't trust Apple that fine. Some people won't ever use a Pixel because they don't trust Google. It doesn't change the fact that Google currently makes the most secure, hardware wise, consumer smart phone. The point being this shift in trust is more of a personal choice then a good privacy or security practice. Just as using something like e/os or lineage over iOS is.
No, of course I don't. I am not as paranoid as Richard Stallman, but I am also not as pronoid as the average human to just use proprietary software when there are similarly functioning open source software. With open source software, you can inspect the code and compile the code that you inspected. This is not true for something like iOS.
And of course, FOSS malware also exists (for example the recent xz data compression program). But guess what? You can find if it is really malware or not because you ultimately can inspect the code and compile the code you inspected. That is also why the malware in xz was found out. Who knows what there is in closed source software you can't inspect the code of. Do you perhaps believe in security through obscurity?
Using open source software is always an advantage. Praise for privacy software should be earned through the ability to verify them, and not granted by default.