Hi guys I was thinking of installing either Calyx OS or Graphene OS on Pixel 7 I got from secondhand.
Meanwhile I was also wondering which one of these is most private but also best usable; Aurora Store or Google Play Mirror (Graphene OS) or Micro G?
Edit; Thanks for all info guys. I will take it into consideration and probably always first use F-Droid and web apps.
MicroG is not an alternative store, it’s an alternative to Play Services.
Aurora Store is 3rd party client for Google Play Store while MicroG is open source implementation of Google libraries so they are not quite comparable.
I’d say MicroG with Aurora Store is most private you can be if you really need to use Google services. You can use Aurora Store with anonymous Google Account that they provide you and MicroG is only sharing necessary data with Google servers.
What’s “necessary data”?
Data only needed for that specific service to function
If the app declares it needs location even though it’s not needed (say it’s a text editor) will microg filter it out and/or provide fake data?
I think it provides fake data but don’t take my word.
Upvoted only because the comment got downvoted.
If you downvote a clearly stated opinion without clarifying why, e.g. a source clarifying that it is indeed no correct you are NOT helping the conversation.
What I can tell u (as a normie) is that a few weeks ago I bought a refurbished google pixel 7, installed Calyx OS (via the web browser installer) with MicroG and I’ve been using f-droid and Aurora Store (without a google account) since then and I haven’t had any issues with any app, for example, the banking ones
GrapheneOS is far far better than CalyxOS in all categories
https://github.com/Droid-ify/client
Can use any open-android store repository, including IzzyOnDroid and F-Droid. It’s the only real choice.
Fdroid. No, seriously, none of the above. fdroid is the only option here.
Unfortunately a lot of apps are not on the FDroid stores which is why people, me included, rely on other stores.
I always look at FDroid first but sometimes (hopefully less and less) the only apps (typically commercial ones, e.g. banking) are elsewhere.
Use the websites whenever possible, instead of having to download another app, especially a commercial closed source one.
Indeed, honestly most apps should just be URLs.
My bank website would not let me do everything that the app would let me do, so I switched banks.
Nice, hopefully they are aware that former clients are moving away from them because they don’t find their solution appropriate. I should do the same.
