this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2024
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Privacy
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Yeah it's because they ship the same OS image for everyone, be it US on a carrier plan or otherwise. Google services has complete control over your device (more than just locking it down), and that's what you should be upset about. For you that app is just harmless bloat, what's actually spooky is google play services as a system app. Do yourself a favor and install grapheneOS.
Yeah well, my GrapheneOS Pixel 7 with gservices (not a choice for some banking apps) has the damn device lock controller app installed. I can't remove it. At least Graphene allows me to revoke its network/location permissions, which, by the way, it had granted by default.
This. Didn't even use my Pixel 8 (then brand-new) until Grapheme OS was available for it (my Pixel 7 Pro got damaged beyond repair in an incident, not happy but though I expect privacy I don't expect a phone to survive ~20G of force) because fuck Google.
Well now you're burying the lead here. What situation involved 20g of force?
Not sure, but I think the WiFi on it was defective or something because I had ridiculous amounts of trouble setting up smarthome devices on that phone. After several DAYS of it, I lost my temper. The 20g forces are a wild guess but the phone was unsalvageable.
Keep in mind I bought that Pixel 7 Pro on eBay.
every time i have tried to install another OS on an android phone i have ended up bricking it.
Good luck bricking a Pixel while following Graphene's installer. If it protected the phone from me, someone who bricks basically everything they touch, it'll be fine for you.
i have an exynos samsung
Isn’t this more easily fixed?
grapheneOS and the like might work for the OP and anyone with a mainstream phone, but there are a lot of unsupported cheap obscure phones which are stuck with stock Android.