this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2023
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Privacy
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TL;DR: Use GrapheneOS, it's by far the best.
no option to root ; it has you lock your bootloader after installation
That's kinda the point of using a pixel, y'know...
But it's Google. Wouldn't ever want to give that ad-platform my hard earn money.
What do you need root for? Having root privileges exposed significantly increases attack surface and decreases security. You can use Shizuku on GrapheneOS if you want to, it requires adb and works on any Android ROM. Also, there is a way to get root on GrapheneOS, but I really don't recommend it.
Root can be useful for plenty of reasons: there are many apps which use root access to increase privacy, customize the system, restrict apps, manage battery charging, enforce firewall for apps and system, block trackers, backup the system, etc... I currently have 8 apps (if I don't count all the lsposed modules) using the root privileges to do all of that but I also use it for other things like automation.
The only kind of security I want to have is privacy from my own apps installed on my system, something root privilege allow me to have. For the rest, I just don't install any random program on my phone and I didn't have any problem for years.
(and no, I can't do any of that with shizuku or adb)
If you mean apps that allow you to restrict permissions of other Apps, there's App Ops, it works with Shizuku
You can do some customization with adb/Shizuku but for some things you might need root. But I would definitely value security over customizability.
The OS can do that pretty well
GrapheneOS has a built-in firewall that you can use to block network access to any app on the system.
You can do that with DNS services like NextDNS
GrapheneOS has a built-in backup solution
When I was talking about "battery charging", I meant using an app to limit the charging at a certain level: look for "acca" or simple "acc" which is the module/daemon to manage that. You have to be root to do that and there is no way around. For the rest, sure, but that's for GrapheneOS, I was talking in general, most ROM not having what GrapheneOS has and considering GrapheneOS is exclusively present on Pixel phones unfortunately...