this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2023
42 points (100.0% liked)

Privacy

789 readers
3 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Related communities

Chat rooms

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I guess there is no need to introduce what a Degoogled phone is (or a custom ROM without google services, like GrapheneOS is) and the Aurora Store is basically said in a crude way the Google Playstore but without the need to log in to your Google account, quite useful in my opinion.

At first, what really concerns me is to run the risk of violating Google's TOS by logging in with my Google account on the Aurora Store to access my purchased apps, but at the same time I think, since Android is Google's operating system, can't they also retaliate against people using a modified version of their OS? And I know that sounds especially stupid when your phone is your phone and not Google's, but we all know how companies like Google work.

I don't use Google services on my device, but I do use it as a secondary email that I don't want to lose, hence the question, I know I can create another email but I don't want to have so many email accounts.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Melody@lemmy.one 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Realistically I've never been banned, rate-limited or affected when using Aurora. I would recommend at least using microG installation as well though. I suspect that phones that look most suspicious would be ones that never formally "logged into" Google Play Services normally as well, so make sure you've logged into your chosen Google account once with the phone in it's stock full OEM Google Play Services configuration.

Critically, Do Not Use the "Built in Anonymous Accounts" In Aurora! That's just painting a target on your backside and would probably make your device look even more suspicious to whatever AI is swinging the banhammer these days.

Setting up a fresh, new, Google account is critical. Then go about "hardening" the account by setting up TOTP 2FA and disabling all the unwanted tracking options in your Google Account page. You can even generate "app passwords" here that can work for logging into Aurora.

My advice to you is to use this one new Google account across any Google Services you need to log into. Do not just log into microG and Aurora with your new account! Throw it a bone and log into a Youtube page or some other Google Service like GMail every once in a while, even if you do so from the phone's browser only.

The more suspicious and single purpose the account appears to be; the less it blends in and could potentially be suspended by some wayward AI.

[–] WoefKat@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago

Critically, Do Not Use the “Built in Anonymous Accounts” In Aurora! That’s just painting a target on your backside and would probably make your device look even more suspicious to whatever AI is swinging the banhammer these days.

But this is the whole thing about the anonymous accounts. What thing of yours are they going to ban? They don't even know you. There is nothing they can ban.

I'm sure they will ban the anonymous accounts often but the Aurora guys just keep adding more to the pool.

load more comments (3 replies)