this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2024
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DeGoogle Yourself

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Who owns your shiny new Pixel 9 phone? You can’t say no to Google’s surveillance (cybernews.com)
submitted 1 month ago by gytrash@feddit.uk to c/degoogle@lemmy.ml
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Google's latest flagship smartphone raises concerns about user privacy and security. It frequently transmits private user data to the tech giant before any app is installed. Moreover, the Cybernews research team has discovered that it potentially has remote management capabilities without user awareness or approval.

Cybernews researchers analyzed the new Pixel 9 Pro XL smartphone’s web traffic, focusing on what a new smartphone sends to Google.

“Every 15 minutes, Google Pixel 9 Pro XL sends a data packet to Google. The device shares location, email address, phone number, network status, and other telemetry. Even more concerning, the phone periodically attempts to download and run new code, potentially opening up security risks,” said Aras Nazarovas, a security researcher at Cybernews...

... “The amount of data transmitted and the potential for remote management casts doubt on who truly owns the device. Users may have paid for it, but the deep integration of surveillance systems in the ecosystem may leave users vulnerable to privacy violations,” Nazarovas said...

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[–] DavidGarcia@feddit.nl 10 points 1 month ago (3 children)

It's so ironic that Pixels are the go to devices for privacy roms these days.

All this shit is probably happening at the hardware level too, with 100 different backdoors you can't remove with your megamind plan of installing a custom rom.

The silicon probably has the ability to live stream all sensor data directly to the NSA using the fanciest ML compression technology lmao.

[–] ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org 14 points 1 month ago (3 children)

It’s so ironic that Pixels are the go to devices for privacy roms these days.

It's so ironic it's a show-stopper for me. I'm not paying fucking Google to escape the Google dystopia. Nosiree! That's just too rich for me.

This is why I own a Fairphone running CalyxOS. Yes, I know GrapheneOS is supposedly more secure - I say supposedly because I think 95% of users don't have a threat model that justifies the extra security really. But I don't care: my number one priority is not giving Google a single cent. If it means running a less secure OS, I'm fine with that.

There's no way on God's green Earth I'm buying a Pixel phone to run a deGoogled OS. That's such an insane proposition I don't even know how anybody can twist their brain into believing this is a rational thing to do.

[–] mearce@programming.dev 4 points 1 month ago

I think some people buy used/refurbished.

[–] Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 month ago

That's why I buy my phones used or refurbished. It's also cheaper and more environmentally friendly.

[–] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I say supposedly because I think 95% of users don't have a threat model that justifies the extra security really.

Does street cred with my Cybersecurity peers count as a threat model?

I'm definitely one of the users of GrapheneOS that you're talking about. My threat model is "this is fucking cool!"

Also, the grass is always greener on the other side. I want a Fair phone.

[–] smeg@feddit.uk 9 points 1 month ago

Citation needed. I get that it's healthy not to trust anyone, but with the amount of security research that goes into these devices if something like that was happening then we would know about it.

[–] mctoasterson@reddthat.com 2 points 1 month ago

Maybe and maybe not. We need to encourage robust alternatives, unfortunately this requires a ton of capital to develop hardware and reserve fab time and get your devices fabricated instead of a major player like Google or Samsung.

We basically need something in the smartphone space equivalent to the Framework laptop, that can meet the security hardware requirements, allow bootloader unlock/relock and support GrapheneOS and other custom ROMs.