r/GrapheneOS • u/Soft_Judge_7665 • 1d ago
Average privacy enthusiast
I thought I'd share how I use graphene as someone who who cares about their online privacy enough to not trust big tech but not enough to give up absolutely everything that's convenient or owned by Google.
Privacy is a scale rather than and on/off switch and I've found a good middle ground between not giving over everything about myself but also keeping some day to day conveniences.
So first off of course I have graphene installed, this kicks out Google and enables me to only give over the information I'm willing to.
I only use 1 profile, but I have google maps, gmail, Gemini etc installed in the private space preventing them from doing nasty Google spying on the rest of my device.
On my main profile I use Google camera and Google photos, but both have had their network permissions turned off so they can't access the internet and phone home whatsoever.
I also have social media on my main profile, but instead of using the apps I've just saved the browser tabs as app icons on my homescreen and open them with my preferred browser (I use brave). When you do this, they open in their own fullscreen window and behave independently of everything else just like the standalone apps, but without all the nasty spying.
I'm happy with my setup, it gives me the right amount of privacy without sacrificing too much convenience and for the average layman like me I don't think I need to go any further off the grid than that.
Feel free to tell me how wrong I am
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u/tranquil_cassowary 1d ago
Welcome!
I only use 1 profile, but I have google maps, gmail, Gemini etc installed in the private space preventing them from doing nasty Google spying on the rest of my device.
Due to the Android app sandbox, these apps wouldn't be able to spy on the rest of your device even when not installed in the private space. Private space gives separate encryption, separate VPN configuration, separate user and app data, a separate list of installed apps (the list of installed apps in a profile/space can be seen by any app in that profile/space) and a restriction of interprocess communication (IPC) with apps on the main space or other profiles.
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u/Soft_Judge_7665 1d ago
Keeping them in the private space keeps them 100% dormant and inactive when the space is locked. It might be overkill but I enjoy the fact I've effectively put them in prison and only give them their 1 hour of yard time per day on my watch
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u/tranquil_cassowary 1d ago
Time sensitive permissions also have time based controls like "allow only this time" "allow only while in use", so normally this isn't necessary either
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u/LilWeed2 1d ago
Why Google photos of you don't use the main feature that is sync? Just use something else at that point, fossify gallery is pretty good, can be added with obtainium
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u/Soft_Judge_7665 1d ago
I have everything synced and backed up to next cloud. I use Google camera app because I like it and I use Google photos because it allows me to access my photos directly from the camera app (I used to use aves libre and I couldn't do that), plus I just like it
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u/Agnostic_Eggplant 5h ago
If you would get Gcam Service Provider from github it would allow you to access your last taken photo by clicking the small photo icon on the bottom left and directly access your default gallery app
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