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Cops say criminals use a Google Pixel with GrapheneOS — I say that’s freedom
(www.androidauthority.com)
If cops don't like it, it must be good!
this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2025
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yeah, but you cant trust anything any police officer tells you.
they are liars by policy and anti-intellectual by culture.
Had a friend apply, he passed the test but didn't get hired because he scored too well in certain areas (he's too independent a thinker).
Would've been a very good cop, doesn't react to being goaded, or to stresses, great negotiator, physically in great shape and a big dude.
He should do it again, maybe in a Town over or something and answer all the questions "wrong" lmao
police in general dont like to hire people with significant education or too "smart".
I run GrapheneOS because it gives me full control over what my phone does and gives me the ability to restrict access to anything on all applications or uninstall any application I don't want on my phone even if it causes some functionalities to break.
This is how all devices should be by default.
Had lawmakers gotten their heads out of their asses and made actually having control over a device that you own like this a legal requirement for all devices, I wouldn't need to be using GrapheneOS.
I'm considering switching too, I'm tired of feeling helpless.
Out of curiosity, have you had a lot of encounters with apps that won't run because of play integrity? If so, have you managed to work around them in any way?
My banking app. It has been years since I last checked if it works, maybe it works now but I don't care. I just use the browser to do my banking.
I have a little rinky dink credit union that only has a few locations locally, I got there's to work. I even got cash app (the most problematic) to work, zelle works through my bank app, venmo works, everything works. You may have to do a setting workaround for your app that allows Google to be unsandboxed for that app only, or at least that is my understanding of what it's doing.
If I remember right, it was this setting that finally made cash app work, I'm pretty sure my banking app just worked, but if I remember right, that hasn't always been the case.
wow, that's a lot better than I thought! thanks!
I haven't tried Graphene, but I think I did get my banking app working on my backup phone running EvolutionX or something. I forgot the name of the ROM. 3-4 years ago when it was my main phone running Lineage, the banking app didn't work and then they messed up the stock ROM with Android 12, I just straight up gave up on Android and moved to iOS. Now Graphene is starting to sound better by the day, but I've since started using a banking app that outright blocks GrapheneOS -.- Suppose there's no way to get around having two phones if I want privacy AND support for all the apps I use.
ah, I had a feeling it'd be like this. Honestly, so long as there's a workaround (such as using my web browser), I'm still happy to switch to something like Graphene.
Thanks!
you can install sandboxed play services for those apps. i created a separate user profile that has it installed for the apps that need it. By creating a separate profile, you isolate all the apps installed on that profile and they don't have access to the data on your main profile
oh wow, that's a really handy feature, I'm feeling a lot more confident that I should switch, now. Thanks!!
it's super simple to install. the hardest thing for you will be to get used to go through more setps to do normal tasks due to the multiple profiles you can create. i recomment you create a profile for banking, one for social stuff, one for google stuff and one for web browsing. the more you isolate each task, the more control you have over your data
awesome! thats all perfectly fine by me, I like to keep things organized
If you can't manage the software on your phone, do you really own your phone?
I’m not a criminal, don’t pirate things, don’t have really anything more to hide than anyone does
But I like privacy, I like having some level of trust in my own device to not be sending my information to both my government and foreign ones.
It has nothing to do with crime.
I can't think of the exact quote but paraphrasing:
"I like privacy, not because I have something to hide but fear the people who decide what is a crime."
This just in, criminals drink water.
No, criminals prefer the far more dangerous Di-hydrogen Monoxide
We can't spy on you now, so you're up to something! -government
Heck yeah! Let's all be criminals!
Be gay, do crime.
Am I able to use graphene os without being gay?
No mate is on its end user license agreement
[Joke] Only if you don't use it for crimes.
We'll it's a good thing I'm aware of and diligently follow all laws
Mhm, sure 😜
No better recommendation than cops hate it
That settles it for me, I'm installing it right away.
Criminals do a lot of legal stuff :33
Maybe there should be a detainment mode that starts an android 6 emulator. Then they'll just think you're poor.
A privacy-focused operating system may seem more trouble than it’s worth. But when I replaced Google’s Pixel OS with GrapheneOS, I found it to be a transformative experience. For one, the installation was painless, and I didn’t lose any modern software features. Installing aftermarket operating systems used to equal a compromised smartphone experience, but I didn’t find that to be true in the case of GrapheneOS.
Case in point: even though GrapheneOS doesn’t include any Google services, I was surprised to find that you can install the Play Store with relative ease and almost all apps work flawlessly — even most banking ones.
Oh, nice. This sounds promising! I'm adding it to my list: [guix, emacs, graphene]
It was so refreshing to have a clean install without bloatware or having to login to google services right off the bat. Especially after having a carrier locked phone
I'm free, finally. Just got my Pixel 9 last week.
"we've officially moved to graphene" -cops
I've been thinking about switching lately because as this phone gets more updates it keeps gradually getting more annoying. Only trouble is my carrier is Google Fi right now and I don't know if I can reasonably continue using that on Graphene without privacy concerns.
Though, I originally started using it only because it was cheap. I could probably afford to shop carriers soon.
You can use Google Fi if you install sandboxed Play Services and give it a few permissions. It's not as private as it could potentially be, but it's still presumably better than stock.
Also, IMO unless you really need the international features, Google Fi isn't worth the price since US Mobile, Visible, Mint, etc. exist.
if stock android was safe for everybody to use, then they'd be using that. blame google, not the criminals or graphine
a lot of non-criminals do too... what's their point? /s
because google is constantly datamining the phone, and enshittified alot of it too.
Why would I listen to the words of criminals?
Do all my authenticators still function with it? That's like the only thing holding me back.
In my experience yes they do.
I use Aegis (Google Authenticator compatible) and it works great. Entrust has also worked for me in the past.
Most seem to work fine. Banking apps can be finicky sometimes
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