Curious what phones are more privacy-focused.

  • Nothing is perfect. Even GrapheneOS has been accused of “sharing telemetry” by individuals (no source on that, just read random comments on different forums so you can probably ignore it).

    Even without rooting your phone there are ways to degoogle a bit. I have a Crosscall phone (French brand) that is essentially vanilla Android with 4 OEM apps. I used adb to debloat it.

    I recommend doing this especially if you don’t have a Google account or don’t want to use the Google stuff. Saves on battery. Then thow on some of the standard replacement apps (qksms, OSM, whatever).

    There is a slew of DNS/host blocking apps/filters (think netguard, blockada) or monitoring apps like Trackercontrol that help as well if you can’t root or put Lineage, eOS, GrapheneOS, Divest, iode, Copperhead, etc. on your phone.