I am planning to buy a new phone and I would like to follow your guide. The phone brands which you consider as Tier 1 are Asus, Nokia, Motorola, Sony, LG, FairPhone, and Huawei/Honor. In this comment https://lemmy.ml/post/64888/comment/55721 you prefer Fairphone, Xiaomi, Asus, Motorola (if in USA). And for the follow up comment https://lemmy.ml/post/64888/comment/55784 you prefer Fairphone, Xiaomi or Moto. What happened to SONY, and why did you least prefer Asus now. It is not possible for me to get a Fairphone as I am not living in EU. I am happy to go with SONY cause I like photography and their camera department. Also is it possible to get same privacy and security in a SAMSUNG phone if I follow your guide? (Again for the same camera reason),
As a long time iPhone user, I am new to the world of Android. My threat model is just want to protect my privacy from the corporate giants and and trackers (Ads). From my understanding, custom ROM like Lineage is good with privacy but their security updates are behind. Also most phones are not allowed to lock the boot loader after the root. Is there any security threat for that? So for my threat model, I would like to know your suggestions. If I go with a custom ROM, which one you prefer? Also do you have any suggestions about any phone brand or particular model. One more thing I would like to hear from you is that can I get same level of privacy and security from your non-root guide like a custom ROM?
Bootloader threats are usually state level or the kinds of apparatuses that TSA uses, so if that is a concern, or you know your adversaries are technologically capable, that should be a factor.
For custom ROM, you can use LineageOS or DivestOS, or if you went for a Pixel (which I do not recommend in general), CalyxOS. Or for a non-root device, you can use this program to auto wipe your device if such a kit/tool usage is detected: LockUp (Cellebrite UFED self-defense app) - https://f-droid.org/app/io.nekohasekai.lockup
Non-root is more secure than with root or bootloader unlock. The only feature that my guide cannot provide is running a VPN on top of a firewall in the same user account. Currently only using one tunnel is possible per user account (main and work profiles).
Thank you for your suggestions.