What are the most privacy respecting smartphones to buy, I am also looking for the one which respects your privacy the most. So far going to privacy communities esp on reddit, I often see Google Pixel + GrapheneOS being recommended.
But the thing is I don’t really trust Google with privacy, as we have seen they are last one to respect privacy. What if Google has some backdoor in the hardware that cannot be changed? And the problem with the more privacy respecting OSes for mobiles like GrapheneOS, CalyxOS etc are that they are only supported for Google pixel phones.
So I am really confused here.
Either Pinephone or Pixel + GrapheneOS are the way to go?
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I purchased a used Pixel 3a for ~$150 last week and it works well with GrapheneOS. Since your budget is a bit higher than mine was, you could go for a newer Pixel.
GrapheneOS places more emphasis on security than LineageOS, but the privacy provided is comparable, or so I have heard from several sources.
Pinephone is a hacker’s phone, like a beta under constant evolution. So depending on the system you use on it (which you are free to choose, that’s refreshing) you may have varied experiences like with battery life.
However, Pinephone is much cheaper and hardware wise inspires more confidence. The modem does not have direct access to the phone’s memory (unlike most smartphones) which is like hardware security 101, and there’s ongoing R&D to develop a FLOSS driver for it.
The question is also: would we rather financially support an enthusiast community building awesome hardware? Or a giant corp ruining our lives?