Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
They are For-profit
Reminder that FOSS is compatible with commercial licenses.
That is not to say /e/ is FOSS. But given the reality of the capitalist hellscape we live in, we should not shame developers (FOSS or not) for not opting to work for free.
Non profit dosent mean everyone who works there cant earn money.
It just means, that you as Shareholder cant just sit on your ass and collect the revenue from your company.
If you own a non profit, and you work as for example a Dev or the head of PR, you can still have a hefty 30$/hour salary.
And the other way around, having a For profit just tells me that you do so little, that you can't even justify employing yourself at a non profit and giving you an own salary that way, because a non profit has to disclose just how much money you give yourself while underpaying your workers
30$/hr
In 2025 america ain't really money for somebody with a skill set to do this type of work in the US at least.
Otherwise agree. But realistically Foss will need to outcompete corpos commercially and that requires normies to make these consumption choice while Foss gains mass market appeal.
Obviously fedi is pro FOSS but we are just a rounding error as of now.
30 /hour would be a laughably low salary for someone doing that type of development, I would not call that "hefty"
Being serious, what is /e/ ?
Alternative version of android that removes google stuff, basically.
GrapheneOs continuing to be the only unclowned rom
Linaege and Calyx is OK too, since they actually develope software (Linaege does it from scratch, Calyx develops Seedvault etc). even though they are not as rigid as Graphene, they are still ok for normal ungoogled stuff, and to be honest, most people dont need the security Graphene provides them with.
My problem is with Roms like /E/ OS or Iode, which essentially add nothing of value, but instead Fork Linaege, remove Seedvault and everything what isn't essential, and sell what is essentially a DNS blocker (which you can just use on your VPN slot via apps like DNSnet, or Server side like Adguard or Mullvad DNS) as a new ROM, complete with Subscription Service and (in the case of E OS) even with non encrypted Backup, essentially begging someone to compromise their Servers and steal peoples Photos and Data.
Graphene is the biggest joke of them all. Only works on Google hardware? lmao
no u
THANK YOU! Such a glaring hole in graphene os, I dont know how it doesnt get talked about more!
There is no "hole". It has nothing to do specifically with being from Google, only that no one else but Google is manufacturing devices that meet the hardware requirements and have full support for alternate OSes.
That's because they're the only ones that meet the project's requirements at the moment, but that may soon change soon. Maybe you've seen the news that the project is in talks with an OEM for them to meet the requirements and have official support for GrapheneOS for some of the existing devices.
https://lemmy.world/post/27344091
Hardware-level components like Titan M can execute processes that users cannot audit or disable, raising concerns about opaque data collection.
It is an isolated component without networking. This is not evidence that unknown data collection is occurring. You need to provide actual evidence that it is.
You need to provide actual evidence that it is.
How do you expect me, or anyone else, to provide you with the inner working details of Google's surreptitiously closed-as-fuck custom SoCs? That's the entire basis of the problem, it's closed-as-fuck and there is nothing that you or I or anyone else can do to verify that it isn't malicious.
At this point, you have to choose whether or not to trust the manufacturer. Given that the manufacturer is the most notoriously data-hungry surveillance corporation in the history of the entire world, I choose not to trust them. I wouldn't trust them, even if they were to claim not to spy on us with these phones. (Incidentally, that is not something they claim.)
Open source or source availability is not a requirement for auditing a system. There would be evidence that would have almost certainly been found by now if this was the case. It is up to you, or the claimant, to prove their claims. I can say that there has not been any evidence of data collection by hardware components found, despite years of Pixel devices being tested by security researchers and mobile forensics companies. Not only that, the actual technical capabilities of the hardware (isolated component without networking capabilities) backs that up.
What do you have except fearmongering?
Creepy. Fixed link: https://lemmy.world/post/27344091
I fixed mine too. Copy-pasting from email broke it.
This is a FUD post. Honestly this is just doing a disservice to privacy in general.
Of course /e/OS is not perfect but the title is wrong (/e/OS didn't suddenly start sending data to OpenAI without user permission, they are relying on OpenAI for a service that is optional PLUS they are explicitly saying that they setup a proxy to anonymize content!) but the content is also wrong :
TL;DR: /e/OS is not perfect but it's damn well better than Google!
Also important clarification, the Murena services (backup, STT highlighted there, etc) are NOT MANDATORY! When you boot you can decide to use them, make an account, etc (yes, like other services, including Google) but you just as well refuse and use your device. There is NO account required. The goal is to help people who are not yet self-hosting everything have an alternative rather than... have nothing then give up and fallback to iOS or Googled Android.
Of course /e/OS is not perfect
Let me stop you here.
Every phone /e/ supports, Lineage or calyx supports too. Lineage and Calyx are both non profit, implement an actually secure Backup system by default, and do not try to sell you a subscription.
So why should I be defending a company that's worse then the Alternative, that's obligated to extract the most possible profit from its costumers, that says it is Private, yet sends your backup and Photos unencrypted to murena servers?
And no, you can't jUsT uSe aNoThEr bAcKuP sErViCe. These require root access by default, so you can't just install Seedvault.
Also, I don't give a fuck if the data to OpenAI is proxied or not. OpenAI is still not Private, and Murena has other, on device, Open source Voice to text options. Yet they, the self proclaimed Private OS, rely on a non private service
Ok, the openAI thing is not great. However...
they advertise themselves as degoogled, but instead let you connect to Google/Microsoft/etc services
What the fuck are you talking about? Degoogled doesn't mean you shouldn't be allowed to connect to Google services. It just mean that it doesn't require Google services to function and that the default configuration shouldn't include any Google services. If the end user actively wants to use google/microsoft/etc services then they should be able to. It seems as though you are advocating for an open source operating system to lock itself down from allowing the end user to use certain features, which is against the FOSS ethos. Remember, "free" as in "freedom."
GrapheneOS is fucking king a for a reason. The main dev was a cunt but he wasn't wrong.
Peoples need to learn to see through PR, good or bad, and focus on specs.
It seems after years of bullshit PR, we can safely say that GrapheneOS thesis stood the test of time.
Google took notice and now fighting us.
Use GrapheneOS or AOSP GSI if you're not on Pixel.
never heard of AOSP GSI, I'm on CalyxOS rn but I might temporarily switch because they're unmaintained while doing their audit.
This is the site you should visit for GSI info: https://github.com/TrebleDroid/treble_experimentations/wiki
so, GSI is just android with fast updates and the possibility to only have foss or have no apps? that's not what I need, I want a system with microg or nothing instead of google services, only foss apps but ideally no apps preinstalled(that, GSI can do) and also privacy features like microphone and camera blocking. I think I'll just use lineage, or install a real linux on it.
Real Linux is definitely the way - but GSI Roms are totally capable of microG if I'm not mistaken! On that github's FAQ page it mentions the FLOSS version comes packed with f-droid; microG can be installed from there and works fine - it doesnt need to be bundled in the ROM! 🙂
Or just stick with the vanilla gsi & you've got bare aosp. Throw F-droid on there, pull down microG and bam!
Watching from the sidelines as a LOS ROM user, I'm disappointed by the replies from the devs. From mischaracterizing surprise, anger and generally negative feedback as positive praise to completely ignoring the two main asks of the community. For me, there are other red flags, but I'll leave it alone.
Ego seems to be coming into play here, and the repeated references to GrapheneOS seem to reinforce that. Handwaving new and unique criticism as if it is a continuation of an older conflict is pretty poor form.
The basic issue as I see it (as a non-user of their platform) is to market your OS the way they do while also adding this feature without notice or explanation. Their claim that they want to stay relevant and include popular features is a straw man. There are other ways to implement it, and other ways to introduce it to the community. But that's not relevant. Their explanation could be used to justify abandoning their stated objective of anti-big tech in any/all ways. Saying people want big corporate tech features is weak and obviously not in parity with the stated mission of privacy-first.
It's not always the poor choices that sink user trust; sometimes it's a tone deaf response or unexplained motives, or opaque financial incentive structure.
Sometimes it's all of the above. This seems to be one of those cases.
Ty @Luffy879 for sharing.
E: spelling