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Comment by saagarjha | Hacker News Reader

Being able to change your default apps has nothing to do with privacy and everything to do with platform control.

I stick with Apple for the privacy. There are features on Android I wish to use, but I can’t bring myself to use an Android phone or putting the effort of cleaning it from all of Google’s trackers.

What do you do about all of Apple's trackers?

Apple doesn't surface the information they collect to third parties. If you are talking about in app advertising tracking, I reset my tracking advertiser ID pretty often too.

And what information does Google surface to third parties besides the tracking ID (which can also be reset easily on Android)?

In the Ad Exchange, Google surfaces the full url, geo, and all browser identifier information under the RTB protocol.

When tracked through apps, Google is equally open. Apple tries its best to combat tracking, but most apps will still do their best to jump through the tracking contention measures.

https://9to5mac.com/2019/02/07/app-screen-record-apps-remove...

I'd say, always be vigilant of the apps you install. I often check my http request logs to see my phone activity.

You can just flash your phone with LineageOS. Takes about an hour, and you're done.

What about all the apps that need the "Google Play Services" libraries?

There's always MicroG and the MicroG-infused version of LineageOS:

https://microg.org/

https://lineage.microg.org/

jc! but isn't microg also requires us to enable some level of Google Play Services?

Well, MicroG is meant to be a drop-in replacement for closed-source Google libraries on your phone (i.e. Google Play Services / Google Services Framework) but obviously it will still have to connect to Google servers if needed (although you're able to control for what purposes). For instance, push notifications for apps often use Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging platform and MicroG allows the user to still receive those notifications in the absense of Google Play Services / Google Services Framework.

I suggest you have a closer look at the MicroG website where this is explained, too: https://microg.org/

Cool :) I am using openGApps but I think it does not have this flexibility I will switch over to microg :)

I personally use microG and disable all of the features that call home to Google, except for those anonymized by microG. Works flawlessly, except for some apps that don't work but are easily replaced.

So instead of trusting the hardware or OS maker you’re trusting a random third party?

It isn't a random third party, it's a specific third party with a better privacy record than the hardware or OS maker.

You can build LineageOS yourself if you want. The procedure is on their website. Then you can also read the code to make sure nothing funny is going on.

> I stick with Apple for the privacy.

The problema Is if you stick with Apple hardware there is no OS alternative

you're stuck with what the dictator (benevolent or not) decides

That’s the point. Some people like that and are willing to pay extra for that.

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