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I mean, there are now many other open source projects based on Android (LineageOS and e/OS/ for example) that are free from Google. If they can't control the operating system on your phone because it's free from their services, they can't control your device, track you and send you their ads... I've been using e/OS/ for 3 years now on a phone made in Germany (Gigaset). There is always an alternative...

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LineageOS isn’t entirely free from Google. It relies on AOSP, which is maintained by Google, and it suffers from the decisions that Google makes. For example, Google made a change in AOSP to require location services to be installed as a system package instead of a user package, something few users know how to do. The result is that users are less likely to use something privacy-protecting like Mozilla’s location services. Moreover, Google has reimplemented a lot of AOSP functionality in its Play Services and the industry now uses those Google APIs instead of the old AOSP ones, so loads of apps won’t even run on LineageOS.

LineageOS is a great illustration of how Google is winning. Years ago I could use LineageOS or Cyanogenmod as my primary phone just fine. Now it's very hard to do that if I want to be able to use an increasing number of apps (banking comes to mind). And now I won't be able to bank with Firefox, either.

Try e/OS/ indeed ... it works for me and many others.

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