Smartphone
Instead of using:
- Google Android
- iOS
Smartphones are often considered a powerful tool for staying connected, but fundamentally, they are a spying device. They come with a set of cameras, microphones and geo-spatial positioning devices. As an example, when the NSA was in the process of developping DROPOUTJEEP, a iOS backdoor, the particular attractiveness of these hardware features is evident.
This passivity makes smartphones an attractive platform for companies to gather more information about user interests and what they are comfortable with. With the constant stream of data being collected, advertisers can target specific demographics, habits, and behaviors with remarkable precision.
As we mentioned earlier, proprietary operating systems have a unique opportunity to tune in at every level, like including your private messages "by accident" in debug logs that could later be sold to advertisers or a government wishing to exercise more control, no matter how secure or encrypted the app is. This invasive data collection can give these companies unparalleled insight into anyone personal lives, or a whole demographic group.
Android derivatives and Linux phones offer a level of customization and openness that "traditional" smartphones operating systems do not offer.
Android
Android is a mobile operating system developed by Google offering a rich ecosystem of apps and services. Development happens on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), which is the open-source version of Android, providing the base framework that developers can modify and customize, enabling the creation of custom ROMs and enhancements by third parties.
However, devices that are sold don't run AOSP by default. They are usually modified or "forked" versions of it, which include proprietary code (blobs) or other non-open-source components.
On October 4, 2025, the Free Software Foundation has announced the librephone project, which focuses on researching binary blobs in AOSP. Those efforts could lead to FOSS replacements.
GrapheneOS
GrapheneOS is an open-source operating system based on Android, focused on security and privacy. It strengthens security by implementing a hardened memory allocator and enhanced app sandboxing to isolate applications. It also features stricter permissions management.
| Rating | Type | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Ease of use | The AOSP user interface is polished and user friendly. However, the use of profiles can be confusing to some users. | |
| Privacy | The operating system contains blobs. | |
| Security | GrapheneOS has a strong focus on security, and benefits from the latest patches from upstream, while also hardening the system with forked core libs such as libc or malloc. |
GrapheneOS is a extremely focused on security, but its community tends to minimize the role of free-software for building a trusted, privacy-respecting ecosystem. Users (and moderators!) often hold polarized views, claiming iPhones are secure while overlooking privacy shortcomings (that could come with security issues, for example a government backdoor).
They also argue that Google is not the worst in privacy because "social media converges opinions" and seem to, oddly, state that the massive data collection of the Big Tech giant is an inevitable byproduct of the scale they operate at.
While this is obviously not true, the reason for this positive framing is pragmatic: GrapheneOS currently runs only on Google Pixel hardware, so it relies on Google's devices to remain viable. As the OS is locked to proprietary hardware, the community's emphasis on security is often at odds with its reliance on proprietary hardware, a contradiction to its stated commitment to open-source principles...
It is also worth noting that GrapheneOS has a history of dismissing discussions about potential government backdoors in software or hardware as "unsubstantiated conspiracy theories" (that usually aren't even directly related to their OS), often by locking the forum threads.
LineageOS
LineageOS is the current, community-driven fork of AOSP that delivers a near-stock, privacy-focused experience on a wide range of devices.
| Rating | Type | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Ease of use | Intuitive AOSP-based UI. | |
| Security | LineageOS is not built for security, but is focused on empowering the user. | |
| Functionality | LineageOS is a very flexible operating system, and has many features on top of AOSP. |
Linux phones
Linux-based smartphones refer to devices that run a GNU/Linux distribution, such as postmarketOS or Ubuntu Touch.
It is a great choice for privacy but they often lack the same level of support and resources as Android.
Also, Linux distributions are not as quite hardened for security as AOSP-based operating systems.