This was absolutely my thinking in the couple/few years I had Xiaomi and Oppo hardware. CCP doesn't know or care who I am.

Of course, no one spying on me is even better, so when I found out about Graphene I dumped my Find N5 at a pretty staggering loss to jump to that. Super anxious for them to start supporting non-Google hardware (last estimate I saw was late 2026/early 2027.)

I know a Pixel isn't available everywhere, some folks can't afford them, and giving Google money just feels wrong but a Pixel with GrapheneOS will cut off both the USA and Chinese governments.

I'd much prefer handing my data to China than any 5-Eyes country. Can't wait for my first phone with Harmony Next OS.

It's about the software. If the software is American, like iOS or Android, all your data goes to the US government.

Read the US Cloud Act. They literally have access to everything and they dont hide it.

How do you know information is going to China?

That's kind of my theory about how TikTok was. It wasn't subjected to US censorship and interests, only Chinese, so there was sort of a window where Americans could actually organize on it. Obviously that couldn't stand once authority figured that out. Hence, the sudden cows being had over TikTok being owned by China.

Why even a phone then? I'm not being facetious here it's actually a follow up on https://lemmy.ml/post/42255169/23589434 namely what do you actually need a phone for?

Maybe you are used to it and it's convenient for a lot of things you do. But do you actually need one, especially knowing that it's a legitimate threat to you?

How about no phone but a small laptop or tablet with SIM as USB dongle?

GrapheneOS is about as close as you will get.

Have burners if you want, but realize that with vanilla Android or Apple iOS on those devices, they will suck up a lot of data about surrounding devices, Bluetooth devices, and wifi networks. This can be probabalistically matched to your real identity even if you use VPNs and you aren't using any known accounts on the burners. As for GPS data, that's even worse.

Its probably best to have at least one "normie" phone you do boring stuff on, a Graphene enabled phone for sensitive-but-not-illegal daily driving, and anything spicier than that should be a burner in a Faraday bag, which you cycle and destroy/discard regularly.

No way: that’s how you get 5G Havana Syndrome.

I use Google Pixel 9a with GrapheneOS installed and as far as I know, this phone does not have any known hardware backdoors/exploits, though that might be just because I enabled every possible security option in the Privacy and Security tab of the GrapheneOS' settings.

Not sure what you mean. As far as I know, all phones are made in China/Taiwan. None are made in the US, other than the US-spec Purism device.

I was in a training course recently run by 20 year veteran of Gov cyber security (not US).

When I asked him about GrapheneOS he said it was a good option and much better than vendor android or iOS, but that he uses Chinese phones (Huawei & Honor) for his personal devices exclusively these days.

Sounds like he had a pretty high turnover though and is obviously well aware of what information is shared/leaked and I imagine his devices are as locked down as they can be.

Surprised me though.

Could be an option if you really know what you’re doing. If not you might be better with a trusted provider like Graphene OS.

Your huawei device will stick out like a sore thumb to networks, giving another vector to track you by.

Your huawei device may be subject to cutoff due to factors completely outside your control, impacting your ability to use it.

Consider getting a normal person phone and locking it down as much as you can then not using it when you need privacy. A shadow cast by nothing gives away the most well camouflaged animal.

Holy cannoli, a voice of reason! Yes.

Yes. US and the West are the cause of our need to defend our selves digitally. Besides, even Chinese Corps are better, as they can't utilize much information about you.

US phones spy to sell your data to any advertising company AND gov, Chinese phones spy on you by the gov, because control, bad for Chinese people (most using VPN because the Great Firewall, forbidden but tolerated, mainly to access US services, like Google, YT and other big US corporation, blocked in China), relative irrelevant for other countries. Means that China isn't worse than the US, less currently. Main issue by Chinese people is the control of the gov, but privacy (there isn't a private company with access to your data without consent) and social rights is way better as those from the US.

China is a country that doesn't care about the individual. If it's in their interest to give your information to the Americans they will.

The best solution is really GrapheneOS.