I am in need of a separate degoogled phone for some things that require high level of privacy (nothing illegal).
I have 2 phones that I can use. One of them is my business phone (it has my business number, apps, data and that sort of stuff) which is now running an OS with all the Google spyware because it's necessary for the apps to work. I can reinstall everything on the second phone and use the first one as the secure device since it supports everything I need. The problem is that it has some issues on vanilla ROMs that I don't really want to deal with and the reinstalling will take a lot of time.
The issue with the second phone is that it is rocking an old MTK chip and rooting instructions are let's say a bit beyond my ability to understand. I still want to use it without Google if possible though. So can I degoogle its stock ROM with ADB or something? And is it worth trying or there will still be some vulnerabilities?
EDIT: to clear some possible misunderstandings, the reason of why I need a separate secure phone is that I am forced to use a very invasive proprietary app that I'd prefer just keeping on a separate device instead of trying to limit its spyware abilities with firewalls and that kind of stuff. I don't trust the last solution much. Also I can't use it in a VM because I need it to always be accessible wherever I am and yk carrying a PC is not an option
One thing you can do :
- Install F-Droid app if you haven't do so.
- Install NetGuard https://f-droid.org/en/packages/eu.faircode.netguard/
- In the NetGuard settings block all apps including system apps.
- Start allowing the apps you need to have WiFi and/or Mobile Data access
- Consider donating to NetGuard or go Pro to support the developer https://netguard.me/
I don't really trust such stuff. Once I tried disabling system apps via ADB (not deleting). They appeared as disabled but still could run in the background...
to my knowledge disabled apps do not run so you must have misunderstood something
Well it was on a Redmi phone. Everything is possible there. They have like 6 spyware apps installed by default
You can't degoogle without using a ROM that degoogles. Google has built itself into the Android operating system by default and replacing it is non-trivial, like using a ROM with microG.
As another commenter mentioned, though, you can partially degoogle in other ways.
Partial degoogling isn't an option for me. Thank you for the reply though. I didn't know Google had something inside the OS except like the regular system apps
You can degoogle some phones without root, assuming they have support from a good custom ROM (the classic example being GrapheneOS on a Pixel). You'll need to look up what ROMs are available for your particular phone, and if you're lucky then there'll be a good one which doesn't require too much hackery to install.
If you're unlucky and there's nothing for that device then you probably can't fully de-google it, but you can still improve the situation by avoiding any Google apps and services. This could be by using adb as you suggest, or by managing the network as the other comment suggests, or just by using alternatives.
It all really depends on your threat model and whether or not it's worth buying a new device just for this!
Installing a custom ROM on that phone is not much less hackery than rooting it + there are no trustworthy options because the model is really really rare and it has an MTK
Then I guess I should reinstall everything and use the first phone as the secure one
Nah buying a new device is a very big deal
Ah bad luck, yeah if the first phone has better support for custom ROMs then that does sound like the better option. Just make sure you can get everything critical works on the MTK phone before you start tinkering with the other one just in case it goes wrong!
It's a real shame phones (and ARM devices in general, I think) are so locked down that they just become ewaste if someone hasn't done the work to support custom ROMs.
Agreed. Fortunately the first phone has magnificent custom ROM support
