Ads – they’re everywhere. The only way to stay sane on the Internet is to attempt to mitigate the horrors of relentless ads. This article summarises how we might still keep the ads under control at the Android platform level in 2026
Interesting! I hadn’t considered that perspective. I think this is because of attempts to sandbox applications between one another right, and avoiding a single application getting all data within the device. It’s interesting for me because I am having discussions in https://lobste.rs/s/9ipypq/updates_full_disk_access_macos where people lament the lack of isolation between apps in desktop operating systems such as MacOS.
But it’s not just apps. ADB also does not get full access. Neither does the recovery (we used to be able to do full backups via TWRP, does anybody remember that?). The only party who could get full access to your data is whoever holds the signing keys - so either Google or GrapheneOS. This may be a fine tradeoff for many people but I’m not happy about it. This is not how I run my desktop Linux and I don’t think I want to run my Android like this either.
If you find a solution that works and is open I’d be interested to hear it! I’ve been thinking in this area, albeit not with a lot of effort hehe. I’d prefer not to have a phone at all, though these days there are so many apps that require a phone, like banking and so on.
Run Android with local root and/or unlocked bootloader, like Lineage OS. You lose some security such as defense against evil maid attacks but it’s very convenient and you’re fully in control
Run something like GrapheneOS, including the locked bootloader, but build and sign it yourself with your own key. If done correctly this would let you have your cake and eat it too, but it’s a bit of a hassle to set up. I think a project with proper support for this would be great.
My problem is I don’t really believe it is possible to use Android in a way that lets you be independent of Google. I feel the same way with Google Chrome. It’s like, sure, technically it’s open source but in practice most forks cannot sustain updates against such a large codebase, and Google is fundamentally hostile. I think the people behind Graphene have done a good enough job of this, working very hard to make an OS that, for example, can be used without Play Store.
Mobile devices are such a pain! I wish they hadn’t become a necessity of life and one could have a reasonably practical solution to this.
Interesting! I hadn’t considered that perspective. I think this is because of attempts to sandbox applications between one another right, and avoiding a single application getting all data within the device. It’s interesting for me because I am having discussions in https://lobste.rs/s/9ipypq/updates_full_disk_access_macos where people lament the lack of isolation between apps in desktop operating systems such as MacOS.
score 1 · canonical
But it’s not just apps. ADB also does not get full access. Neither does the recovery (we used to be able to do full backups via TWRP, does anybody remember that?). The only party who could get full access to your data is whoever holds the signing keys - so either Google or GrapheneOS. This may be a fine tradeoff for many people but I’m not happy about it. This is not how I run my desktop Linux and I don’t think I want to run my Android like this either.
score 1 · canonical
If you find a solution that works and is open I’d be interested to hear it! I’ve been thinking in this area, albeit not with a lot of effort hehe. I’d prefer not to have a phone at all, though these days there are so many apps that require a phone, like banking and so on.
score 1 · canonical
There are basically 2 types of solutions:
Run Android with local root and/or unlocked bootloader, like Lineage OS. You lose some security such as defense against evil maid attacks but it’s very convenient and you’re fully in control
Run something like GrapheneOS, including the locked bootloader, but build and sign it yourself with your own key. If done correctly this would let you have your cake and eat it too, but it’s a bit of a hassle to set up. I think a project with proper support for this would be great.
score 1 · canonical
My problem is I don’t really believe it is possible to use Android in a way that lets you be independent of Google. I feel the same way with Google Chrome. It’s like, sure, technically it’s open source but in practice most forks cannot sustain updates against such a large codebase, and Google is fundamentally hostile. I think the people behind Graphene have done a good enough job of this, working very hard to make an OS that, for example, can be used without Play Store.
Mobile devices are such a pain! I wish they hadn’t become a necessity of life and one could have a reasonably practical solution to this.
score 1 · canonical