[tmsbrg]

I was curious about the LineageOS, so I checked and found:

"On all of the other handsets the Google Play Services and Google Play store system apps send a considerable volume of data to Google, the content of which is unclear, not publicly documented and Google confirm there is no opt out from this data collection. LineageOS collects no data beyond this data collected by Google and so is perhaps the next most private choice after /e/OS."

So the problem is Play Services and the Play store. Note that /e/OS uses MicroG[0] to replace Play Services so you can still use the many Android apps that require it. It's a really cool project and I think it's amazing how someone is like "Damn, I need a Google account for this app? I'll just write my own account manager to replace Google's!". Really that's the spirit of open source, and I hope more people become empowered to be able to solve problems that way in the future.

I think you can also use MicroG rather than OpenGapps on LineageOS, though I haven't tried and haven't read anything about it. Does anyone have some info about this setup?

[0] https://edevelopers-blog.medium.com/microg-what-you-need-to-...

[aaaxyz]

By default lineageOS comes with neither Google play services nor microg. The choice of what to install is left to the user.

MicroG is a bit more complicated to install since it requires package signature spoofing, which official lineage builds don't enable since it's seen as a security vulnerability.

[jqpabc123]

Does anyone have some info about this setup?

Yes, you can use MicroG with LineageOS. If this totally solved the privacy issue, e/OS would be pointless.

GApps is a big upper level privacy problem that microG can solve but this is not the only issue. By default, AOSP itself also sends personally identifying info to Google servers through low level system calls. The e/OS fork is needed in order to remove this.

[chuckee]

> By default, AOSP itself also sends personally identifying info to Google servers through low level system calls.

Can you explain more about this? What kind of information is sent? And does LineageOS not disable this?

[jqpabc123]

No, LineageOS does not disable this.

Personal opinion but the LineageOS project seems more concerned with security than privacy. The idea of Google hijacking your privacy for profit doesn't seem to really bother them too much. Their web site and wiki repeatedly address security but rarely privacy.

As for explaining further, I will defer to the document below from the e foundation.

https://e.foundation/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/e-state-of-d...

[rashil2000]

You can find all the required info here -

https://lineage.microg.org