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by krn 1146 days ago
> When a custom ROM, even a "degoogled" one, is made, you include a customized kernel and custom drivers, and the AGPS URLs are part of this "driver".

Thanks, this should be the top comment.

Both, Sony and Google, provide driver downloads for their smartphones[1][2].

In this case, the tested "de-Googled" OS (/e/OS) did exactly what it promised to do: removed all network connections made by Google – and not by Qualcomm or anybody else.

Since Pixel smartphones now use Google's own Tensor chips (which are based on Samsung Exynos), they obviously don't make any connections to Qualcomm servers.

This blog post is clearly an ad for NitroPhone, which is simply a Google Pixel smartphone with a different open-source OS pre-installed.

GrapheneOS[3] is only targeting Google Pixel line-up at the moment, and therefore is able to make sure that even A-GPS URLs are "de-Googled" on the latest models.

But the older Google Pixel models with Qualcomm chips make exactly the same connections – from the driver, not from the firmware[4]:

> GrapheneOS has modified all references to these servers to use HTTPS rather than a mix of HTTP and HTTPS. No query / data is sent to the server.

[1] https://developer.sony.com/develop/drivers/

[2] https://developers.google.com/android/drivers

[3] https://grapheneos.org/

[4] https://www.reddit.com/r/CalyxOS/comments/pym8l1/comment/hev...
2 comments
greggsy 1146 days ago
> This blog post is clearly an ad for NitroPhone

Thanks - somehow I completely glossed over that possibility. This kind of biased rage bait has no place in privacy stories.

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IYasha 1143 days ago
Literally hours after your post I'm reading this: Founder of GrapheneOS Daniel Micay hit with a Swatting Attempt https://nitter.takebackourtech.org/i/status/1650947535500898...
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krn 1143 days ago
It seems that there is something very wrong with the entire Android privacy community, because fighting between different open-source projects in this space never stops.

From the technical point of view, only Daniel Micay's GrapheneOS currently takes security really seriously by providing constant system updates. It seems that you either have to use GrapheneOS, or buy an iPhone, if you care about both – security and privacy.

The people who are attacking Daniel Micay often incorporate a lot of his work into their own projects. And, naturally, that might make many of them feel inferior or even incompetent – if they are doing this for years to stay in the competition.

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