[Cider9986]

You're conflating 'complete anonymity from everybody' with 'privacy.' GrapheneOS doesn't claim to be anonymous.

They're not the same thing. GrapheneOS reduces what apps, the OS, and Google can collect about you. That's where the vast majority of privacy issues occur.

Cell tower metadata is a separate, narrower issue at the baseband layer, and it's addressable if you care to. 'It's not privacy unless it defeats every adversary at once' is a standard nothing meets. If you took that standard to dismiss real improvements you'd never use any privacy tool.

Is it that crazy that a cell network can know where you are? Of course it knows where you are—you couldn't connect to it without being in range.

Also, we don't have to hold phones to a higher standard than computers. It is your choice to use them with a Sim card, just like it is your choice to use a hotspot for your computer.

Authentication is not dependant on the phone and is the exact same no matter what device you are using. Saying that "using apps and websites that require authentication" makes your phone not have privacy is ridiculous. You can remove privacy from any device by streaming it's screen to youtube. GrapheneOS is private by default, and let's you make it less private.

ps you should blog again, even if it was very cynical from what I can find ;) (https://archive.is/Xx7uR)

[mattmaroon]

We were specifically discussing privacy from government as that’s what the original post is about. The FCC making cell providers check IDs like a bank will have no privacy ramifications in any other regard. My provider knows who I am, gives my government any info they want (probably all of it without even having to be asked, possibly without their knowledge), and sells it “anonymized” to all sorts of people. Graphene won’t help with any of that. I’m sure it is wonderful in other ways, but they’re just not ones that rank on my list of concerns.

And you’re right I should.