[tech, phreaking] Googless Android?
Dear lazyweb,
Tracfone just replaced my featurefone with a ZTE Citron running Android 5.1. (Kernel version 3.10.49-gf44e642 zte-kernel@Zdroid-SMT).
I've never had an Android device before. I sincerely don't know what I'm doing here, so feel free to make broad suggestions of things I might not have thought of. Here's what I'm wondering....
It clearly very desperately wants me to wed it to a Google account. I don't want to connect it to any of my extant accounts. I could create a Google account just for my phone, but, honestly, I don't want what's on my phone to be any of Google's business, or really to get parked in the cloud at all.
I started looking into what I can do without a Google account on this phone. Since you can't use the Play Store w/o a Gaccount, I downloaded Amazon Underground. But that requires you wed it to an Amazon account. *rolls eyes* No, I don't really want to do that either.
Is there a way to get free apps anonymously? Or as anonymously as can be with the understanding I'm the owner of record of the phone with Tracfone. I mean, if I'm not paying you money for it, why do you need to/get to know my identity? Or even get to keep a list of what apps I have associated with an anonymized account?
Or is it just the case that an Android phone w/o a Gaccount is just so crippled it's not worth the effort?
I'm from the World of Palm, where you downloaded apps at the desktop, and sent them to your device on sync at home, and it was nobody else's business what you ran, much less the contents of your apps' data. I look at the current "smartphone" ecosystem with alarm.
I mean, security/privacy is an issue. But so is not being able to do anything if you can't get signal. In the World of Palm, you can turn off networking to save battery - which these days I have to do often - and work locally. It also means I don't have to deal with network latency. I'm dubious that putting everything in the cloud is a great idea* , because then you (well, the device) have to constantly go get it.
Also, while we're at it, I would like some sort of sync or backup, but I don't want to do it to the cloud. Or at least I don't want it to be somebody else's cloud. Is there a way to do this - such that I could restore to a new physical phone, even of a different model Android phone, if mine is run over by a car - that stores the back-up on a computer that is in some sense mine, whether a local desktop machine (I have Mac OS and Debian at home) or on a hosted service I run?
Also{2}, are there Calendar apps which offer functionality above-and-beyond what comes baked into Google Calendar?
Also{3}, what do I need to know about securing my device? Not worried about state actors, worried about random crooks-of-opportunity (targetting either my device or the cloud repository when my device puts its data) and personally targeted attacks by vengeful people with no institutional leverage. I'm thinking first and foremost the sorts of behavioral things desktop users learn (don't click on links in emails from strangers, etc) and behavioral approaches to mitigate risks (like plus addressing in email), as well as configurations and security applications.
Also{4}, what are the Apps Without Which You Cannot Live and which perhaps you think I'd like.
* For the user. Clearly, it's a fabulous idea for whomever gets a copy of all your personal data for free. Why did everyone in the world forget the adage "If you're not the customer, you're the product"?
Tracfone just replaced my featurefone with a ZTE Citron running Android 5.1. (Kernel version 3.10.49-gf44e642 zte-kernel@Zdroid-SMT).
I've never had an Android device before. I sincerely don't know what I'm doing here, so feel free to make broad suggestions of things I might not have thought of. Here's what I'm wondering....
It clearly very desperately wants me to wed it to a Google account. I don't want to connect it to any of my extant accounts. I could create a Google account just for my phone, but, honestly, I don't want what's on my phone to be any of Google's business, or really to get parked in the cloud at all.
I started looking into what I can do without a Google account on this phone. Since you can't use the Play Store w/o a Gaccount, I downloaded Amazon Underground. But that requires you wed it to an Amazon account. *rolls eyes* No, I don't really want to do that either.
Is there a way to get free apps anonymously? Or as anonymously as can be with the understanding I'm the owner of record of the phone with Tracfone. I mean, if I'm not paying you money for it, why do you need to/get to know my identity? Or even get to keep a list of what apps I have associated with an anonymized account?
Or is it just the case that an Android phone w/o a Gaccount is just so crippled it's not worth the effort?
I'm from the World of Palm, where you downloaded apps at the desktop, and sent them to your device on sync at home, and it was nobody else's business what you ran, much less the contents of your apps' data. I look at the current "smartphone" ecosystem with alarm.
I mean, security/privacy is an issue. But so is not being able to do anything if you can't get signal. In the World of Palm, you can turn off networking to save battery - which these days I have to do often - and work locally. It also means I don't have to deal with network latency. I'm dubious that putting everything in the cloud is a great idea* , because then you (well, the device) have to constantly go get it.
Also, while we're at it, I would like some sort of sync or backup, but I don't want to do it to the cloud. Or at least I don't want it to be somebody else's cloud. Is there a way to do this - such that I could restore to a new physical phone, even of a different model Android phone, if mine is run over by a car - that stores the back-up on a computer that is in some sense mine, whether a local desktop machine (I have Mac OS and Debian at home) or on a hosted service I run?
Also{2}, are there Calendar apps which offer functionality above-and-beyond what comes baked into Google Calendar?
Also{3}, what do I need to know about securing my device? Not worried about state actors, worried about random crooks-of-opportunity (targetting either my device or the cloud repository when my device puts its data) and personally targeted attacks by vengeful people with no institutional leverage. I'm thinking first and foremost the sorts of behavioral things desktop users learn (don't click on links in emails from strangers, etc) and behavioral approaches to mitigate risks (like plus addressing in email), as well as configurations and security applications.
Also{4}, what are the Apps Without Which You Cannot Live and which perhaps you think I'd like.
* For the user. Clearly, it's a fabulous idea for whomever gets a copy of all your personal data for free. Why did everyone in the world forget the adage "If you're not the customer, you're the product"?