this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2025
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Privacy

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I'm frustrated. I'm a long time fan of Motorola. Their phones have been pretty simple and easy to remove junk apps. Recently I got an update that forced perplexity on my phone.

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[–] LAN_Mower@lemmybefree.net 3 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Why are pixels so popular for this?

[–] AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today 27 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Pixels are (currently) the only phones that allow for all of the following at once:

  • Proper verified boot
  • Bootloader unlocking (this is most important for any custom ROM installation, regardless of ROM)
  • Hardware memory tagging
  • Full hardware isolation
  • Hardware key attestation
  • Ability to disable USB data (and also USB entirely) at the hardware level
  • Everything else on this list

In short, it's simply because Pixel currently has the most hardware level security features of any Android phone (on top of bootloader unlocking), for now. The Graphene team is allegedly in talks with an OEM to produce a phone specifically designed for it, which may be just as or even more secure. Time will tell.

I feel the need to mention that I'm not trying to shill for Graphene and especially not Google. Depending on your threat model and goal, Lineage or similar might be just fine for you. I just don't think there's anything more secure than GOS at the moment, and if that is important to you, along with minimizing bloat, it's a great choice. I do highly recommend avoiding root and instead just get something that you can unlock the bootloader for, and then install a degoogled ROM. Just make sure you don't accidentally buy a permanently locked phone, make sure it says unlocked somewhere in the listing.

[–] LAN_Mower@lemmybefree.net 7 points 5 days ago

Great write up! Thank you!!

[–] Broken@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 days ago

I'm sure its in the link the other comment provided, but I'll call out that you not only can unlock your bootloader to install your OS but you can relock it so nothing can install anything afterwards.

So if your phone is ever not in your possession you can be sure that nobody installed anything. Also keeps your phone safe from malware (at root level).