this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2025
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Invasive Israeli-founded bloatware is harvesting data from Samsung users (smex.org)
submitted 1 week ago by yogthos@lemmygrad.ml to c/technology@lemmygrad.ml
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[–] Justice@lemmygrad.ml 17 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Real question:

Anyone know which phone brands/manufactures are made 100% in China for Chinese population consumption primarily and 1) work in NA and 2) are easily set to English as the UI language?

I figure it may be better to just accept whatever possibility of backdoors Chinese intelligence may build into their electronics as opposed to western (mainly Israeli and US) intelligence backdoors.

I've seen some brand recommendations in the past but figured some of you nerds might have some knowledge on such things. My understanding is it's sometimes difficult to get the phones connected on NA (US) providers.

[–] Bart@lemmygrad.ml 12 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Maybe look into a Pixel and install GrapheneOS. It's not Chinese, but still a good compromise I think.

[–] CriticalResist8@lemmygrad.ml 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

This is the recommended method by Richard Medhurst, specifically a Pixel because they have better hardware security (latest tech). Chinese manufacturers don't prioritize or worry about security at all, it's apparently just not a priority for them.

@Justice@lemmygrad.ml

[–] BassedWarrior@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Who is Richard Medhurst? And why is google the one at the forefront of safe hardware??

Edit: Because I want to get a new phone, but having Google hardware seems like too much of a cognitive dissonance for me, and I'd prefer sticking to smth Chinese, ideally.

[–] CriticalResist8@lemmygrad.ml 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I agree with your impression, but apparently it's really the best. With grapheneOS though and anything from google wiped, you only want the pixel for the hardware. Medhurst is an investigative journalist who covers palestine among other things. He is/was sometimes on Iran Press TV. I don't think he's an op because he's been harassed by the police several times, had his equipment seized etc.

Your phone still connects to a cell tower, satelites and even other devices when you want to use it and chinese manufacturers don't worry about security because it's not a worry in China, so the hardware doesn't have any of these features. according to him at least.

[–] Swinging6917@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 week ago

Exactly. I understand the confusion from some people who aren't as technical but thinking a Chinese phone is safer just because it isn't from an American company is not how any of this works. None of them have even remotely comparable hardware safety features than an iPhone or a Pixel does. That's not me saying Chinese phones are bad, it's just that it's not a concern in China.

[–] YoSoySnekBoi@kbin.earth 7 points 1 week ago

This is what I did and I couldn't be happier - ironic that a phone made by Google can be the most privacy-respecting one out there with the right OS

[–] linuxuser9000@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I'd say try a fairphone with lineageOS degoogled. It's private & with driver support for ages edit: i havent had it but itll probably work

[–] Swinging6917@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] linuxuser9000@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 1 week ago (2 children)

ah, got it. is there a private rom that works on a fairphone? (ik lineageos might do that, it can be degoogled lineage degoogled

[–] Swinging6917@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Private? Sort of. Secure? No, and obviously if you're hacked it's not gonna be private either. Please stay far away from Fairphone. They may be good for sustainability reasons but they can't get their act together when it comes to making their devices even remotely secure. Not just that, they make a bunch of false promises about it.

Stay far away from LineageOS as well since you can't even relock the bootloader and establish secure boot.

Seriously though, simply put, anything other than an iPhone or a Pixel running GrapheneOS is a train wreck from a security standpoint. Samsung flagship phones technically rank third but it's a distant third. Keep in mind the vast majority of custom Android operating systems (they are not ROMs) will actually make things even worse.

[–] linuxuser9000@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm looking for alternatives from the pixel drivers being removed from the AOSP.

[–] Swinging6917@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

GrapheneOS will still be able to provide support. Google is making it more difficult but nothing that can't be worked around.

[–] linuxuser9000@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I mean, yes, but its more worrying like about 10+. I run grapheneos also.

[–] Swinging6917@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You can read about their progress on the Pixel 10 here: https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/25099-pixel-10-still-too-early-to-ask-us-when-it-will-be-supported

It will likely be supported, it just might take a while.

[–] linuxuser9000@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 1 week ago

ok, i'm just a bit worried on it asto if itll ever be supported.

[–] TankieReplyBot@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 week ago

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

[–] cfgaussian@lemmygrad.ml 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I figure it may be better to just accept whatever possibility of backdoors Chinese intelligence may build into their electronics as opposed to western (mainly Israeli and US) intelligence backdoors.

It's definitely better. I say all the time to libs: even if you think China will spy on you, what can they actually do to you if you live in a western country? Nothing. Even if China was as malicious as liberals think, they still can't do shit to you so long as you don't go to China. But your own government definitely can.

If you live in the US, your biggest danger is the US government and the corporations that spy on you on behalf of the US government. The same applies if you live in a country whose intelligence agencies collaborate with the US and that has extradition treaties with the US. Even if you hate China with a passion, western tech corporations and governments are objectively by far the bigger threat to you, your privacy, your data and your personal safety.

[–] Arachno_Stalinist@lemmygrad.ml 10 points 1 week ago

Personally I use Xiaomi. (Before that, I used Vivo. Both are Chinese companies btw) Their phones are pretty high quality despite their cheap price compared to other phones of similar quality, but they put ads in their system apps (But this can be mitigated through various means) and have a few analytics-related settings, but you can turn those off after snooping around in settings if you're concerned about privacy.

[–] Swinging6917@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 1 week ago

Frankly it doesn't matter where your phone is manufactured or where the company's headquarters are. Even a backdoor in your modem is not gonna infect any modern operating system. Sure they can pinpoint your location but they can do that anyway just using cell tower triangulation. If you're concerned about that, just use airplane mode as much as possible.

Use GrapheneOS on a Pixel 8 or later. The reason why it only runs on Pixels is because no other phone manufacturer meets their security standards. Get it second hand if you don't want to support Google. The reason why it should be a Pixel 8 or later is because that's when they added support for hardware memory tagging, making it exponentially more difficult for you to get infected by Pegasus and other spyware. Honestly it's probably the most powerful hardware security feature developed in the past decade.

The only other phone with support for memory tagging is the brand new iPhone 17, nothing else supports it at the moment. Sure I guess this means you could also use an iPhone as long as you enable lockdown mode on it and make sure advanced data protection is enabled on your iCloud account.

A Chinese phone won't protect you against Israeli spyware. It just isn't designed for that from a technical perspective.

[–] yogthos@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 1 week ago

I'd love to know as well, as well as which ones I'd be able to run most common apps on. Unfortunately, you're also tied into an ecosystem here. For example, I end up having to use stuff like Slack for work.