[Q] privacy aware "google free" rom for GT-I9195?

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No_Signal

Senior Member
Feb 28, 2014
83
19
Hello,

I'm going to take the jump to a custom rom on my s4 mini. Yet I've tried to enforce my privacy on a non-rooted samsung android 4.2.2 with NoRoot Firewall, SRT: AppGuard and F-Droid apps.
From my own search OmniROM would be the one I'd like to go for but it is not available to the s4 mini. Next one wold be Replicant that is neither available to the s4mini. CyanogenMod + freecyngn would help with the proprietary parts, something I'm also looking for (as some custom roms use e.g. Nova launcher) but doesn't get rid off googles own call back/tracking/identification services in use (I don't/won't use).

Thanks for your help in advance!
 

No_Signal

Senior Member
Feb 28, 2014
83
19
I am curious, what do you use for email? your own email server?

a German email provider via pop3, encrypted with PFS and DANE/DNSSEC, ip-stripping, anonymous payment, no sale/trade of data, their Linux-server encrypted with dm-crypt/LUKS, internal connections encryted with SSH and TLS, harddrives (mails on it) encrypted therefor too, etc.
 
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chemicalrage

Senior Member
Oct 17, 2011
1,220
763
a German email provider via pop3, encrypted with PFS and DANE/DNSSEC, ip-stripping, anonymous payment, no sale/trade of data, their Linux-server encrypted with dm-crypt/LUKS, internal connections encryted with SSH and TLS, harddrives (mails on it) encrypted therefor too, etc.

woah...that's crazy. What OS do you run on your PC/Laptop? Did you check out http://prism-break.org/en/ ?
 

No_Signal

Senior Member
Feb 28, 2014
83
19
I don't want to go into this too much as it might become rather a positional discussion/debate on principles.
In no way I'm speaking for everyone here, don't mean to offend anyone and if it helps read it as my personal opinion:
Most likely Germans (Europeans) have another view on privacy due to their history and experience and are sensible to it.
[censoring myself and cutting it down to] a hypothesis what for Americans is their right of freedom of speech, is for Germans right of privacy which threatened.


Back to topic please :)
 

sysKin

Senior Member
Sep 10, 2013
67
54
If I understand correctly, any ROM that doesn't have gapps built in (which is most/all bigger releases) will do what you want. Just don't install gapps manually :)
 

chris42too

Senior Member
Jul 19, 2013
137
98
Hello,

I'm going to take the jump to a custom rom on my s4 mini. Yet I've tried to enforce my privacy on a non-rooted samsung android 4.2.2 with NoRoot Firewall, SRT: AppGuard and F-Droid apps.
From my own search OmniROM would be the one I'd like to go for but it is not available to the s4 mini. Next one wold be Replicant that is neither available to the s4mini. CyanogenMod + freecyngn would help with the proprietary parts, something I'm also looking for (as some custom roms use e.g. Nova launcher) but doesn't get rid off googles own call back/tracking/identification services in use (I don't/won't use).

Thanks for your help in advance!

Would be interested if you find something. So far I did not have luck, so running a patchwork of privacy extenions
- cyanogenmod
- freecyngn
- xprivacy
- afwall+

I am as far as possible away from any google apps, but even every other app is pretty much gathering data they won't need to function.
Funny side effect is extended battery life, since a lot of the syncing and data usage is cut out. :D

You might also look into compiling and doing some changes to cyanogenmod yourself, as getting strong ciphers otherwise is pretty hard.

Regards
Chris
 

No_Signal

Senior Member
Feb 28, 2014
83
19
If I understand correctly, any ROM that doesn't have gapps built in (which is most/all bigger releases) will do what you want. Just don't install gapps manually :)

Nope, that's not correct - even without gapps your android mobile will phone home to google. There are still parts of the system that are open source and communicate with Google (eg. AGPS and captive portal check). These are just some examples.

Though CyanogenMod always claimed to be open-source, there were only few versions that had an open userspace (Some drivers and firmware have always been proprietary, but it's not CMs fault).

The first CM version I ever installed on a device was CM7 and it contains koush's proprietary ROM Manager app. CyanogenMod 9 seemed to have no proprietary parts, but since CM10 they included Google Analytics Client library (libGoogleAnalyticsV2.jar) within cmstats in the settings app (so it's not even possible to disable it). In CyanogenMod 10.1 CMAccount was included. It relies heavily on Google's Cloud Messaging service and includes the proprietary Google Play Services Client library (google-play-services.jar).

There are some people here at xda (including myself) that installed CyanogenMod because it does not ship GAPPS and is a fully (except vendor files) open-source and free rom. Since i noticed it's not, i started building CM without these closed-source stuff, but it's a pity to do so. That's when the idea of freecyngn started.

[TOOL/SCRIPT] freecyngn - Removing proprietary userspace parts from CM10+
 
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No_Signal

Senior Member
Feb 28, 2014
83
19
Being completely anonymously in this world never was an option for me because it simply takes too much energy.
However, since I already have all applications I need there's really no sense left in using gapps right now, they annoy me.

I can't contribute much for the current problem of privacy but want to throw in some hope for the future (availible from 2015):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galile...on)#Political_implications_of_Galileo_project

The Galileo Project might become one part of the puzzle.
Something I'm looking forward to is Liberate your Android device.
 
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    Hello,

    I'm going to take the jump to a custom rom on my s4 mini. Yet I've tried to enforce my privacy on a non-rooted samsung android 4.2.2 with NoRoot Firewall, SRT: AppGuard and F-Droid apps.
    From my own search OmniROM would be the one I'd like to go for but it is not available to the s4 mini. Next one wold be Replicant that is neither available to the s4mini. CyanogenMod + freecyngn would help with the proprietary parts, something I'm also looking for (as some custom roms use e.g. Nova launcher) but doesn't get rid off googles own call back/tracking/identification services in use (I don't/won't use).

    Thanks for your help in advance!

    Would be interested if you find something. So far I did not have luck, so running a patchwork of privacy extenions
    - cyanogenmod
    - freecyngn
    - xprivacy
    - afwall+

    I am as far as possible away from any google apps, but even every other app is pretty much gathering data they won't need to function.
    Funny side effect is extended battery life, since a lot of the syncing and data usage is cut out. :D

    You might also look into compiling and doing some changes to cyanogenmod yourself, as getting strong ciphers otherwise is pretty hard.

    Regards
    Chris
    1
    If I understand correctly, any ROM that doesn't have gapps built in (which is most/all bigger releases) will do what you want. Just don't install gapps manually :)

    Nope, that's not correct - even without gapps your android mobile will phone home to google. There are still parts of the system that are open source and communicate with Google (eg. AGPS and captive portal check). These are just some examples.

    Though CyanogenMod always claimed to be open-source, there were only few versions that had an open userspace (Some drivers and firmware have always been proprietary, but it's not CMs fault).

    The first CM version I ever installed on a device was CM7 and it contains koush's proprietary ROM Manager app. CyanogenMod 9 seemed to have no proprietary parts, but since CM10 they included Google Analytics Client library (libGoogleAnalyticsV2.jar) within cmstats in the settings app (so it's not even possible to disable it). In CyanogenMod 10.1 CMAccount was included. It relies heavily on Google's Cloud Messaging service and includes the proprietary Google Play Services Client library (google-play-services.jar).

    There are some people here at xda (including myself) that installed CyanogenMod because it does not ship GAPPS and is a fully (except vendor files) open-source and free rom. Since i noticed it's not, i started building CM without these closed-source stuff, but it's a pity to do so. That's when the idea of freecyngn started.

    [TOOL/SCRIPT] freecyngn - Removing proprietary userspace parts from CM10+
    1
    Being completely anonymously in this world never was an option for me because it simply takes too much energy.
    However, since I already have all applications I need there's really no sense left in using gapps right now, they annoy me.

    I can't contribute much for the current problem of privacy but want to throw in some hope for the future (availible from 2015):
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galile...on)#Political_implications_of_Galileo_project

    The Galileo Project might become one part of the puzzle.
    Something I'm looking forward to is Liberate your Android device.