You don't need GrapheneOS or any other specific AOSP derivative for that, any of them will do. Just don't install any Google-specific bits on the device - use microG if you need to have something resembling Google services - and you're there. Even on stock devices with Google services you can get partly there by disabling anything you don't need, only enabling it when you happen upon some app which absolutely won't run without them but first check if you can replace that app with another or - better still - a web app which can replace it. How to disable Google services you asked? Why, using a script of course, launched from a Termux widget. Here's one way to do this, using a disable/enable script (one script, two hardlinked names) on a rooted device running some stock distribution. If you try this and your phone breaks you get to keep both pieces without extra cost - in other words this works for me but might not work for you:
~ $ cat .shortcuts/Google_Services\:enable
#!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/bash
PACKAGE="com.google.android.gms com.google.android.gms.policy_sidecar_aps com.google.android.gsf com.android.vending"
PATH="/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin:$PATH"
command=$(echo "$0"|cut -d: -f2)
pman () {
action=$1
shift
for package in $@; do
sudo pm $action $package
done
}
case $command in
disable|enable)
pman $command $PACKAGE
;;
*)
echo "command '$command' not supported"
;;
esac
exit 0
> Gemini now has a second set of toggles buried in its settings menu. You can go to Profile → Apps inside the Gemini app and manually disable access to Phone, Messages, WhatsApp, or Utilities. But these are turned on by default, even if you’ve disabled tracking in the past.
Isn't this inevitable across all companies now? Apple will be doing this on their phones and devices. Facebook want to do this in your camera roll for media you've not shared with them. Microsoft are doing this in their OSs. This is the future.
99% of the user's won't care and will actually find benefit in this sort of thing.
Personally I hate it, the struggle for any sort of privacy just got a lot harder on phones for me. PC/laptop is easy, I use Linux. But for phone I need to either pay for expensive hardware and risk bricking it to install something like grapheneOS or buy cheap and disable all the Google stuff I can.
This is a ridiculous article.
There is a setting that lets Gemini learn from your data. This is not a setting to control whether Gemini can access your messages at all. Switching that setting off is not saying no to letting it control your messages and calls. It’s saying no to letting it learn from them. There is another setting you can use to disable access entirely.
" If you thought turning off Gemini Apps Activity meant turning off Gemini’s reach into your personal life, think again. Gemini is going live in your apps whether you like it or not."
I got the notification from Google about that and that made me think that they really are now a bunch of assholes with a top big joint monopoly with Apple.
The notification indeed says that even if you turned everything off, they will allow themselves in your messages, especially WhatsApp messages that are not normally part of Google or Android.
And even if it looks like that the option to disable that exist, they don't tell you about that in the notification. It looks like that you have no choice.
To be clear, what I mean by that is that they only say:
If you don’t want to use these features, you can turn them off in the Apps settings page.
But what it means "in the Apps" settings page? Does it means a settings in each individual app that my prostitute itself to Gemini?and if yes, which exact apps should I go to, to do this manual process that I don't asked for?
Right now if activity tracking is off I think you can't even use Gemini to do stuff like set alarms so it's worse than Google Assistant with activity tracking off.
Since Google Assistant is going away I think this is an improvement for people who want to keep activity tracking off.
It would also be better if you could create calendar events from the web version of Gemini with activity tracking off so you aren't punished for not letting Google train Gemini on your data imo.
I’m surprised by how much this article reads like an opinion piece even though it isn’t.
As generative AI becomes harder to ignore, broader in scope, and even more dominant as a business trend… the people whose jobs are to write about how generative AI affects our lives have just had enough. They’re smart enough to see the writing on the wall, and now they’re trying desperately to transfer that writing onto their pages.
Can they just make my Android (Google) keyboard work? I use three languages, and the dictionaries for the languages other than English are missing basic conjugations. Can Gemini perhaps help me type the next word? I been waiting for years!
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 48.1 ms ] threadBrought to you by a GrapheneOS fanboy.
That the biggest issue right now. Dependency of apps on gsf
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/22/google-cs...
They're fine with the few opt out and degraded service to them, their goal is the vast majority who will say yes.
This is one more good reason to never sign in on your android phone.
It's not as good as using graphene, but it's easier, less work, and you can't brick your phone.
The drawback, of course, is that you can't use your map, youtube or gmail account since signing in in any of those logs in the entire device.
But with microg, fdroid and aurora, it's very practical.
Tricky little buggar that one.
Still easier to avoid than rooting, but easy to get wrong by mistake.
That seems even easier to do and also lets you continue using the actually useful google products.
Some engineer probably finally got a little too much mace on a date and had to accept a “no” for once.
> Gemini now has a second set of toggles buried in its settings menu. You can go to Profile → Apps inside the Gemini app and manually disable access to Phone, Messages, WhatsApp, or Utilities. But these are turned on by default, even if you’ve disabled tracking in the past.
99% of the user's won't care and will actually find benefit in this sort of thing.
Personally I hate it, the struggle for any sort of privacy just got a lot harder on phones for me. PC/laptop is easy, I use Linux. But for phone I need to either pay for expensive hardware and risk bricking it to install something like grapheneOS or buy cheap and disable all the Google stuff I can.
Changing bank ? Well all other banks have the exact same issue in my country.
" If you thought turning off Gemini Apps Activity meant turning off Gemini’s reach into your personal life, think again. Gemini is going live in your apps whether you like it or not."
The notification indeed says that even if you turned everything off, they will allow themselves in your messages, especially WhatsApp messages that are not normally part of Google or Android. And even if it looks like that the option to disable that exist, they don't tell you about that in the notification. It looks like that you have no choice.
To be clear, what I mean by that is that they only say: If you don’t want to use these features, you can turn them off in the Apps settings page.
But what it means "in the Apps" settings page? Does it means a settings in each individual app that my prostitute itself to Gemini?and if yes, which exact apps should I go to, to do this manual process that I don't asked for?
Since Google Assistant is going away I think this is an improvement for people who want to keep activity tracking off.
It would also be better if you could create calendar events from the web version of Gemini with activity tracking off so you aren't punished for not letting Google train Gemini on your data imo.
As generative AI becomes harder to ignore, broader in scope, and even more dominant as a business trend… the people whose jobs are to write about how generative AI affects our lives have just had enough. They’re smart enough to see the writing on the wall, and now they’re trying desperately to transfer that writing onto their pages.