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A Move to a More Ethical Phone (Later) (beehaw.org)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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So my roommate has informed me that Android and Motorola donate to Republicans more than Democrats whereas Apple does not, claiming this as a reason that the iPhone is better than an Android phone. While I could find statistics confirming the fact about Motorola, I don't even know what they were referring to when they mentioned Android and I tried looking for "Android" and "Android Foundation" and came up with nothing. If they're referring to the fact that Android, while it's an open sourced project, is maintained by Google, I'm already aware of that and would like to de-google my phone as much as possible (note: my phone is a Motorola Moto G Power (2022)). I however couldn't find any stats to support the Apple claim and my roommate has yet to provide me with any sources.

In any case, for my next phone, I'd like to move to a more privacy-focused phone. I've heard about the Fairphone, but re this comment, I'm slightly dissuaded from getting one when it comes to the US. I got a Motorola phone in following the advice of this post regarding the safety of the hardware used, but I might want to switch off of the phone when it comes time to upgrade to a new one down the line.

I'm not sure what to go with, so feel free to give me tips on that. Also I've wanted to install an alternative OS on my phone but all the ones I've seen aren't compatible with my phone at the moment.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

e-waste is unethical, try keeping your phone if you can. keep an eye out for LineageOS and see if they end up making a port for your device. if your plan is to de-google your life, stock android can also do that just fine for you. iirc, there are no google services on stock android.

i stand by my comments about fairphone. there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. if you are dead-set on a new device, look into getting a used/refurbished pixel phone and installing GrapheneOS. you won't find a more private/secure phone mobile system, it's vouched for by Edward fuckin Snowden. try get one of the newer models (6 or 7 series) because you'll get longer software support life.

the fairphone still isn't a bad option if you want the hardware to be as ethical as you can realistically manage, fairphone uses several fairtrade gold sourced parts, has open schematics and is almost fully repairable. just bear in mind that it is not designed to last on the software side and fairphone's priority is straying towards profit; it's the 'lesser of two evils' in my mind, i guess.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

keep an eye out for LineageOS and see if they end up making a port for your device

I know that playing with experimental OS's is like playing with fire, but would there happen to be a way to help contribute to that?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

that's beyond my ballpark, i'm not a software guy so i only ever contribute money. this page is on their website, maybe give it a look and see if anything seems doable to you.

https://wiki.lineageos.org/contributing