How improve my smartphone security?

Hi guys, I'm looking to make my device more secure. I'm concern about data gathering mostly. Thanks in advance.

What do you mean by data gathering? Surveillance by Big Tech and governments? If so, the answer is that you don't use a smartphone any more than you absolutely need to, because any measures you take to improve your "smartphone security" are palliative at best. If you need it to be able to have a job, study in school, and contact important people, use it solely for those things.

Try to read the posts in the /diy/, /sec/, and /tech/ catalogs that relate to security/privacy. They'll probably give you some idea of what you need to do.

>>24134 Not big tech companies... somebody is currently looking for my information I already deactivate my whole social media accounts but I'm still using apps for communication.

>>24136 For starters, Check to disable all contact/location privileges in your phone's apps settings. If requested, refuse all of them. This next tip is not so much about your phone. If people have contacts with that person, let them know you are hiding from them. or, at least, tell them to not share info about you. And for the remaining social accounts you may have, remove all fluff and extra extra info that is not required for them. You said you deleted your social media accounts, but look at your other online accounts see if they have unnecessary info about you exposed to the public.

>>24136 What makes you think this? And is this somebody even tech literate? Do they already know your IRL identity or not?

- install grapheneOS - avoid using the phone or installing anything on it - keep it in a faraday bag when possible

>>24141 Yes, that person have one photo of me and my name not my full name. I'm using an application and that person is currently looking for me. I'm thinking to use a VPN when I'm using the app we have in common. PD: I can't stop using that app.

>>24143 >I'm thinking to use a VPN when I'm using the app we have in common. I won't say the VPN idea is totally useless, but I will say that a VPN might be useless against whoever you are hiding from. Unless that app you two share tracks your IP publicly then yeah sure go for it. (Or if you know that he can sniff data from wifi/ethernet. if you have to worry about that. he probably already knows where you are. I personally doubt it from the info you are giving us.) Really the only way they can get leads on you is if you left crumbs of you online (Sounds like you already dealt with that) or he goes around and ask people about you. Hell. just get a VPN. It's a good privacy measure on public wifis. Me and other lainons may recommend you mullvad if you can't selfhost.

Waiting for OP to reveal the app is tinder and the person they are trying to hide from is their partner.

I'm starting to thinking of replacing my smartphone with a dumbphone, digital camera, and laptops and computers/servers. I have zero interest in any kind of apps, I only need calls and SMS, behind this I only use e-mail and IRC to esporadical communication (yeah, I am not specially a social butterfly), so I can be free of this silent tyranny.

>>24130 A great ask [somebody]… no really, there is so much information I want to provide to you. Where to start, hmmmm… As a security professional, I would recommend investing your time and or money into a DNS service provider like NextDNS (even better if you can host a DNS server yourself). With a custom DNS server on your phone, you are able setup / enable block lists that can stop all types of DNS traffic like telemetry beacon-ing. It will also allow you to review the logs of your DNS traffic that your mobile device (or any device for that matter) performs so that you can action (block / whitelist) application activity accordingly. Wishing you luck! - mrb466y3y35

>>24145 Op already said they have it in common Sounds like OP is getting stalked

>>24130 root the phone install afwall+ firewall. set afwall+ to whitelist mode. whitelist only what you consider necessary, just a few things. this alone will block a soykafton of apps and os components from phoning home. the kernel is one of the main offenders. if you want to see just how much this blocks, turn on afwall+ messages for everything that gets blocked. prepare to be astonished. still, the phone will work perfectly well with only a bare minimum of apps whitelisted. maybe a browser, maybe tor browser, maybe orbot, maybe an irc client, maybe ntc if you want tor to work right, and download manager if you want to do downloads.

>>24130 >Muh smartphoon sec >Data gathering Huh?

>>24359 What would be the point? Dumbphones still broadcast your location. There is no "private" mobile networked device and a dumbphone is functionally the same as a smartphone without any botnet installed.

>>24624 >What would be the point? >dumbphone is functionally the same as a smartphone without any botnet installed. I think you just answered the your question yourself. >>24622 OP elaborated that they are hiding from someone rather than some corporate soy.

>>24621 Isn't rooting android for security like taking 1 step forward and 2 steps behind because it leaves it open to exploits and vulns?

>>24143 >>24144 does this app show your geolocation? >>24142 based

>>24628 If you grant root privilege sparingly and use it carefully, and you don't use poor opsec to get exploited, it's the same as using root privilege on any other linux. You could look at it as a power that you can use to make your phone safer or to screw things up royally, depending on how you use it. The main thing is to refuse root privilege to everything except what you know to be safe.

>>24632 thanks for the explanation. the main issue i have is trusting a ROM in general really. i get a feeling that roms these days are kinda sketchy besides big ones like graphene or lineage (and even then..). there's really only the xdg forums to see the trusthworthness of a rom and besides i often get the feeling people commenting there are only in it for stupid stuff like theme colors. do you recommend something personally?

>>24640 >roms these days are kinda sketchy Why not use GSI?

>>24640 >the main issue i have is trusting a ROM in general I was just talking about rooting the phone to use apps that require root. But beyond that, there are two big steps. One is installing a custom recovery like twrp so that you can make a nandroid backup, which can be a lifesaver if you screw up your phone. The other is what you mention, installing a custom rom. That's great for getting rid of bloatware and snoopware from the phone manufacturer, your carrier, and Google. But like you say, then you're at the mercy of the dev who made the rom. It's a matter of finding a reliable dev. And you have a better chance of that if you stick to "official" versions of roms from groups like lineageos. I always felt pretty comfortable with lineageos. I'll just say that I trust a good custom rom from a reliable dev more than I trust phone manufacturers, carriers, Google, or most Playstore app developers. F-Droid ftw.

>have no phone >have phone you don't keep sensitive information on it's that simple, or do you urgently need your content consumption device to collect a little less data on you while you take a crap

>>24674 I don't know about you, but most people don't like to have someone in the bathroom with them looking over their shoulder while they're taking a crap. I've heard there are even people who use their phones when they're not on the toilet. But I'm glad that doesn't bother you.

>>24663 i don't know, why is this not shiIIed (why the soykaf can't i say shiII mods??) like custom roms? never heard of it until i read this post. i would imagine google stripped android of all lower level functionalities but kept google services and similar to make this. is that right? >>24672 aren't lineageOS images for each phone maintaned by different developers anyway? i feel like the only solution would be to install something that requires a specific phone like graphene or i guess GSI like the other guy said and then self develop but that would probably be impossible and i don't know how to do it.

>>24625 >>24625 >I think you just answered the your question yourself. Not really, if you didn't put botnet on your smartphone, it'd still be a more capable platform with a more versatile interface.

>>24681 https://developer.android.com/topic/generic-system-image/ >A Generic System Image (GSI) is a pure Android implementation with unmodified Android Open Source Project (AOSP) code, runnable on a variety of Android devices. >GSIs include the same core system functionalities for all devices that they're installed on. In other words, a GSI does not include device manufacturer's customizations. >For Android Preview GSIs and Android GSIs with GMS, download the images from the GSI release page. >For pre-built GSI images without GMS applications, download the images from the AOSP CI site

>>24683 Anyone can download and compile a generic AOSP version of Android. Much harder is getting all your phone's hardware working with it. It's like trying to use Linux without drivers for your hardware. Still, it's a fun experiment and a good way to get started with Android development.

>>24686 is it hard to do? are there issues with the phone's security by doing this? how do you deal with AOSP updates?

>>24686 Aren't manufacturers required to make their drivers available?

>>24683 >>24686 >>24696 >>24698 It is my understanding that GSIs/'Project Treble' was designed to separate the Android OS code from the hardware-specific code. I.e., if you install a GSI (don't know why you would compile from source?), you shouldn't lose camera/GPS/etc functionality.

>>24138 >>24144 motherfuckers b scugposting itt *inhales* thank you <3

>>24130 If it were easy to hack smartphones, banks would go bankrupt. Each major bank has an app and the only security measure to prevent moving funds is an SMS. But Android's "Allow access to storage" feature does seem nightmarish.

>>24624 a dumbphone cant ping cell towers after removing the battery or can it? wouldnt surprise me if modern ones have hidden capacitors or something just for that

>>25642 That's why they male copper-lined containers/bags for cellphones. You could have it turned on with everything enabled full blast and it still couldn't ping a cell tower or anything else from inside one of those. I guess it could still record sound though, depending on the container. That's also why NSA headquarters is essentially a big copper box.