> but almost the entire app ecosystem is corporate spyware

this is very true, but it also has a huge FOSS app ecosystem and highly polished FOSS apps.

I've recently been having Codex patch closed source apps making them work offline and greatly reducing their permissions and it works really well.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.getatoms.a...

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hybridcali...

I agree the FOSS parts are fine. The problem is that there are reasons you have to carry a cell phone, and there are not FOSS alternatives for those things.

Patching binaries of such mandatory garbage is a nice idea though!

This could solve the main problem I had with graphene in the past, which is that some applications I had to use (like for parking or charging a car or whatever) crashed on startup with a Null Pointer Exception, and the set of broken apps changed from week to week.

I imagine binary patching could be used to bypass hardware attestation checks too (you'd need to extract the key from the enclave, but that's usually pretty trivial, depending on the phone model). None of the apps I used required that.

The phones themselves are part of the surveillance state, u/privacyishuman

GrapheneOS and iPhones are generally more secure and therefore private than desktop OSes. The idea that phones are inherently worse for privacy is wrong. You can use them in airplane mode to avoid sharing your location with carriers.

The apps you use, sure, those are also optional, but using those same apps on a desktop would give them even more information about you and more power over your system.

>> The idea that phones are inherently worse for privacy is wrong.

Phones will always be worse for privacy. They are festooned with microphones, cameras and a variety of radios. The PC I am using to type this doesn't have any of those things.

My desktop computer does not follow me around everywhere. I can be assured I am not being tracked by it by not being in the same location. If I have to leave my phone behind in order to ensure I am not being surveilled, then it begs the question: why do i need a phone in the first place?

> You can use them in airplane mode to avoid sharing your location with carriers.

You can't. "Airplane mode" doesn't actually shut down everything. Carriers can still track your phone. https://undercodetesting.com/how-your-phone-tracks-you-even-...

Your phone also still collects a record of your GPS data, and that history gets transmitted back the moment you have a connection. Your phone can also still be tracked via bluetooth while in airplane mode. That's also how "find my device" works when your phone in airplane mode. WiFi data can also be collected while in airplane mode.

Airplane mode is basically a lie. It's prevents the transmission of certain specific signals from your device, but that's about it.