I see the Graphene bois still like shittalking other ROMs. Not exactly the kind of behaviour that builds trust, but we're used to it by now.

Yes, other ROMs make compromises, as do the people using them. Saying that all others are "bad for privacy" is just bullshit. Anything is better than stock Android.

I personally do not use long press power for flashlight, but your requirement got me curious, and I tried to replicate it.

This is doable, but seems to require more permissions. I downloaded KeyMapper from F-Droid (https://f-droid.org/packages/io.github.sds100.keymapper/), and added a new key map with Long press Power trigger and Toggle flashlight action. However, this application requires Accessibility permissions (because you are overriding system maps ig), Camera (for flashlight), Network (I think it sends an adb command via wireless debugging to do the toggle) and unrestricted battery usage.

As for the speed data, from a surface level search, I found these two apps:

1. NetUpDown (https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/com.by_syk.netupdown): This shows a floating window (instead of the notifications bar) with the network speed.

2. Traffic Light (https://f-droid.org/packages/com.leekleak.trafficlight/): This displays the network speed as a notification, but shows the incorrect data for me for some reason.

Theoretically, it should be possible to just mash the functionality (/code) of these two to get what you want (thanks to open source).

e/OS does this too

Go to Settings, then Apps. Choose your app and then select mobile data usage (or similar, since I translated this from german). There you can find a switch for disallowing network access for the app. Works great

I'm not a dev, I just use the os. Personally I had issues that prevented me from using it, but they have added great compatibility for Android Auto and for RCS.

To clarify since you're mincing my words, I said:

1. Others are bad for security
2. Others are not really that great for privacy

Yes grapheneOS increases privacy compared to stock and so do other custom OS, but the key is that grapheneOS does not compromise security but instead increases it compared to stock OS.

Other custom OS lag behind with patches, and grapheneOS is the only custom OS I have heard of where their security patches are actually added back into stock Android.

This is such a soft response and I've seen it in a lot of places. People cry and call it shit talking because the devs point out flaws in other operating systems.

Check out iodeOS
Its a LineageOS fork but more privacy friendly. They support many phones and deliver security updates much faster thab /e/os

When I switched to Graphene a month ago, I was expecting to make a lot of concession for privacy, security and to get rid of Google.

But honestly, it just works great and while it is meant to be used without google, WhatsApp and all those spywares.

You still have the ability to use them if needed but sandboxed and in a different profile. It makes it so that the switch is easier and not a all or nothing.

The only thing I struggled with was using something else than Google Maps and Obtainium at first.

There is a
AXP-OS, but it doesn't support unpriviliged MicroG and they focus on their 'PRO' (rooted) version, which you have to use if you want microG + AVB.

A big thanks for doing all that research!

I had kind of a fix for the flashlight, but this is much better. KeyMapper is really polished, the icon doesn't do it justice (I'm superficial like that).
I could customize the press duration, vibration, all good stuff. Only thing missing is a timeout.
I did have a bit of a weird behavior, with actions sometimes launched during button press and sometimes only after release. It seems to be fixed for now.
For other users: I did grant root to the app but don't know if it was required for this function.

Traffic Light is again a well made app, but it updates too often and I don't like persistent app notification in the drop down window. I'll give it a try though.

It depends on what phone you have and what you're looking for.

For me, personally, I went for e/OS as it allowed me to buy a fairphone and support a hardware manufacturer without putting money in Google's pocket for a pixel.

A modular repairable phone was more important than which ROM i used. Though i do wish e/OS had some features graphine has

That is absolutely a conundrum. I'd rather support repairable hardware than even getting a used Pixel. By GOS seems like a great OS. I'm at least a couple months out from making the switch so I have a lot of time to agonize over it at least.

Oh, you're right. I guess I've only gone through the permissions and not the mobile data entry in the menu. Thanks.

(I don't use my old e tablet often anyway. It's old.)

Nice!

Being open source is not the only benefit of MicroG. It massages some (many) of the queries, removing as many bits of identifying information as possible. It lets you replace Google Location services with BeaconDB. And some other stuff.

These are all privacy wins. Practical ways to maintain as much of the functionality as possible, as much of the convenience, while minimizing the amount of information that is sent to Google (among others).

They come with a compromise in security. So this comes down to threat modeling. To use the naming from privacyguides.org, is your model includes "surveillance capitalism" but not "targeted attacks" then MicroG might even be better.

e/OS, while far from perfect, also adds a feature that blocks requests from tracking services using a blocklist. You can get that in 50 other ways, but this one does not drain my battery at 3x the speed, so I like it.

I do not claim that /e/OS is "better" than GrapheneOS, just that other ROMs can be a very good choice, depending of the user.

There is a reason why GrapheneOS is the golden standard, and if I were a journalist or activist in many parts of the world I would definitely stick to that and only that.

But that is why threat modeling exists. My threat model allows me a little more latitude, so I am not restricted to buying Pixels in an era when Google seems to be slowly undermining GrapheneOS, and I can choose a different manufacturer with better ethics. Among other things.

Thank you for reading that, and for supporting the idea that these topics are worth discussing about, and different people can reach different conclusions.

Also notice a couple more useful posts in the responses to my post, courtesy of a users who decided to verbally disagree instead of just downvoting.

Of course, no question that with threat modeling you can arrive at /e/OS being an acceptable choice. However threat modeling is difficult and the devil is in the details, which is why I'm responding (mostly for the benefit of other readers of this thread) to provide the GrapheneOS side of things and avoid the impression that /e/OS offers unique or generally superior features in the areas we are discussing.

Here is GrapheneOS's network location implementation details.
https://grapheneos.org/features#network-location

First a technical thing which is not obvious to me.

I understand that the general, non-proprietary Android system service would uses a privacy preserving service like BeaconDB. From what I understand, Google offers an alternative, proprietary, location API in its Play Services. Is that one also prevented from giving your location to Google of you're using Sandboxed Google Play?

It's an honest question. I assumed that the provider option I had in MicroG was exactly for that purpose, but I could be wrong.

Next, a small rant.

Bloody hell, I really do appreciate your politeness, but how is it that every damn article about privacy starts with threat modeling, but every discussion about privacy ends with "yeah but if your threat model does not require QubesOS you're doing it wrong"?

(I use Arch BTW)

Why is Proton not The besteht move?

How? I'm on LOS right now.

Oh wow holy shit after all these years I learned this. Thank you!

Sure thing

LineageOS is not "Google-free". The OS still connects to various Google services by default, even without Google Play Services installed.

https://lineageos.org/
https://www.kuketz-blog.de/lineageos-weder-sicher-noch-datenschutzfreundlich-custom-roms-teil4/

Obviously Graphene OS is the current gold standard for privacy, but you can run a Lineage OS device without Google Play Services, with only free/libre software installation sources, and without the telemetry for those users who can't or won't use current GOS. This is obviously a considerable improvement over a Chinese or other commercial manufacturer.

But, yes, if you can run GOS rather than LOS, you should.

This pretty much not adressing what I said at all. I use LineageOS myself and it's miles better than the Stock Operating Systems of most if not all devices they support. But we shouldn't mislead people, LineageOS is not fully "degoogled" and uses some Google services, even without the Google Play Services installed.

You're engaging in a strawman. Privacy is not a boolean choice, there are degrees. Making a few connections to some Google servers is not the same as having stock Android.

You seem to be unable to understand simple English, so I'll end the conversation here.