What do I give to Google when I use my Android phone?

[anon(10324754)]

Note: Not asking about privacy policies of MSFT vs Google. Just about Google.

I am experimenting, like a lot of us non-converted I'm guessing, with an Android phone and was wondering how much Google still knows about me despite trying to opt out of using their services. I have switched off all that I can with regard to what's on my device, that is, disabled the apps (not really because I'm afraid of using them, but I just think they're crap) and I have also turned off all google permissions, including play services. I've also never signed in to a google product. All apps seems to work although play services seems to work in the background despite being off. I guess my question is: for someone like me who wants to reluctantly change over, is there any point to making an effort to do this or would Google know just as much about my info as someone who is fully invested in the crappy google services?

 

[dov1978]

Turning off Play Services will stop so many things working properly like OTA updates etc. There's really no need to be turning that off

 

[Old_Mil]

What I did was go to settings > apps and disable everything Google (including chrome) I could except for the store and play services. Those are the bare minimum things you need to get and use third party apps.

Then install launcher 10, Microsoft launcher, or blackberry hub and replace as many Google functions with third party, Microsoft, or Blackberry services as possible.

For example, based on your UI preference you can pick either Outlook or BlackBerry Hub as your email client instead of the Gmail app, Brave, Firefox, or Edge instead of Chrome and so on.

 

[RumoredNow]

What I did was go to settings > apps and disable everything Google (including chrome) I could except for the store and play services. Those are the bare minimum things you need to get and use third party apps.

Then install launcher 10, Microsoft launcher, or blackberry hub and replace as many Google functions with third party, Microsoft, or Blackberry services as possible.

For example, based on your UI preference you can pick either Outlook or BlackBerry Hub as your email client instead of the Gmail app, Brave, Firefox, or Edge instead of Chrome and so on.

+1 for BB Hub. Just started using it and it really keeps the Gmail that you need for Play from intruding into your Contacts, Calendar, Email, etc.

I use SRware Iron Browser. All the site compatibility of Chromium without the hairy eyeballs of Google looking in. Very privacy forward. Only issue I have is that it won't sync along to what I have on my desktop because Google won'y let it. Classic jerk move.

Sounds like you are the right track. Good luck.

 

[Timbre70]

Turn off data connection.

 

[xandros9]

They would likely know less but honestly I'd go to an iPhone before trying to jump through all those hoops. Google Assistant requires you let them track what apps you use, how often, record your voice queries, search queries, browsing, etc... where I don't need to agree to that to use Siri to read me my messages or tell me the weather.

 

[tgp]

Here is an interesting article by a journalist who compared his experiences in getting his data from different tech companies.
Apple took 8 days to give me the data it had collected on me. It was eye opening. - USA Today

 

[neo158]

Note: Not asking about privacy policies of MSFT vs Google. Just about Google.

I am experimenting, like a lot of us non-converted I'm guessing, with an Android phone and was wondering how much Google still knows about me despite trying to opt out of using their services. I have switched off all that I can with regard to what's on my device, that is, disabled the apps (not really because I'm afraid of using them, but I just think they're crap) and I have also turned off all google permissions, including play services. I've also never signed in to a google product. All apps seems to work although play services seems to work in the background despite being off. I guess my question is: for someone like me who wants to reluctantly change over, is there any point to making an effort to do this or would Google know just as much about my info as someone who is fully invested in the crappy google services?

Why not just root the phone and install a ROM like Lineage OS, no Google software is included in it so you'll be good to go.

 

[Michael Flintof]

Same question here.
Which information is kept by google from background services.?