Many of you who watch this channel are still using iPhones, which I refer to as a normie phone. Every time there’s an Apple event, these same people have their mouths salivated the prospect of some new iOS device. And there’s another group who have actually tried using a special kind of phone called the googled phones, but don’t actually understand what it’s for and are quick to dump it and go back to the normie phone. But week after week, I reveal new dangerous technologies found on the new normie phones. All of those charged during the January 6th capital riots were found and identified because of a normie phone and a surveillance feature called geolocation.

So far over 1,000 people have been charged. But if you had a de-google phone, you wouldn’t be identified with that group since it doesn’t allow geolocation. OK, let’s say it clearly. The Google phones have superpowers. That’s just an example of one of these powers. So if you don’t use one, you must really like to be watched. But some will say that the Google phones have limitations and that it is an inconvenience. So you give up these superpowers for the little inconveniences. Today, I will explain to you what these superpowers are by comparing them to normie phones.

And I will also discuss the inconveniences of these kinds of phones. In the end, you will realize that you don’t really have much of a choice because there’s no alternative. If you want to understand what I’m saying, stay right there. First, let’s define terms. What exactly is a de-google phone? The term, as it suggests, implies that it is a phone with Google removed. This isn’t a simple process. I have very detailed videos explaining how that’s done. But in general, a de-google phone means that the OS is based on the Android open source project or AOSP.

Remember that little detail in the name, open source, and this is based on Linux. This project is actually managed by Google. It is freely available to all. But Google specifically excludes any code that it considers as proprietary to them, which fortunately is good for us. The advantage of this to Google is that hardware makers can quickly test new Android hardware and device drivers without waiting for Google to complete their own proprietary software and coding. Today, 70% of phones built in the world, around $3 billion a year, are actually designed to run Android. Thus, there’s a lot of economists of scale and a lot of Android phones share parts.

The term de-google, though, means a variety of operating systems, not just AOSP itself. Most of the popular de-google OSes, which are derived from AOSP, have additional features added and are also themselves open source. Examples of popular de-google OSes are Lineage OS, Calyx OS, Graphene OS, E-Foundation OS, and we have our own, which is Brax OS. Brax OS is a fork of the Lunar OS project. All of these are based on AOSP, as I said. Not every phone can be de-googled. It takes a lot of work for a developer to customize AOSP for a particular phone model.

For example, Calyx OS and Graphene OS focus on Pixel phones. Brax OS is only for Brax phones. Lineage OS supports the most models, including Motorola’s, LG One Plus, and so on. iPhones are not possible to alter in this way at all. Some manufacturers also make the choice not to allow de-googling, like Samsung on U.S. models. In general, for what I will discuss here, I’m not going to push you to use any particular de-googled OS. I personally prefer using Calyx OS on Pixel phones and, of course, I use Brax OS on the Brax phones. I make this choice because of user feedback.

These have resulted in the least amount of tech support because they’re more fitting for general use and are more user-friendly. But the general benefits are the same if you use these popular ones. In order to explain the unique superpowers of de-googled phones, I’ll talk about the differences between a normie phone and a de-googled phone. Normie phones are quite attached to their master. There’s a hard-wired connection, and I’m saying that facetiously, between an iPhone and Apple and between a Google Android and Google. These phones call home constantly. Every few seconds, you will see the critical effect of this later.

But in contrast, de-googled phones have no home base. There is no corporate master that monitors what happens to the phone. The effect of this is obvious. For example, if a Google Pixel running standard Android has a one-day battery, a de-googled phone has a two-day battery. So the communications with home HQ is 50% of the battery life. Superpower number one, it has no boss. Normie phones always have a name. The moment you get an iPhone, you give it your Apple ID and then a Google ID. A standard Android phone starts with a Google ID. But it goes beyond a Google or Apple ID.

Phones have hardware identifiers, like the IMEI, International Mobile Equipment Identity, MAC addresses for each network hardware. It has several. And it has other secret little identifiers embedded into the security chips inside the phone. Since the OS is made by Google and Apple, they can clearly read these identifiers constantly. For example, if you’re stupid enough to go rob some Apple store, good luck with that. Those devices you steal are obviously known and will not work. So you better dump them immediately or the next few little features will bite you in the butt. Now, in contrast, a de-googled phone has no Apple ID or Google ID since you never log in to a de-googled phone.

In addition, there’s no home to call, so no entity is around to transmit identifiers to. Thus, de-googled phones cannot be identified by Big Tech. This will have more importance as we go through more differences between phone types. Superpower number two, it has no identity. A normy phone is always in critical care. Its vital signs are always being monitored. Blood pressure, heart rate are recorded, and the nurse and doctor will regularly examine it. The normy phone is never actually free to roam. The technical term is telemetry. Every app launch is sent to HQ. Every app download is sent to HQ.

Every click is sent to HQ. Every permission is sent to HQ. It is constantly babysitting or really spying. There’s always some benign excuse by Apple and Google. For example, you might forget where your car is parked. You might forget where you live. You might forget where you go to work every day. So the phone has to remember for you. Little clues about telemetry. Go look at the reports of app usage, even by time, or how much network traffic was consumed by each app, or how much space. This is all sent to Google and Apple.

In contrast, there is a complete absence of telemetry on a de-google phone. This telemetry is part of what causes that 50% battery life use on normy phones. A de-google phone doesn’t need to report any activity to any party. Superpower number three, it doesn’t report to anyone. This is one of the most complex subjects in normy phones. And frankly, one that is the most significant threat, in my opinion. Normy phones are subject to 24-7 location tracking. Now, many people have been sold on the idea that there’s some privacy on a normy phone. Why? Because there are location permissions.

Let’s be clear on this. Location permissions apply to third-party apps. It does not apply to Apple or Google, both of which track your location in so many ways 24-7. It reports locations to HQ constantly, and it is part of the data telemetry. Google stores this geolocation data in what it calls the Google Sensor Vault. This was the information that was used to charge over 1,000 people in the January 6 riots at the Capitol. I don’t know what Apple calls their database. I’m sure they want to keep it quiet. There are many reasons for collecting location information.

For example, both companies need it to create a location map for Wi-Fi triangulation. Your locations are actually tracked based on the location of Wi-Fi routers, and not GPS, which does not work indoors. So Apple and Google are constantly collecting Wi-Fi router locations near you, which obviously is based also on your location. Next, Apple and Google needs locations for Find My Phone features, which, as you know, is extensively used by parents to keep track of their teenage kids. Apple and Google also need to know locations for trackers like the Apple AirTag, again, based on the locations of phones near it.

This is also directly tied to the BLE mesh network that both these devices participate in. Finally, Apple and Google built in contact tracing. This is where Bluetooth devices can see other Bluetooth devices nearby and can report this to HQ. Now, this is an important detail. Location data is accompanied by identity data, so big tech can always know where you are at all times. Now, that is a long explanation for location tracking on normie phones, but the short explanation for the Google phones is this. It has none of these. There’s absolutely no HQ to report any location data.

There’s no Wi-Fi triangulation or contact tracing or AirTags or any of this nonsense. So this location telemetry is completely absent. Superpower number four. It doesn’t allow anyone to secretly locate you. The hot feature of new flagship phone models is the new AI chip on these phones. Apple just announced their A17 Bionic. Supposedly great stuff. These new AI chips can actually be instructed by those same HQs of Apple and Google to observe its environment, examine your photos and files and your camera and report like secret agents if there’s anything found that matches the search instructions.

Hey, no human is doing the searching, so it must be a good thing. It’s only Skynet doing the search, so it’s not like Big Brother. So great stuff for big tech, but not for you. This is actually one of the scariest new features of new phones and this can be taken to unlimited levels without any of us knowing. The more powerful the chips, the more specific the search instructions can be given from recognizing faces to recognizing emotions of people that observes. This already exists, but the clarity of the analysis can only improve. Yes, these same chips will be found on a Google 8 if you have that as a Google phone.

But here’s the difference. There’s no one to give instructions to the Google phone AI chip, nor is there any party that can receive the results of the instructions. So the hardware may be the same between a Google Android Pixel 8 and a Calix OS Pixel 8, but there will be no communications. Superpower number five, it will not allow AI chips to be used against you. This is such a disturbing topic to me. Because of the Google ID and the fact that Google has telemetry tracking of every normie phone, your Google ID is always known with anything you do on the internet.

This is true when you access third-party sites and platforms. If you’re using a different device nearby, they’ll connect the two and they do what is called cross-device tracking. All based on knowing the identity of your phone and the constant telemetry of what you’re doing on it. They can even enforce the connection of the phone with your computer or a platform using two-factor authentication with your phone. The point is that to use a normie phone means that every click on the internet is tied to your identity. This is absolute fact and very scary that someone knows so much about you.

But with a de-Google phone, there is no identity. And so even if the phone has internet activity, Google specifically does not know who the user is. There is no substitute for this. I will not give up a de-Google phone just for this reason alone. Superpower number six, your internet activity can be anonymous. So to pull this all together, the biggest negative that people say about de-Google phones is that they’re more inconvenient. I will list the typical things that are potentially inconvenient and then we’ll judge these later against the advantages of these phones. First, de-Google phones do not run many Google apps.

I’m talking Google Drive, Google Docs, YouTube, and Gmail. Actually, they can run but you have to use the browser on the phone. They cannot run as native apps because that would require the little spy modules that allow telemetry. Now, strangely enough, Waze works on de-Google phones and we have successfully integrated even Google Maps on phones and they’re fine as long as you don’t log in. We’ve actually tried Google Dialer, Google Contacts, and though they may add some spy activity to the phone, it is possible to use them. So it is not a dead end.

Another common inconvenience is the lack of support for any AI voice recognition. So you can’t use Google Assistant to talk to your friendly AI. Well, I offer no substitute. This is the kind of crapware that has no solution. Another complaint relates to paid apps or apps that require the Google Play Store such as those with in-app payments. Okay, I get that. A de-Google phone has no Google Play Store. So you can’t log in and give your credit card to Google nor can it associate the purchase to your identity. So yes, this is a dead end.

Though very few apps are actually paid nowadays. My guess is that without it, you live. Next is banking. Part of the security modules of the proprietary Google code like Google Safety Net is tied to Google’s database of certificates filed away by the vendor of the app. Since there’s no connection with Google, there’s no way to connect to Google to validate apps. And this is often used by banking apps to make sure you’re not installing some rogue banking app with the same name. Google Monitor is a Play Store for such apps, so this is not such a likely threat now.

However, when apps do not work, you can still always use the browser. Again, there are very few total dead ends. Using the browser is definitely part of the inconvenience to some. Some of these sites want to push you to use the actual app instead of a website and often the website is not well supported. I’ve had this experience. Unfortunately for that site, my answer is to dump the platform. We all have our priorities. Mine is not to pander to apps that want to destroy my privacy. So here’s the thing. Yes, I mentioned some of these inconveniences and there may be more little things, like someone complaining about conference calling or voicemail, which may not operate as seamlessly as an iPhone.

Or someone saying the AOSP camera software doesn’t use the fancy AI features for editing as the normie version. I get that. But in exchange for some of these inconveniences, you want to be watched 24-7. So we have to weigh the choices. I can understand that sometimes some jobs may require the use of a standard phone. For example, some doctors are required by a hospital to use particular apps so they can be contacted. But these apps do not work on a de-googled phone for some reason. Or sometimes you need apps like Uber or Lyft because you make money from it and these are connected to a Google Play Store.

So they will not work on a de-googled phone. I get that. In which case you can do what I do. I have an extra phone. So I do have a Googled Android for testing and for 2FA with Google to maintain my YouTube channel. I have an older iPhone. Both are turned off and in a fair day bag when not in use, which is 99.999% of the time. Maybe turned on once a year. The point is that because I have a de-googled phone, I have a choice. If you have no de-googled phone, you have no choice.

God forbid you accidentally run into a situation like the January 6th type of riot or some anti-Israel protest that you don’t want to be identified. You have no choice. I always like to have a choice. Frankly, after many years of using de-googled phones, I just don’t rely on the phone as my primary computing device. I rely on a computer more. The phone, to me, is a necessity of life, but it doesn’t have to dictate what I do. Folks, I do have a store where we sell pre-made de-googled phones. Currently, what we have in stock are pixels of theirs models with most being near $400.

And these are flash with Calyx OS or some other OS of your choice. We will also flash your phones for you as a service. Later on this year, we’ll have a new model, the Brax 3, but that is still many months away. This new model will be for USA use specifically and not for Verizon. You can also use the phones without a SIM card by using our Brax virtual phone product. We also have other services like Braxmail and BytesVPN. All of these are on my platform, Braxme. You can sign up there and you will see the store.

We do not collect identifying information to sign up, so don’t worry about that. Thanks for watching and see you next time. [tr:trw].

See more of Rob Braxman Tech on their Public Channel and the MPN Rob Braxman Tech channel.