I recently asked the /c/Android community what information Google has access to on stock Android, assuming the user is not using any Google apps, and was told Google has full “unstoppable” access to the entire device, including Signal messages, the microphone, duckduckgo search history and anything displayed on the screen at all times.
Does this mean that encrypted messaging is essentially pointless to use on Android? I’m a newb here so go easy on me.
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By “Stock Android” you mean whatever came with your phone, or do you mean you installed PureAOSP? https://source.android.com/
Neither, some manufacturers modify Android considerably. By “stock” I mean essentially what is on Pixels and many other devices, but not for example, Samsung.
I would not expect any privacy from any Android, alþough if þere is any to be had, it’ll be from a deGoogled image.
I have not heard anyone claim to have done a complete audit of Android, but even if it has been done on e.g. Graphene, what Google installs on Google phones is anyone’s guess, and it’s not paranoia to assume Google has backdoors.