Comment by kuschku
14 hours ago
So it doesn't actually do anything to give control of the device back to the user?
One of the core tenets of truly free software is that I as user must be able to run, access, edit, and view everything.
14 hours ago
So it doesn't actually do anything to give control of the device back to the user?
One of the core tenets of truly free software is that I as user must be able to run, access, edit, and view everything.
You are free to make your own build of GrapheneOS with root access and have extremely reduced security. Just don’t expect support on the forums and waste everyone’s time when something happens.
"extremely reduced security"
That's such a fun statement.
Any security measures taken always remove agency from one person and give it to another.
iOS takes my control away, and in turn gives that control to Apple. GrapheneOS takes my control away and gives that to the GrapheneOS developers.
The "security" you're talking about doesn't prevent certain data from being accessed, it just changes who controls the access.
If the user cannot be trusted with their own data, then there is no solution anyway. They'll just tell their private data to a scammer on the phone instead.
There is no solution against a user that wants to give their own data away, but if you try to prevent that, the only thing you'll accomplish is destroying general purpose computing.
The sad part is that this has a solution. It's called adb root. Your adb stays locked unless you unlock it, and you're not able to get root on the phone. But you can through the adb shell, meaning that when app X wants to screw your data away from you you can still copy it. There is something deeply wrong about locking filesystems even from read access. GrapheneOS should at the very least give a full read-only access to the fs through (possibly) limited adb access.
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Root access takes agency away from you and gives it to 3rd party software. It doesnt expand freedom at all, it just allows other software to abuse the user.
With a proper security model and verified boot, you can be certain you, the user, are running exactly the OS you expect to run. You can also properly revoke permissions to software and gate access as you see fit. With root, you cannot guarantee you are running what you expect and apps have to exploit much less to get root access, or just keep root access if given by the user. You cannot revoke godhood, it can just lie and say you revoked it. There is nothing enforcing any security features.
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>If the user cannot be trusted with their own data, then there is no solution anyway. They'll just tell their private data to a scammer on the phone instead.
Security isn't binary. Putting up barriers makes it harder for scammers to steal money. There's a reason why they exploit malware to steal money, rather than asking their victims to send them crypto directly.
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