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Comment by rationalist

2 days ago

> Press and hold a permission to assign it to the privacy switch.

So it's a physical switch in name only. No actual hardware disconnects.

Looks cool, but I wouldn't call it a privacy phone.

GrapheneOS is opensource and google won't give them any special treatment, so any modification you make to the OS is the same as grapheneOS actual and can still use any workaround grapheneOS uses to enable rcs messaging or any other carrier feature that google has tried to monopolize.

Strange nitpick. I never heard of a phone with an actual hardware privacy switch. Is that a thing? I don’t think that’s enough to dismiss the „privacy phone“ label, given it is indeed a phone focused on privacy, and that label doesn’t have a strict industry meaning.

Though to be honest the privacy switch is a gadget feature, I don’t expect anyone to have an actual use case for this

  • Several Alt phones have done this, including the Librem in addition to the others people have pointed out to you in sibling comments.

  • > I don’t expect anyone to have an actual use case for this

    The people who remove the batteries from their cellphones do.

    Actually, that would be a nice feature too, having a power disconnect switch as well.