Im going to be going on vacation and travel in November, and honestly, this is needed. I’m on the lookout for a secondary phone that i can degoogle real quick, put the neccessary apps that i need and just call it a day. I’m already prepping my family and stating that im not gonna bring my primary phone. I was wondering what do you guys use, if any of yall bring a secondary phone. (FYI: I am in the US and will be traveling internationally)
There’s plenty of older models to pick from https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices and throw LineageOS at.
Yes, i know, but that’s if i can find them. I tried that with an old Oneplus Nord N200. I immediately had to return it because it wasn’t the right build number. Those phones are not easy to find unless you get something preinstalled.
Buy a Pixel 3/4/5 cheap off eBay and put e/os/ on it.
There’s lots of others but pixels are just really easy to flash.
This depends on your definition of cheap, but you can get an unlocked pixel 7 on Backmarket for about $200 and slap Graphene on it. Depending the length of your vacation you might be able to reset the phone and return it after you’re back.
It kinda depends on what your goal is. I tend to point people towards iphones in this situation because they don’t attract attention and can be easily secured. If you absolutely gotta have Android the best choice is a pixel with graphene. You gotta make sure the bootloader and carrier are both unlocked so you can install graphene though, so that’s something to navigate.
You said elsewhere that you don’t use eBay because of their age verification. It may be worthwhile, if you are underage, to think critically about what you’re trying to accomplish here.
My vacation is just personal travel; away from work, and stress, nothing to serious.
But,due to the extreme situation thats going on with ICE at the airports, mass deportations, and tensions from Americans traveling to other countires, i just dont want anything to happen to my personal phone; if something was to happen.
Apple may be secure, but they are not private, they’re just better at hiding it. They use trackers everywhere on all their apps, and are pushing AI just like google. It dosent matter if you use a firewall VPN, blockers or anything, iOS can bypass all of that and still track you. Plus, you cant sideload anything, unless you jailbreak.
If you want to have a different Android device then your only real choice for crossing a border is graphene, assuming you care about not being detained the maximum amount of time that is legal while they apply celebrite to your phone.
In this circumstance it’s not out of the range of possibilities for dhs to get a warrant (they don’t need it if the place is close enough to a land border or international airport) and search your home or business where you left your current personal phone. They will have the home address from your passport (it’s illegal to not update it!) and will likely have no problem locating your place of business.
The problem with graphene at border crossings is that it’s made the news a bunch lately and an agent could see simply having a phone with graphene as probable cause, especially if you act like a weirdo.
The above is the reason I suggested ios devices. They resist cellebrite and look normal.
If you literally just want an android phone that you can use on vacation instead of your usual one, I hope you find some good input and resolve your needs.
Always be careful of the frequencies that the phone operates on with regards to what cellular ISPs provide in the host country.
You could easily get a phone that shares no frequencies with any ISP, and be left with an expensive paperweight that is useable only on WiFi.
Wouldnt a VPN work in that case? Even on wifi, you gotta use a VPN or you can even carry one of those portable wifi/hotspot devices. (I was actually thinking of getting one of those to try it out)
You are so wrong it’s incredible.
It’s like me saying, “you have to be careful what fuel you put in your vehicle, otherwise it won’t even start”, and then you start yammering on about the channels on the radio and how you need to set them up in a certain way for the car to work.
Bro, that kind of subject disconnect is epic.
Where is the subject disconnect? You do realize that WiFi is not secure right? Even your home wifi is not secure. Its called ISP tracking, btw.
Because I am not talking about WiFi at all. Wifi isn’t even in the picture. Wifi is 100% irrelevant to my original statement.
I am talking about the frequencies handed out to phone ISPs by each country’s telecommunications agency that determines how cell phones connect to cell phone towers in the first place.
Each country has a different mix of spectrums that they hand out, even if the same company operates on both sides of a shared border. So a phone with ISP X that works just fine in a person’s home country might be totally unable to find any kind of a signal to connect to on the other side of the border. No phone calls, no SMS, no mobile data, nothing.
This is because phones are manufactured to connect to a limited number of known domestic frequencies - so-called “international” phones are extremely expensive for this requirement of having all chips for all possible frequencies - so the phone that can work perfectly fine on one side of the border may be totally unable to connect to the frequencies that ISP X uses on the other side of the border - there is no overlap with the phone’s supplied hardware.
It pays to properly read the original comment.
I did read your comment and i mention the vpn cause i thought you were talking about untrusted celluar signals, not due to being able to just having the ability to connect to them.
Where did I mention anything about them being untrusted?
I was talking about a hardware limitation of phones, not security.
