How bad is Android for privacy?

[SpaghettiCarbonara]

If you don't think privacy is an issue, please close this tab.

I'm thinking of getting a new phone (finally sick of WP8.1 after 3 years, never needed to switch but the shit app store got to me) and I can't afford an iPhone. I've heard Android is really bad for privacy, but is it just a matter of flicking a few switches in the settings and being vigilant?

[GirlFromYonder]

3 minutes ago, SpaghettiCarbonara said:

If you don't think privacy is an issue, please close this tab.

I'm thinking of getting a new phone (finally sick of WP8.1 after 3 years, never needed to switch but the shit app store got to me) and I can't afford an iPhone. I've heard Android is really bad for privacy, but is it just a matter of flicking a few switches in the settings and being vigilant?

No, like take android as the linux of mobile oses,it is so open source that it is up to you to make it good for privacy

[deWaardt]

Android is just a bad for privacy as Google is.
 

Really, nothing's gonna happen to you.

It's fine.

[ThinkWithPortals]

6 minutes ago, SpaghettiCarbonara said:

If you don't think privacy is an issue, please close this tab.

I'm thinking of getting a new phone (finally sick of WP8.1 after 3 years, never needed to switch but the shit app store got to me) and I can't afford an iPhone. I've heard Android is really bad for privacy, but is it just a matter of flicking a few switches in the settings and being vigilant?

It's fine. If you're really paranoid just tweak a few settings. Eg: Location off, OK Google off, Send Event Logs To Google off, etc.

I have an Android device (Nexus 6P) and it's fine. Just don't install suspicious stuff, change whatever settings you feel are necessary and you're golden.

[manikyath]

basicly, dont do anything on your phone that you want absolute privacy over.

 

google doesnt care about your kids, they dont care about your bank account, they dont care if you want to overthrow the government.

 

they provide a free product (google platform, and android) and in return they get user metrics (age category, gender, general interests based on what you access trough the google platform and android) to serve you with ads you are more likely to care about, meaning google gets more money for serving those ads.

 

in the end: they collect data about you that honestly a random bypasser on the road could find out about you, and use that (for profit offcourse, its a capitalist society...) to serve you ads that you tend to care about more. which i honestly prefer over them having no idea, and me getting dieting, tampon, or car ads 24/7...

 

EDIT: actually, that was a really good analogy: google is a random bypasser on the road, dont ask google about things you wouldnt ask a random bypasser on the road. you may ask them about the nearest computer store, but i doubt you'd ask a random bypasser about where the closest "adult content" store for your deepest secret desires is.

[manikyath]

10 minutes ago, ThinkWithPortals said:

It's fine. If you're really paranoid just tweak a few settings. Eg: Location off, OK Google off, Send Event Logs To Google off, etc.

I have an Android device (Nexus 6P) and it's fine. Just don't install suspicious stuff, change whatever settings you feel are necessary and you're golden.

at least google lets you decide what to track. i used to use the location by wifi access point stuff, and it did wonders with telling me the right weather infromation for the location i was at at that moment. now i've turned that off, and its defenately not nearly as accurate anymore  (still okay-ish tho)

 

as for the suspicious stuff.. at least on android it tells you what the app needs access to, if a clock widget needs access to your phone call and text message records, you know shit's not right.

[paddy-stone]

Too wide of a statement to get a definitive answer to it really. Android is the OS, it has bugs same as any other OS really. Then you have apps, if you download any old crap that says "free money if you install this" or something similar then you may have privacy issues there I'm guessing.

Hidden below as it's a long speech and want others to skip it if not interested, LOL

Spoiler

 

Android has been a fantastic OS for me, have been using it for approx 9 years now and it's just getting better all the time.. most of that could be down to the hardware getting better, but the UI is definitely more acceptable now I think. I have tried Apple products and to be honest they feel like they were made for idiots and children, they work fine don't get me wrong, but they don't like you to have permissions to do stuff on your own phone/tablet, so if you have a problem with an app (my brother has an apple ipad) you can't just close the app and restart it, like force close it, I had to actually shut down the pad and restart completely... I couldn't find anything in the settings like you would on android, so unless I just couldn't see it then that seems crap to me. I like customising my phone/tablets, being able to put another ROM on it is amazing and can often fix bugs that were present in another build. And if you don't like it you can load in your backed up ROM that you had previously, with all your settings etc intact (as long as you backed up first of course).

I persuaded my other brother to get another android phone as he kept complaining about his windows phone too each week when I saw him, then I'd try to help him and could in some cases, others I couldn't... then his battery died on him and he'd only had the phone maybe 6-12 months. I ordered a n Elephone p9000 lite for approx $190 I think it was... it is such a fantastic phone, and my brother is pleased with it, occassionally he'll have a problem, but nothing major and then nothing that usually can't be remedied with at worst a restart, which is pretty fast anyway. 4g is brilliant and he even got a good signal with 3G at my house (which I can't), lol.

 

Anyway, if you get a decent enough phone for your needs, I think you'll be pleased with Android

 

(sorry for the long speech)

[SpaghettiCarbonara]

Thanks for the responses, guys.
 

11 hours ago, ThinkWithPortals said:

It's fine. If you're really paranoid just tweak a few settings. Eg: Location off, OK Google off, Send Event Logs To Google off, etc.

I have an Android device (Nexus 6P) and it's fine. Just don't install suspicious stuff, change whatever settings you feel are necessary and you're golden.

That sounds pretty similar to what it's like on WP. I suppose on Android you can get things you can't get on WP, such as VPNs, better firewalls, full phone encryption and all that. At least that's what I've heard.

I don't mind tweaking the settings, I do that a lot on WP anyway.

I guess my concern is over things like... Say you turn off your location, but your phone still sends location data to Google, or you turn off OK Google but it's still listening, you know? There's been reports of that sort of shit happening on W10, I'd hate for it to happen on my phone. Then again, I think it's kind of a decent tradeoff for the better app store... I don't know.

 

11 hours ago, paddy-stone said:

Too wide of a statement to get a definitive answer to it really. Android is the OS, it has bugs same as any other OS really. Then you have apps, if you download any old crap that says "free money if you install this" or something similar then you may have privacy issues there I'm guessing.

Hidden below as it's a long speech and want others to skip it if not interested, LOL

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Android has been a fantastic OS for me, have been using it for approx 9 years now and it's just getting better all the time.. most of that could be down to the hardware getting better, but the UI is definitely more acceptable now I think. I have tried Apple products and to be honest they feel like they were made for idiots and children, they work fine don't get me wrong, but they don't like you to have permissions to do stuff on your own phone/tablet, so if you have a problem with an app (my brother has an apple ipad) you can't just close the app and restart it, like force close it, I had to actually shut down the pad and restart completely... I couldn't find anything in the settings like you would on android, so unless I just couldn't see it then that seems crap to me. I like customising my phone/tablets, being able to put another ROM on it is amazing and can often fix bugs that were present in another build. And if you don't like it you can load in your backed up ROM that you had previously, with all your settings etc intact (as long as you backed up first of course).

I persuaded my other brother to get another android phone as he kept complaining about his windows phone too each week when I saw him, then I'd try to help him and could in some cases, others I couldn't... then his battery died on him and he'd only had the phone maybe 6-12 months. I ordered a n Elephone p9000 lite for approx $190 I think it was... it is such a fantastic phone, and my brother is pleased with it, occassionally he'll have a problem, but nothing major and then nothing that usually can't be remedied with at worst a restart, which is pretty fast anyway. 4g is brilliant and he even got a good signal with 3G at my house (which I can't), lol.

 

 

 

 

Anyway, if you get a decent enough phone for your needs, I think you'll be pleased with Android

 

(sorry for the long speech)

Thanks for that dude. Don't worry about it, I like long, detailed posts

I think I might go for it, but I don't know much about which phones are good. I'm thinking of getting one around $250 AUD, anyone got any good suggestions or should I post this in a new topic?

Edit: I reckon I'll have a look at the Samsung J5, it looks like it has the best specs for the price.

[paddy-stone]

11 hours ago, SpaghettiCarbonara said:

Thanks for the responses, guys.
 

That sounds pretty similar to what it's like on WP. I suppose on Android you can get things you can't get on WP, such as VPNs, better firewalls, full phone encryption and all that. At least that's what I've heard.

I don't mind tweaking the settings, I do that a lot on WP anyway.

I guess my concern is over things like... Say you turn off your location, but your phone still sends location data to Google, or you turn off OK Google but it's still listening, you know? There's been reports of that sort of shit happening on W10, I'd hate for it to happen on my phone. Then again, I think it's kind of a decent tradeoff for the better app store... I don't know.

 

Thanks for that dude. Don't worry about it, I like long, detailed posts

I think I might go for it, but I don't know much about which phones are good. I'm thinking of getting one around $250 AUD, anyone got any good suggestions or should I post this in a new topic?

Edit: I reckon I'll have a look at the Samsung J5, it looks like it has the best specs for the price.

No worries, There are two suggestions for you:-

 

1) If you want/need a warranty, go with something like you have already looked at, ie the Samsung j5. Or get a recommendation from a friend that has a decent Android phone.

2) If you're not too worried about warranty, you can get better specced hardware generally by buying one direct from China, have a look at  http://www.dx.com/

http://gearbest.com/

 

I would suggest deciding on what matters to you most, phone size/battery capacity/4G/3G/screen resolution/camera resolution/video camera resolution/OS version/easily rooted etc