Hey guys, how would you rate iOS vs Android for privacy? I read recently that Android pulls up to 10x more data off of your phone (for data mining) than iOS and that overall, iOS is really the mobile OS of choice when privacy and control of your data is a priority.

Anyone have any hard evidence to support this?

@RantSomeWhere points on AOSP noted, but in my experience with flashing custom roms, getting a 100% functional device was hit or miss - one component or the other didn't work depending on the phone I had.

Since I'm looking for a more pick-up-and-use flow, I guess iOS is the lesser of the two evils?

@RantSomeWhere Couldn't have said it better myself, 👌

@RantSomeWhere alright, now when you say no Google services, you mean no Google Play Services or no YouTube, Maps, etc.? I hear YouTube and stuff are dependent on GPlay Services on Android.Is it the same on iOS?

Apple encrypts your data so that if a government approaches then, they can say, "dunno, it's encrypted" and as we saw, they won't unlock phones, at least in the US. China or the EU may be a different story.

@kshep92 The best way to find out is to build applications for both Play Store and App Store.

Measure the time it takes for you to release the same application to both stores after typing 'build'.

If you own Pixel 3 or 2 look into https://seamlessupdate.app
Otherwise get a iPhone configure it without iCloud.

@itsundef I think the latter is the more appealing route seeing that I'll be replacing my mom's and my wife's phones with whatever I decide to go with.

Sure Apple will collect some data, but at least my phone won't be a fire hose spraying my personal information at advertisers and other interested parties. It does mean that I'll have to put up with Apple's questionable design decisions, but... 🤷‍♂️

Thanks for all the feedback, everyone!

@iAmNaN Is there any source code which can prove this? (And also that it doesn't contain anything like backdoors)

@linuxxx not that I know of. Just a bitter battle between the FBI and Apple over unlocking a phone used in a terrorist act. The battle went on long enough that the FBI finally hacked the phone without losing all the data.

@RantSomeWhere that's some good suggestions there. I'm noting all of them 👍

@RantSomeWhere

Hope that you found it useful!

You should check this new OS for smartphones called /e/ (e.foundation). It is focused around privacy and free from the Google bloatware. It doesn’t track you all day and doesn’t scan your phone for your private data. You can still install Android apps like Uber and so on. I’ve been using it on my Samsung Galaxy S9 and I’m not going back to stock Android. Here is their web site: https://e.foundation