Try Universal ADB Debloater, you can probably remove most spywares from it. Surely I can't trust it as much as a FOSS rom, but from my quick network inspection my samsung stock rom with UAD makes pretty much no network connection at all.
this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2025
39 points (95.3% liked)
Privacy
39849 readers
603 users here now
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
Try Universal ADB Debloater,
I don't see that in the Play store.
Have you tried searching before commenting?
https://github.com/Universal-Debloater-Alliance/universal-android-debloater-next-generation
Have you tried being nice, the link you provided wasnt for the playstore and not everyone is as digitally literate as you.
Sorry if I sounded mean but this is a privacy community and search engine is literally where you go to search for things you don't know.
Have you tried searching instead of coming straight to a group of nerds focused on privacy and crying about something not being in the Play Store, which many of us avoid like the plague?
If your opsec was so great you'd realise I was not the OP and just found the comment to be dismissive.
Communities thrive on dialogue and providing context and links can help with longevity for the community and platform.
A quick Qwant search gives github link as first result
If I run a vpn on it then the Googled OS may still know my location(from wifi and bluethooth scanning that it may be doing nonstop)
The VPN has nothing to do with your phone's location settings.
would the vpn only mask my activity from my internet service provider?
Yes, plus it's a shared server so it makes it harder for websites to know your location or to track your activities across sites.
It can mask your ip from other sites, some have adblocking on them too.
I personally use PiVPN which gives me access to PiHole so I have adblocking on the go.
So like Google still gets stuff, but I figure in trying to get privacy, every little helps.
Just an FYI, pivpn is in a weird semi-maintained mode. You're probably fine, and I loved using Pivpn, but wg-easy is more maintained.
Oh i didnt know that! Thank you! I'll have a look
like i wrote under your last post, install netGuard as a VPN and activate "manage system apps" which will permit you to block google calling home
also, with ADB you can uninstall almost anything (be careful!)
you can also choose a dns which would block those (mullvad, for example
Worth doing, I’d also recommend looking into ADB and removing Gemini and other google apps. It’s not an ideal setup but perfect is the enemy of good
Yes. Exactly.
But why give your ISP (or any wifi you connect to) all your browsing habits?
It's either them or VPN provider, but with most VPN providers you lose ipv6