This is the second time I’ve come across this story.
If you look closely, random people are not being taken aside for being seen with a Pixel as the headline would have you believe.
What is true is that Graphene OS on a Pixel is a popular, easy setup that can’t be cracked open with Cellebrite et al., and that makes the piggies very sad. Methinks someone wants readers to fear using Graphene OS.
Also, Graphene has that duress mode, you set a pin/password that when entered locks out storage, does a wipe, while leaving grapheneOS in place. It seems US citizens maybe needing this in the future.
If autocrats manage to fully take over, they’ll just enact a policy that assumes you’re guilty of the charges if the phone, for whatever reason, gets wiped (especially after entering a code you provided). Your “right to silence” isn’t gonna last forever.
You can’t fix an abuse of power issue with a technological solution, its only a bandaid, and it will stop working when blood keeps gushing out (aka: the instutions of democracy starts to completely fall apart)
It needs to be a smarter mode where it only removes specified content (apps, browser history, and saved passwords maybe), so that the phone looks plausibly used when it unlocks.
90% of cases they want your chat history and maybe search queries. You would need a decoy history because no history is very suspicious
Lol I’m gonna look sus af since I have zero friends I don’t talk to anyone.
Hide an encrypted version of the history in a bunch of memes that make up the entirety of the fake history? Sounds like a great idea if they don’t spend too much time looking.
Where can I find these hacktools ? I have a whole damn bunch of android 9 phones I can’t root because their bootloaders are non-unlockable and that pisses me off.
Back in my day, hackers would just publish that shit in 2600 zine, now they’re all corporate sellouts selling on 0day to the fucking fed.
xda probably has that
Grapheneos is only installable on unlocked phones. Specifically pixels. There is a complete list on their site
You could ask Moxie Marlinspike of Signal messenger. I heard he has an older version of cellebrite laying around.
I doubt these tools would help you. They are primarily for pulling data off devices, spying on them, or controlling them.
Even if you could buy them as a private individual you wouldn’t want to pay that cost. There might be pirated versions, but most who have use of these tools have no interest in pirated software.
There are extremely skilled people who make a living finding vulnerabilities, so there’s not a lot of low-hanging fruit left and those who find serious vulnerabilities have generally worked hard to do so.
When a single exploit can pay enough that you could pay off all your loans, buy a house, or not have to work again for years, or maybe ever. Why would you go through all the trouble of finding it to release it publicly and get nothing? Especially when it’s going to be used by these shady companies either way.
I’m not saying exploit selling is morally right, it certainly isn’t, but if I was offered millions of dollars to do the wrong thing, I’m not sure I would turn that down.
This used to be funded by academic and research outfits, functional releases justified their funding and that was enough. But some unethical entities have started paying big money for exploits as weapons, profiting from their put into profitable use. So the academics now just sell them on gray and black market to the highest bidder.
Headline is not true.
A police spokesperson from one Spanish region told that they suspect of people carrying google pixel phones because they are commonly used by drug dealers with GOS installed. It was made more as a comment than as a serious threat.
I have heard nothing about any actual confiscation based on phone OS being made.
All this comes from one quote
Every time we see a Google Pixel, we think it could be a drug dealer
There’s a paywall that can be removed with the element zapper of uBlock
I mean, as long as they don’t have evidence, the cops can think what they want, right?
I could be a serial killer. I am not, but… I could be!
In fact, I remembered incorrectly, the Pixel phones that were seized were put in packages that prevented data from being deleted remotely.
Spanish police are allowed to hack phones to counter illegal activities
In the particular technological war between drug traffickers and the police, an important element has recently come into play: Trojans. With judicial authorization, the police infect traffickers’ phones and thus gain access to most of the applications, images, and documents on a device
Oh of course it’s not because you carried a Pixel, but when your Pixel showed up on the tower, we started sniffing your shit and the people you associate are quite unsavory persons so we’re going to audit you and maybe if find some illegal drugs or porn near something you own, you’re going to spend some quality time in out concrete buildings until we come to some arrangement. We will have an offer you CANNOT refuse for you.
Statists speak only one language and it comes out of a 155 millimeter mouth.
What? Sauce?
Has everyone on this site forgotten how to do a web search? Literally the first article if you search for Google Pixel phones being confiscated in Spain:
https://www.androidauthority.com/google-pixel-organized-crime-preferred-phone-3573578/
It’s not about saving ten seconds of typing. It’s about supporting OP’s claim with credible sources. And I have to stress credible because mainstream journalism has a tendency to turn unverified or downright false claims into a woozle.
I do know, but I also refuse to do OPs work for him.
Would be minimal effort to post a link together with a click-baity (and wrong - nobody is confiscating anything) heading.
Onus is on the one making the claim or it’s just Facebook tier image macros “do ur own research” standards.
Unless there is a verified source it’s FUD and it’s actually not helpful for freedom and privacy.
HEY GUYS, WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS TOTALLY UNTRUE BULLSHIT I JUST MADE UP AND CAN’T PROVIDE A SOURCE FOR?
The title is inaccurate but not far off.
• Cops in this country think everyone using a Google Pixel must be a drug dealer (Updated)
“Police in Spain, specifically in the autonomous region of Catalonia, are very alert when they spot someone using a Google Pixel phone. As weird as it sounds, Pixels are highly preferred by those involved in organized crime, according to the Catalan police.”
Cops find the stupidest ways to misattribute the mundane as criminal.
The internet: “I for one, am totally outraged. Outraged I say!! And I bet it somehow all Trump/Biden/Obama/Kirk/Kimmels fault!!! Dont forget to like my comment of popular thing I said!!!”.
Confiscated for having GrapheneOS? What?
Unbelievable! I’d expect at least confiscated and arrested for indefinite time without charges.
Once they start just taking your stuff, they are thugs. You deal with them like any other thugs.
I recommend a M84 Zastava.
So if we don’t want Google monitoring our stuff we are going to be considered criminals, fuck this world is going south. I wanted to find an alternative OS with this bologna about side loading apps coming forth with Android but I haven’t figured out what kind of phone yet. If this spreads I guess Pixel won’t be the option
Pixel’s aven’t the first choice for custom ROMs any more anyway, as Google recently has stopped making the device trees public for developers.
So say hello to Fairphone and similar companies, that are still caring about openess!Until Fairphone can support GrapheneOS, Pixels are still the best option.
If you need GrapheneOS, that is right.
But if LineageOS or eOS is sufficient for you, Fairphones are a solid option with long term support.And in the long run, GrapheneOS might also have to look for other options, as the good developer support for new Pixel devices will not be given any more.
Are the fair phones working on cellular bands in the U.S.? I was hoping at this point someone just launches a small handheld gaming device I can install a Linux distro on that I can put a sim card in/esim but I haven’t seen any hit the market. I figure maybe even just have a flip phone and forward the number to VoIP on the handheld.
The Steam deck is to big to carry, and isn’t a mobile device in my opinion because it can’t work soon as you walk out your front door, it is just a cordless device in my opinion. The GPD 4 is a bit big as well, and still isnt mobile.
If someone launches a $500-$800 handheld that maybe flips like a 3DS size and is mobile I’m sold lol (Steam deck Mobile Mini)
I don’t think fairphones are directly available in the US, but in principle they should work in the local 5G networks without problems.
Fairphones are officially available in the US via the authorized reseller Murena (comes with e/OS).
Should have put Hannah Montana Linux on their phone instead. SMH my head
Shaking my head my head?
thatsthejoke.jpg
One thing is certain:
The day the related news story got viral, champagne corks must have been flying in the marketing department at GrapheneOS…it’s literally what made me decide to go buy a Pixel and install it.
He has the right, but not the ability…
Arch took away his right to remain silent.
Nothing less to expect from a neo-fascist country like Spain, tbh. They also deny Cataluña the right of cultural self-determination, to the point of not even being able to use signage in their own language.
Oh btw: Proton collaborates with them.
I propose you found your own little separatist movement wherever you’re living and see how your government will react once it gets a little traction. But don’t tell anybody I gave you the idea…
What? Not tell them? But governments love information!
Let’s dissolve the Spanish state, let’s convince spaniards they’re just a language not a country, and that the Spanish state is just another brainhacking egregore they need to purge themselves from, maybe kick out Europe too, also buy nuclear bombs ASAP.
Ehm… three languages. Not including the Basques.
That’s the spirit, not only they’re not Spaniard subjects under a made up Spanish state, they’re not even REALLY “Spanish speakers”, because that’s another made up Westphallian myth, they’re 3 languages in a trench coat and just by realizing it they would dispel the nasty Spaniard Police State
Dissolving a collonialist state doesn’t sound bad tbh.
I think I need to look into installing that OS. :)
I think that’s a stupid reason to take a phone from someone
What’s weird is that former eastern European countries like Slovakia are more democratic than wester the western European ones.
If a cop stops me, he doesn’t care what I have on my phone or what my phone is. He just asks me for an ID card (and also driver’s license and papers for the vehicle if I’m driving).
That is more freedom inthis particular way, but not necessarily more democracy.
Edit: and reading more about it, it’s not even true about the Spanish confiscations.
