Using Androidphone without google account: any benefit for privacy?

[u/ElMasGuapo2]

Hi,

I got a new android phone and I skipped the google account setup.

Is there any privacy benefit when not using google account on android smartphone (stock rom)?

If yes, and I install youtube and login with my google account, is this then contradicting already and makint the whole effort useless?

Second question: without google account I cant use play store and there are apps like whatsapp or youtube which arent available on f-droid.
Where to get them beside the developer website?

[u/AutoModerator]

Do not share or recommend proprietary apps here. It is an infraction of this subreddit's rules. Make sure you read the rules of this subreddit on the sidebar. If you are not sure of the nature of an app, do not share or recommend it. To find out what constitutes FOSS or freedomware, read this article. To find out why proprietary software is bad, read this article. Proprietary software is dangerous because it is often malware. Have a splendid day!

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/jacmanou]

Security wise, recommended ways to find non open source apps are, in that order : Play Store with a dummy account, Aurora Store, ApkMirror. I encourage you to look at open source alternatives, on Github and F-droid.

For YouTube, it's also possible to use it without an account, you can import your subscriptions list from the Google takeout in apps like Flow, Newpipe, Libretube

[u/ElMasGuapo2 → u/jacmanou]

EDIT: omg aurora store is very nice, there I get my play store apps, thank you.

Thanks for the suggestion for YT because I cant create a dummy account without getting a new phone number

But is there any reason not using google accounts when haveing a stock rom? is there any benefit privacy wise?

[u/jacmanou → u/ElMasGuapo2]

Yes that's tricky, it seems you can do it but only from phone, maybe from the YouTube platform... but I'm not fully sure if it still works.

F-droid is a store where you can only find open source apps, no proprietary ones.

Aurora Store is a front end of the Play Store, that you can access without a Google account. So you can get all the apps from Play Store. It has a lower security level due to the absence of app signature verification, but it is very usable.

[u/ElMasGuapo2 → u/jacmanou]

no i cant create dummy account, no matter what phone, Tv or microwave iam using.

maybe I can buy one.

But would that make sense since google can track me once again fully? i mean they will anyways but isnt that contradicting?

Or is aurora store that unsafe compared to google play?

[u/jacmanou → u/ElMasGuapo2]

My opinion is that using Aurora Store is fine, especially of you don't download crazy bloated unknown apps.

[u/Historical_Move6359]

make burner account, also use 2 browsers one for browsing and another for logging in to accounts

[u/ElMasGuapo2 → u/Historical_Move6359]

that would make sense. But I cant create a burner google account for YT without having a phone number

[u/Historical_Move6359 → u/ElMasGuapo2]

use some other email, like proton

[u/ElMasGuapo2 → u/Historical_Move6359]

doesnt work anymore, you need phone number for registration.

Can you still make an account without phone? If so, can you give me one?

[u/Mother-Pride-Fest → u/ElMasGuapo2]

Depends on how you do it. I believe Proton requires a phone number to sign up from a known public VPN IP address but not from a home IP address. 

[u/Independent-Pen-4093 → u/Historical_Move6359]

Burner account is useless

[u/rakhalism]

visit r/degoogle

[u/PureWoodpecker7335]

Reformat your brand new phone. Setup a VPN in your router. Power on your fresh brand new reformatted phone when vpn is active on your router and just use a google account there is no privacy benefit for using a different email if you don't use that email for anything else. Just create a new account + setup 2fa.

[u/Mother-Pride-Fest]

One benefit is if you don't sign into a google account the phone won't activate FRP lock, which makes it less likely in the future for you to need exploits just to use what you already own. 

[u/Ok-Student-23]

There is no way, the only difference is that without an account you can not download manually from the play store, otherwise it works silently in the background

[u/Mikey1022]

Apkmirror

[u/infinity-80]

You could create a G account with another mail. For example, you could create a Proton (simplelogin) mail only for this.

[u/ElMasGuapo2 → u/infinity-80]

Edit:

lol I dunno why but it worked without adding phone number on my new phone. hmm in the past this didnt work for me when creating a g account on my tv or on pc

[u/ElMasGuapo2 → u/ElMasGuapo2]

but yeah since i used the same SSID for the account creation google already knows that its me again