Security from Spying

I’m a bit curious about the security

My reason for looking into SFOS is to get out of the spying from Google on my communication.

Is there any other reason to use a non Android OS? I’m not asking to be rude but to know more!

How do you reason with yourself if you have the same reason as I and still use WhatsApp, who lets Facebook spy on you in the same way as Google does, or maybe someone is using Facebook, Instagram or similar anyway? What are we gaining then?

Best Regards

// FREDRIK

1 Like

I didn’t start using Sailfish because of security reasons. I was a fan of Meego OS which was a vastly superior OS to the Windows Phone OS the a certain Nokia CEO decided to adopt.

Sailfish has Meego roots hence my reason for using Sailfish.

Unfortunately there are some apps that are not in the Sailfish stores and for some of us at least there is a need to use Android apps.

At least with Sailfish if security is a concern for you, you can avoid any contact with Apple or Google/Alphabet/Meta if you so desire.

6 Likes

Yes, depends on your needs, reasons.

Well i like alternatives. Its not good to give everthing to big boys. The reason i switched to Sailfish was not supporting monopoly, big companies anymore. Im against their politics and controll mass. So if something is against me, im not touching it or atleast reducing usage. People often dont care, they are not even consistent with themselves. I been using whatsapp, messenger from university times, instagram for test. Depends what u are sharing, doing there. All those apps been test, kind of hybrid between your idea and be available for people who dont care about it, are just products for big companies. Its good Sailfish support android apps. My apps are: Signal, ProtonMail, Discord, and maybe Magic Earth.
Only signal is working all the time in background. So once i finally removed shit apps, i gained more resources, the X10 works flawless, no lags, crashes. Gained time, and said to those people, if u want contact with me, go ahead with standard methods or install signal.
So back to roots of idea.

4 Likes

+1
For me SFOS is the continuation of Meego.

I still have the opinion that the decision of said certain Nokia CEO to adopt Windows Phone OS and drop Meego,was a maneuver to destroy a serious European competitor from the well-known American monopoly (iOS+Google). Windows Phone disappeared shortly after…

6 Likes

Linux user since decades, Nokia N900 ex-user too, Sfos user since 1 month.
Sfos experience is close to Linux experience.
You feel free and let in peace. If you need something, you can have 100x more.
And you will not be notified the whole day long. My attention is not a product here.
I just feel cosy like at home and there are lots of things I can transform/adapt to my needs.

ATM, I don’t use android apps. I’d like to try some but before, I need to clarify until where they can dig into SFos.
But anyway, even with no apps, empty phone, it seems that an android is getting data from you. SFOS doesn’t (I hope).

My ideal top dream, like many, I guess, would be the same but fully open source.

5 Likes

I use SFOS because this way I can benefit from a lot of a smartphones capabilities without being linked to the well known big data miners (I really don’t like this). Second, I have some design flexibility for the look of user interface, to give my phone an individual look. In my taste, SFOS user interface is by far the best of all! Third, there are a lot of alternatives to the usual Apple & Google apps on Jolla Store, Storeman (Open Repos) and Chum. 4th, it’s a very fascinating community project, and I like to communicate with a lot of people here with similar interests. 5th, I can learn a lot about linux computers.
But one thing I have to state: It’s an experimental device. Not everything will always work reliable!

4 Likes

I don’t think “hiding from google” was a big consideration for most users (like me) when Sailfish launched 8 years ago. The superior user interface, and Linux experience was what drew me in - or rather made me continue over from the N9.

Over the years i have come to appreciate the unobtrusiveness of SFOS. Very limited in-app nagging of account this and EULA that, no sticky notifications about BS, no ads, and so on and so forth. But 8 years ago this was not really that bad on the other platforms either, but they have devolved into some sort of dystopian parody of themselves since. The same story goes for desktop OS:es; only after i went Linux more or less for fun has the train-wreck that is Windows 8, 10 and 11 happened. Now i could never go back.

There is definitely overlap here, with the tracking and “spying” as the ugly backside - i am however more concerned with the upfront terrible user experience personally.

I have a google account, heck i’m even logged in in the native browser. I use a couple of Android apps, no google ones, but mostly because they don’t work properly.

The reason i don’t use any of the newfangled messenger services is because they all seem pretty terrible, and the world doesn’t seem to be able to agree on a single one.

A phone that is basically completely silent network-wise (apart from what you want it to do) didn’t use to be a feature, it was called common sense/decency. The UI may perhaps no longer be objectively better (competition has evolved), but i definitely prefer it.

12 Likes

+1 So much
I even forgot that we forgot that.

4 Likes

In addition to what @attah already wrote:
Sailfish was made to be an operating system that does what it’s supposed to. And as you tell it to. It doesn’t always do that perfectly in all compartments and there are things it definitely can’t (yet) do.
But it’s got a beautiful style (subjective view , obviously) and a genuine, well designed way of using it.

when it comes to Android it seems that while it’s also doing stuff for you even more so it was designed to make you do stuff as it tells you.

apart from that, on a less subjective technical side: Sailfish OS is a true Linux system, very hackable, loveably quirky (this one is again subjective :wink:) and oddly buggy at times.
If you’d describe yourself as an enthusiast, Sailfish definitely is something worth to try

3 Likes

When I bought a Jolla 1 my motives were anti-trust and privacy. My first smartphone was an iphone 3Gs for 7 years and when Apple made changes that I didn’t like and need, I started thinking about the power of Big Tech.Knowledge is power and everything concentrated in a couple of companies doesn’t seem right to me.
When I realised that a lot of surveillance was going on, I quit Apple and went to Jolla.The design and UI were a surprise! I gave up gmail and my Google account.I never joined Facebook or Whatsapp and I make it a sport to avoid Google products. I have a few Android apps though, from FDroid and Aurora Store, and The Guardian is the only one with trackers.
In the meantime I use Sailfish with mixed feelings: beautiful, easy to use, but lacking some important features and
tech-savvy persons are privileged because they can do more with it.

5 Likes

An excellent opportunity to start learning, don’t you think? :wink:

4 Likes

Many of the reasons I have for using SailfishOS have already been mentioned. The spying, the being patronised and being under almost total control of a few big greedy companies.

In addition, I have always liked the idea of using products as long as possible (even before everyone was talking about sustainability :wink:) and so when I couldn’t use my Nokia N8 much longer and MeeGo never had a chance, I was looking for an alternative (or a further development in this case :grinning:) and came across SailfishOS, which didn’t require expensive hardware and promised to be open and community-based, both very good for long-term usage. What let me down in this respect was the hardware of my Jolla 1, not SailfishOS, so I decided to buy an XA2 Ultra (well, it’s an “Ultra” by accident, but anyway… :slightly_smiling_face:) and that in combination with SFOS promises to be usable for quite some time.

I use a few Andoid apps, but I prefer native ones of course and I have the Android support inactive whenever possible. For messaging I use XMPP/Jabber, which leaves me with a choice of apps on any platform (not only my phone!) and servers, so no ‘vendor lock in’ at all! I’m really happy SFOS supports XMPP out of the box, but I think the support should be better (if you think so too, vote for Support encryption, file transfer and groups for XMPP/Jabber), so more people can be convinced to use it, instead of being sucked into proprietary solutions like WhatsApp.

2 Likes

I have been concerned about privacy as well lately. I had Jolla in 2014 and the problem then was only lack of apps. Such things become fascinating when you are 14 years old ;D
Now I am reconsidering this. Hell, I bet the old Jolla with Sailfish 1 is still somewhere laying around and that it works… :slight_smile:

Anyway, maybe not relevant to this thread, but isn’t there still ways for Sony to transfer data even if we are using SFOS? The only problem I’m facing when browsing all the supported devices is that there is something between me and Sony that doesn’t come along so well…

2 Likes

I’m using Sailfish because it’s Finnish, secure, respects privacy, and yet allows me to do whatever I want! Having Android apps is a plus, but I could do without if I had to. And I do have a N900 in my closet still :slight_smile:

My phone doesn’t do jack if I don’t tell it to (I’m looking at you, Google Play), but I can bend it to my will if there are no other ways. It also doesn’t contain any unwanted applications (maybe the tutorial, but meh) which is a huge, huge win!

I think Sailfish is quite stable these days, as far as basic/critical use cases go (use it as a phone, sms, browser, calendar, contacts, web browser, and with including basic Android stuff, WhatsApp, Signal, Firefox, Vivaldi, Deezer…).

Some not-so-stable features would be Bluetooth support (there’s still fallout from bluez 4->5 transition, sound codecs, pairing issues), GPS (but when it works, it just works), VoLTE (beta, with high promises already) and unfortunately banking apps in the Android side… There are a few more, but can’t pick them up at the moment.

About user friendliness: I consider my sister as a total non-techie, and she decided to upgrade her Jolla 1 to Xperia 10 II, and not change to Android - it is suitable for everyday users! Soon there’ll be VoLTE in her phone, too, and the future looks stable :slight_smile:

Is Sailfish stable? In my opinion, pretty much yes. Far have we come from the prototype days!

Edit: Boy, was that offtopic :sweat_smile: As for the question “why do I still use WhatsApp” is because there is one group who stubbornly won’t transition to Signal (and simply put, another group too), and there’s a conversation with an individual I do not want to lose. (Also, WhatsApp only offers exporting a chat to email only. Good luck with all the photos and videos…)

We aren’t really gaining anything, besides hopefully good recommendations about other people and groups we should follow. I can find my own groups of interests without an algorithm, thank you very much.

8 Likes

+1 !
I servely hope, that there are always enough motivated people, to keep a secure, european OS for mobile devices alive and develop it further. I am happy to pay 50€ every few years to get such a OS (even with the opportunity to have many Android-apps, if I want to).

8 Likes

Will it protect against third-party spyware? Software such as https://topspyingapps.com/listen-cell-phone-calls/ is very popular nowadays and many people just interfere in other people’s personal space with such software. This way you can track messages, calls and even locations, and it scares me. So I am wondering if this will protect me from spyware being used by other users.

Nothing can protect your from yourself -meaning if you install spyware yourself the OS cant do much.

3 Likes