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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.
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
What? Sauce?
Not OP but there is few sources on that :
https://www.androidauthority.com/why-i-use-grapheneos-on-pixel-3575477/
Thanks!
Turns out that OPs heading is a little bit exaggerated, as nobody is confiscating anything.
Those articles don't really support the claim? At all?
https://www.androidauthority.com/google-pixel-organized-crime-preferred-phone-3573578/ is unsourced but, taking at face value, seems like what one would expect. People aren't getting stopped at checkpoints and forced to divulge what OS their phone is running and being taken to a black site if they run GrapheneOS. But someone holding up a pixel in a sea of cheap motorolas DOES raise some eyebrows. Same as someone with a ridiculously expensive rolex walking around The Hood and so forth. And, presumably, people who have been arrested for other reasons raise even more eyebrows if their phone isn't running a stock OS which...
Look, with a just police force (ha!), that actually is a very reasonable stance. Back in the day it was having a Blackberry. For a decade or so it was having two phones until people learned to not do anything personal on a work phone and that became kinda normal. There are activities that are generally associated with "weirdos" and "criminals" and I think even the GraphenOS devs would acknowledge their userbase fall firmly into the former. If you see someone with a Blackberry hanging out leaning against a 7-11? You maybe hang out across the street for an hour and keep an eye on them. Arrest someone and they have three burner phones in their pants pockets? Maybe you look a bit deeper.
That is actual investigative work. Of course, the problem is that it instead becomes "That gameboy looks like a drug dealer's phone. We are going to stop and frisk you and maybe sexually assault you in the back of the cruiser if we are bored".
I'm keyed in on a lot of "high level" protest discussion as well as what investigative journalists need to do for actual safety. And one of the biggest topics that regularly comes up is the idea of "the burner". In theory, if you are crossing a questionable border or think you might be stopped, you bring a completely blank burner. If they hack into it, you are safe, right?
Wrong. Because you are now an anomaly. NOBODY has no social media and NOBODY has no documents on their laptop. So what are you hiding? Let's beat it out of you.
Which is why general best practices are often considered to have a real device that you actually use everyday and take through those checkpoints and on the riskier protests. But you make damned sure there is nothing incriminating or sensitive on there. Optimally through having your "burner" be the one you do said activities on, but also through just removing it well before you get on the plane or get in the car.
And a lot of that applies to device choice too. That cool ass Linux Phone might seem like a great idea but now you stand out from the crowd quite a bit. Same with taking your top of the line iphone to Korea where Samsungs grow on trees and so forth.
Well, in my region it typically is already sufficient to look Arabic to become the guest of a "random" police control.
Compared to that, having a closer look at people running GrapheneOS on their phones sounds relatively well-grounded and almost reasonable.
At least not totally crypto-racist (although I have the feeling that still comes on top...)
Oh I 500% assume racism is a big part of this too.
Not familiar with Catalonia but I assume there are at least a few ethnic groups that are associated with "rich" and this is a way to group them in.
Which, funny enough, was also kind of the deal with Blackberries. Yeah, Dealers had them. Because Dealers like buying expensive shit (See also: really expensive Rolex in a neighborhood where everyone is on food stamps) AND because they were ridiculously ahead of their time tech wise. You know who else had them? Business and (proto-)tech folk. And cops LOVED to say that the kid who actually made something of themselves going back home to visit family must be a Dealer because they have the same phone all their co-workers do.
Which gets back to: As part of an investigation, it is good. It is one part of a potential puzzle. In the reality of ACAB... ACAB.
Same with taking your top of the line iphone to Korea where Samsungs grow on trees and so forth.
Fun fact: iPhones are really popular in South Korea, especially for younger generations and considered more cool than boomer's Samsung, though Samsung is gaining some traction with newer flagship models recently, so yeah it won't make you stand out.
Barbaric
Kinda how in some countries using any circumvention tools are a means of arrest and suspicious behavior
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.
Source?
I would need more information about this story
(I live in Spain and use GrapheneOS BTW). How would police even know it's GrapheneOS? Shit, why would they be looking at my pone in the first place? The only possible situation is: you were arrested for something, as part of investigation they have a warrant to access your phone, they try to unlock it with common tools, they fail, they realize it's GrapheneOS.
Or, scenario 2: they are in a shady neighborhood, they see a guy with a Pixel phone (you can tell because of the camera bar) and they think "that's a strange choice for an unemployed dude sitting in bar whole day" and they assume he's dealing and, I don't know, make a mental note about it.
Unless there is a verified source it's FUD and it's actually not helpful for freedom and privacy.
What I think is that I should probably look into installing GrapheneOS on my Google Pixel.
You should, its honestly crazy how simple the installation process is
Check your banking app first, chances are it won't work on GrapheneOS.
I'm a bit of a luddite in that respect, I don't trust apps for anything that important. I know, it's probably fine, and I probably should, but I don't. Just one of my weird hangups I guess.
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.
β’ 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.
One thing is certain:
The day the related news story got viral, champagne corks must have been flying in the marketing department at GrapheneOS...
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
Once they start just taking your stuff, they are thugs. You deal with them like any other thugs.
I recommend a M84 Zastava.
Should have put Hannah Montana Linux on their phone instead. SMH my head
What the duress password was built for tbh.
Arch killed my parents btw.
Should've read the installation guide better.
Nothing less to expect from a neo-fascist country like Spain, tbh. They also deny CataluΓ±a 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.
