I am thinking about buying a fairphone. Is it less of a privacy nightmare than your typical Android phone?
I have a Fairphone 4 with CalyxOS loaded on it.
I bought it new and immediately flashed CalyxOS after taking it out of the box, using the Calyx Institute’s instructions: it was easy and it went smoothly.
Don’t listen to some of the GrapheneOS fanbois: you CAN relock the bootloader after CalyxOS is installed on the Fairphone. In fact, it’s recommended.
As for buying a used Pixel phone and arguing that’s a better use of the Earth’s resources than landfilling it and buying a new Fairphone, that is a valid argument depending on how you look at things.
However, what isn’t a valid argument is saying buying a used Pixel isn’t giving money to Google because it’s used: if someone bought a Pixel and gave their money to Google, they got some of that money back when the second owner bought the Pixel used for cheaper - meaning the second owner took on part of the original purchase, meaning the second owner gave their money to Google in lieu of the first owner.
I’m sorry but the only Pixel phone you can buy that won’t indirectly give money to Google is a stolen Pixel, and I ain’t no thief. I refuse to give money to Google, and I refuse to support Google in any capacity, therefore I refuse to own a Pixel phone.
Refusing to patronize Google by not buying a Pixel phone - 1st of 2nd hand - and refusing to be part of the Pixel ecosystem is also a means to fight for your rights to privacy, because anything that hurts Google is good for privacy.
If you wanna stick to Fairphone, they maintain a de-googled version of the OS, the Fairphone Open (only open source code): https://code.fairphone.com/projects/fairphone-2/fairphone-open.html
The FairPhone comes with stock Android, but you can easily unlock the bootloader and install a different ROM. Some that I know are available for the FairPhone 4 are LineageOS, CalyxOS, iodéOS and /e/OS. With all of these you can achieve a certain level of degoogling and privacy.
Many people will recommend you GrapheneOS, which is unfortunately only available on Google Pixel devices.
Fairphones can be bought already with Murena on it. Dunno how good they’re with privacy though
You can also but a FairPhone with iodéOS already installed in it, not from the FairPhone store, though, but from the iodé one.
Best of both sustainability and privacy is a used pixel with grapheneos installed
Buying a used phone does save resources and stops potential e-waste though.
Plus with an older phone there’s more likelihood that an alternative OS is available.
