I have GOS, you can’t remove it unfortunately. Those kind of people are everywhere online but never forget it’s your device. You can do with it whatever the hell you want, regardless of what the “point” of anything is.

I’m currently using a Pixel with GOS on it. But I “went away from Google” (stopped using their services) because I don’t trust them to keep the telemetry about me they store safe. (Or use it in a way I’m fine with).

And altering the physical hardware in a way to spy on a phones users, irregardless of the operating system, isn’t a reasonable concern (I believe you can think of a fair few reasons).

There are very few phones that actually have open firmware, which is unfortunate, but in most peoples cases (like when you don’t trust Google to use your data responsibly) they can accept that risk. They have done it with every other phone they used as well. And those were (probably) a lot less open than Pixels are.

You can also make the more meta-argument that since the police in Catalonia and French law enforcement saw those phones as a threat, you can be sure you have secure phone in your hands.

p.s. This was a lot less concise than I expected. Sorry for the text wall :)

But how does this tie back to your original statement about GOS security and tying itself with Google? The issues you’re raising aren’t even a GOS specific one. I also find it strange to not call it secure because services themselves are reliant on Google’s services. That is not an issue any OS can solve. I say this as someone who does not rely on any Google services on my phone. I also believe you might be conflating security with privacy.

I don’t really see the issue. So you don’t really care about robust and trustworthy hardware. That I get to some extent considering you’re more worried about your data itself. But if you’re flashing your device with GOS, there is no data being shared to Google unless you specifically want to use Google Play Services or the Play Store. Both of which don’t come pre-installed

Edit: I added the if

Just wondering, do you have a problem in the sense that you don’t want to support Google or more that you’re worried the actual hardware is not safe or trustworthy?