Technology

Update, July 3, 2025 (11:45 AM ET): The crew behind GrapheneOS is understandably none too pleased about their good name being dragged through the mud, and members are speaking out about these reports from Spain. Over on X, the official GrapheneOS account posts:

European authoritarians and their enablers in the media are misrepresenting GrapheneOS and even Pixel phones as if they’re something for criminals. GrapheneOS is opposed to the mass surveillance police state these people want to impose on everyone.

Security is a tool, and can be wielded just as much for good as it can for bad. While some people may see this as an indictment, we’d say it’s more the inevitable consequence of GrapheneOS just being very, very good at what it does.

Yeah, when the media is wrong, GrapheneOS out here correcting the media!

Reminds me of when the US tried to fight "terror" by kidnapping people and shoving them in Gitmo because they were wearing Casio watches, which is apparently a brand favoured by terrorists.

Well I do use a Pixel (for lineage OS) and I do make my living selling drugs... wait wait this is a bad example.

Police are not the brightest in any society.

So I guess somebody needs to tell them that they need to focus their efforts a little better if their current plan is 'anyone with a Google Pixel is a drug dealer'.

Can I suggest they start with the people with drugs, rather than the people with the -- not uncommon - google phones in their search for drug dealers?

Hey, the security is nice, but I really like the detailed control over notifications, GMS prompts, and network access. When I used PixelOS, my phone did things I didn't want it to, and it was hard or impossible to make it stop. On GrapheneOS, the defaults are a pretty good experience. I even recommend it to non-techies since they can use it with the Google apps and its still a more respectful experience, even if they don't need or want the level of control that I like.

Reminds me of getting a notice in Middle School, decades ago, about how a pager was considered "drug paraphernalia"

There was also a big Bloomberg-Era push by the NYPD to arrest any woman carrying condoms on her person, on the grounds that a woman carrying a condom must be a sex worker.

This is a weird advertisement, but I kind of want grapheneOS now.

Feds???? WTF!

The police: 'We've encountered a difficulty with our paid spying software. Welp it must be just the criminals.'

Edit: Missed the R and hit the T on our.