This happened years ago afaik, but lemmy keeps sharing it around for some reason.

For context, proton encrypts the traffic, not the IP Address. While I dont remember how long IP Addresses stay in their logs, you can easily avoid exposing your true IP address by using a VPN, which is clearly not what that acitvist had done.

Proton is still compelled to follow government laws in order to operate, and will hand over what info they have when compelled to. If that info is something their service can encrypt, such as emails, cloud storage, passwords, and so on, then it will look like jumped data when handed over. You IP address can’t reasonably be encrypted, and neither can your primary email that is associated with you proton account. If your primary email has revealing info, then thats on you for not obfuscating it more. If you arent using a VPN to access services, then your IP address will be indicative of where your traffic might be coming from. The end user does need to take extra steps to make sure their traffic is secure, and proton does talk about this in their documentation.

Proton is one of very few companies Ive seen pass third party security audits. They may not be perfect, but they are secure, and I’ve yet to see that truly disproven.

To my knowledge no. Theres also the issue of hardware. For example, I stupidly gave samsung another chance about 3 or so years ago, and you basically cannot put another OS on their devices without bricking them.

Would love to have this run when i clear the trash bin on whatever OS

Oh so youre saying that AI companies can control what the AI says?

So meta letting their AI sext with children was intentional then…

Realistically, change your approach to how you use your phone.

A majority of apps are not actually apps. They are a web app packaged in an apk so they can get elevated permissions and more data. Dont download apps, instead just install them from your browser as the web app they are. This is far more secure and far less invasive as generally a web app is containerized, at least thats my understanding in regards to firefox.

Instead of google maps, explore the world of open source navigation apps. Osmand has worked great for me, and tends to provide better info so im not panic merging at the last second. Theres a lot of them out there, and google maps has stagnated for so long that many of them are caught up in features. While its not open source, ive sesn a lot of people praise Magic Earth as well.

Buy phones on the premise of being allowed to use a custom rom. As much as i dont want a pixel because it is google, graphene os is battle tested and much more secure than stock android. But theres also lineage OS, eOS, and a few others out there.

If you need google play services, containerize it. I keep all apps i dont want having special permissions on a work profile. Funnily, i also keep my work apps on that profile, so if google wants my works data then they can handle the lawsuit if something bad happens lol.

I think a lot of people have forgotten that phones are tiny computers. The only real difference is the cell network, but we already have devices that can use those networks that arent phones, so it isnt an exclusive feature to phones. Android can be forked, but also we can emulate android on linux and there are already linux phones out there. If we grow the linux space for phones, then we effectively lose nothing of value while gaining increased freedom. For now, change how you use your phone, and only download apps if you have no other choice.