this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2024
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cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/15995282

Real unfortunate news for GrapheneOS users as Revolut has decided to ban the use of 'non-google' approved OSes. This is currently being posted about and updated by GrahpeneOS over at Bluesky for those who want to follow it more closely.

Edit: had to change the title, originally it said Uber too but I cannot find back to the source of ether that's true or not..

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[–] [email protected] 343 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

This makes me want to use GrapheneOS more. If the dataminers don't want you to use it then it must be doing something right.

[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 week ago (44 children)

Too bad it only runs on Google's phones...

[–] [email protected] 65 points 1 week ago (5 children)

It's only officially supported on google phones because sadly those are the only ones that are not modified to fuck which makes installing and supporting other OS'es way too much work.

Giving google money once for a device is not a problem from a privacy or security standpoint.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 week ago (7 children)

That's correct, but not the reason grapheneOS chooses only pixel phones. It's the level of hardware security features.

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[–] [email protected] 134 points 1 week ago (3 children)

This is very bad news, because this means any app that wants your data could do the same.

[–] [email protected] 130 points 1 week ago (1 children)

On the other hand, it makes it easy to find which apps aren't to be trusted with your data.

[–] [email protected] 62 points 1 week ago

Also very obvious when an app or website have an US and an EU version. You just know they buttfuck the Americans because no rules.

Even Apple had to make two versions of iOS.

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[–] [email protected] 100 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Fuck both of these companies. Never used McDicks app in the first place. Spyware bullshit.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 week ago (6 children)

The mcdonalds app is a scam to get you to agree to their arbitration clause

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[–] [email protected] 97 points 1 week ago

Odd timing considering I've banned McDonalds, Revolut and Authy from my phone.

[–] [email protected] 86 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Just to be clear, they banned all custom roms, not only graphene.

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[–] [email protected] 83 points 1 week ago (12 children)

McDonalds? Uber?

They both have fully functioning webapps btw.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Right people who install various apps like McDonalds apps etc, are these even typical to GrapheneOS users? I'd think most would avoid superfluous data stealing apps.

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[–] [email protected] 73 points 1 week ago (20 children)

the problem here is not the banks or apps, the problem is Google Play Integrity API, which is supposed to enforce to run apps in secured phones and it is used to ban secured ROMs such as GrapheneOS and it allows to run apps on outdated phones without security patches.

[–] [email protected] 122 points 1 week ago (3 children)

which is supposed to enforce to run apps in secured phones

The point of the Google Play Integrity API is to ensure that the user is not in control of their phone, but that one of a small number of megacorps are in control.

Can the user pull their data out of apps? Not acceptable. Can the user access the app file itself? Not acceptable. Can the user modify apps? Not acceptable.

Basically it ensures that the user has no control over their own computing.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

It's simply the "secure" isn't meant for users but the cooperations. Make it "secure" to their business.

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[–] [email protected] 58 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Time to switch away from Auth I guess. Not even using GrapheneOS cause I have a Samsung phone, but this is not acceptable

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Highly highly recommend Ente Auth!

Also featured on Privacy Guides

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 week ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 week ago

Authy is no good anyway. Keeps codes hostage with no way to back them up. So many great open source alternatives

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[–] [email protected] 54 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Webapps everything you can like I do with Firefox and ublock origin. Fuck these assholes.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Not for Revolut. App only.

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 week ago

He makes a solid point

[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 week ago (2 children)

This surprises me because McDonald's app is hands down the worst app I've ever encountered in the history of all Android apps.

It's is sluggish, ignores touches/taps half the time, doesn't adhere to Android best practices for flow, crashes a lot, errors a lot, etc.

But OK McDonald's. Fuck off.

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 week ago (18 children)

OK McDonald's, I will not use your most cost effective ordering method. I guess I will just have to order my 10 individually custom cheeseburgers at the counter instead. I might have to have e the order read back, and change my mind about a few burgers.

[–] [email protected] 110 points 1 week ago (1 children)

As a former employee... That does nothing. Crazies that spend 15 min to order some fries were common.

If you go at rush hour it can be annoying to the employee and other customers, but at the end of the day nobody will remember and you would have spent 20 min and 10 dollars (which is 9 dollars material profit for MacDonald).

Just. Don't. Go. To. Macdonald's.

[–] [email protected] 72 points 1 week ago

Just. Don’t. Go. To. Macdonald’s.

Best advice on the menu

[–] [email protected] 85 points 1 week ago (9 children)

Just stop eating at McDonald's.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 week ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (8 children)

I can't prove it, but I'm 99% sure Lyft did the same thing. Had a perfect rating (and was even a driver at one point), and they banned me without explanation right after I switched to GrapheneOS.

Emailed them a few times asking for the reason, and they refused to tell me.

_"Legally, we cannot release any additional information except that we found your account to be violating our Terms of Service.

We will be in touch if we are able to reopen your account in the future."_

There's absolutely nothing else that they could've misconstrued as "violating the Terms of Service."

If Uber's going down the same path, no more ride-sharing for me I guess. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 week ago
[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 week ago

Apparently, they don't need my business. Acceptable.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I don't think it's a coincidence that the shittiest companies are those, who enforce Google's broken and monopolistic "Play Integrity" API. Revolut has connections to Russia, McDonalds supports the Israeli genocide in Palestine and Authy has always just been a massive piece of shit, not even allowing users to export their TOTP seeds. These are three companies I would NEVER even consider using anyway.

And "Play Integrity" API actually does NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING for your security as an end user.
You use an outdated, unpatched Android version with multiple severe, publicly known exploits on an insecure device?
Google doesn't give a single fuck.
You use the newest version of Android with all the patches applied on Google's own hardware, with a locked boot loader and a hardened operating system?
That's not allowed by the "Play Integrity" API.
It's only purpose is to serve Google's monopolistic business interests.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

What are Revolut's connections to Russia except its founder/owner's nationality? /nm

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Is this not a sign of the true intentions on both sides of the dilemma here!?!?
Let us go to the end. We cannot afford to carry on in fear of these bans. Let the lines be neatly placed and the sides chosen wisely. If sustained profits are desired, the walled-gardens must come down.

Vote with your dollar and vote again with your data. Wary, but never afraid is the motto privacy comrades!

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 week ago

Banks seem to be hit or miss, happy that mine works. Would rather switch Banks than use a stock Rom, though.

All the Uber stuff works in Browser, both eats and their fake taxi stuff.

Not having a subtle reminder to eat at McDonald's is probably better for you.

Honestly, if your app could be a website, and includes services not on your website, fuck you, I'm gonna go to the competition.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 week ago (11 children)

Why would anyone load an app from McDonalds? You want to give them elevated access to your most personal data for a few dollars of coupons?

What are they taking from you that's worth more than the discounts they are giving you? Because they are definitely making a profit, or they wouldn't be doing it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

I used to work hosting Focus Groups, we would pay cash, and top dollar for even small chunks of specific data sets on demographics that would age very quickly. Since people's habits change, different trends, feedback, etc. Hence the need of constant campaigns. Today, people give a lot of this data away, for free, in a constant data stream, for months if not years on end for cents or even a couple of bucks a month. Via constant tracking and profiling. It's crazy how privacy illiterate people are.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 week ago (14 children)

Lol I spent a week going back and forth with Revolut support in august. I could sign into the app but it would always ask me for a "selfie" verification and every time support would say its a super dark selfie.

Eventually I decided to try a stock ROM and it just worked and I realised what was happening so I transferred all of my money out and deleted my account.

Most local banks here are terrible at making apps, some even require a separate device that looks like a calculator to use online banking, so hopefully they wont follow suit anytime soon

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Can Graphene add a feature to run in emulation mode to allow apps to believe it's on an unrestricted OS?

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 week ago (4 children)

So, uh, the next version of GrapheneOS will probably come with some Android OS version spoofing tech that solves this - if there isn't something on F-Droid already.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 week ago (6 children)

man, and i was gonna switch to graphene this christmas. if every app can just ban my OS, i might have to rethink this. i would use the website but they restrict so many things to apps now…

[–] [email protected] 121 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Well, switching to GrapheneOS shows that you don't care what those companies do, and that you're willing to fight. It means those companies lose one more customer. The more people that use GrapheneOS, the more companies will be forced to support it.

[–] [email protected] 58 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Honestly i didn’t even think of that. i’ll still switch then!

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 week ago (5 children)

I was about to switch bank because for a few days my current one (inadvertently) blocked it on grapheneOS. We sent them a few emails and they fixed in less than a week.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Use the websites whenever you can. That's what I do at least. Although I had to stop using Lyft entirely, because they stopped supporting rides from their website apparently. And that leaves just Uber. I actually left my bank for a similar reason. It supported my phone just fine, and it worked without Google Play Services, but the website wouldn't let me do everything that the app would, and the app required that I have Aurora Store to download their banking app from the Google Play Store, and I wanted to get away from that, so I switched banks so that I could use the bank website instead. From what I can tell, you run into this kind of stuff a lot with FinTech apps. But if you use older banks, like Discover or Wells Fargo or things like that, they tend to work better. Maybe because they're not up with the newest technology, LOL.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This sounds like an antitrust legal problem...

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