I have just received a Samsung galaxy fold5 through the post, however I imagine it’s full of bloatware and I’m inexperienced with this type of device. What is the first things that you would do to secure it? Thank you 😊
Edit: I mean to be more privacy focused
I think you confuse security and privacy. Samsung are pretty secure from what I saw. They are not private at all however. You can debloat it with adb and maybe tools such as Universal Android Debloater.
There is a couple of guide such as this one: https://linustechtips.com/topic/1402380-ultimate-samsung-oneui-debloat-privacy-customization-guide/
I use FOSS applications as much as I can and try to avoid all samsung and google apps. In addition to that I’m always on pi-hole network to block background network requests by Samsung/Google
Some apps I use:
- k9-mail
- Zulip
- Nextcloud/Talk/Notes
- tasks.org
- Signal
- F-Droid
- Magic Earth
- NewPipe
- Keepass2Android
- Brave
- Collabora Office
Don’t think I’d actually recommend Brave to anyone, it’s definitely not as privacy focused as they claim.
Use ADB to remove Google and Samsung bloatware and tracking. Ask around for help.
You should be able to use Heimdall to unlock the bootloader, but there isn’t currently a build of LineageOS or DivestOS for this phone, so unfortunately you cannot yet flash a custom ROM (AFAIK). However, rooting should work if you need this (although it can hurt your security a bit).
I’d recommend removing Google Play Services and replacing it with microG, although this may be complicated.
The best solution, however, is probably to exchange the phone for a more versatile model, such as a Google Pixel or a Fairphone.
While many devices don’t have ROMs built for them, any recent device should work with a GSI.
I just bought a tab s8, as I know Andy yan’s LineageOS 20 works on it from other users’ reports. I currently use it on my old tab 10.8 2019.
Return it. Who the f buys a fold to use it as a phone. Seriously bro, return it, get a pixel and then install graphene os.
