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When it comes to smartphones, I
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generally recommend Android. Not because
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they provide better privacy and
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security. I think that title actually
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goes to iOS when compared to vanilla
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Android. But the real reason I recommend
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it, especially on a Google Pixel, is
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because of the fact that the OS is less
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locked down in that implementation. You
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can gain root access to your device and
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modify any of the system files. And you
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can deleg your phone, which means
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removing every single pre-installed
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Google service from it, giving you much
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better privacy. And you can even swap
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out the entire operating system for
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something different without having to
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leave the bootloadader unlocked. But
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imagine if just having a Google Pixel
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phone resulted in you getting harassed
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by your local police. Because the moment
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they see you answer a call or send a
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text on it, they assume that you must be
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a criminal attempting to contact your
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fellow criminal associates. Well, this
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is actually the reality right now in
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Catalina. The national police there have
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been ramping up their war on drugs. And
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in the age of smartphones, most of this
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warfare is conducted in the digital
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space by the police conducting mass
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online surveillance of people and even
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attempting to hack into suspects and
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their associates devices with malware.
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So, of course, the unlicensed
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pharmaceutical distributors in Catalina
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started stepping up their digital
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security by using encrypted
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communication apps and even going so far
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as to install Graphine OS on their Pixel
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phones. Now, in case you didn't know,
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Graphine OS is a custom ROM that you can
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install pretty much just exclusively on
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Pixel phones, which improves the privacy
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and security of that Android
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implementation from the bottom up. And
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frankly, it creates one of the most
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secure smartphones that a civilian can
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easily get in their hands. Way more
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private and secure than even an iPhone.
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Graphine OS also provides a lot of
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tracking mitigations by limiting the
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fingerprinting capability of apps. And
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Graphine OS is completely deooled. So, a
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lot of that tracking information from
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things like Google Maps, Google Chrome,
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the Google search engine that police
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agencies around the world rely on to
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track people just isn't available if
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you're using Graphion OS. There's lots
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of granular settings to control what
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apps are able to access on your phone.
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And Graphine OS provides dozens of user
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profiles that you can use to further
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separate what data your apps have access
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to. and law enforcement are particularly
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frustrated with Graphine OS's
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mitigations against both consensual and
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non-consentual data extractions. Now, I
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don't really know much about this
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country's laws or how their law
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enforcement operates, but here in the
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United States, if you're arrested or
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even if you're detained for an
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investigation by the police, there's a
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good chance that they're going to want
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to go through your phone if they think
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that it contains any evidence of a
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crime. And like I said, we're in a
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digital age. So obviously, a lot of
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criminals are using their phones in the
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process of doing crime. Now, with a
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consentbased search, as it's called, the
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police are going to ask you to enter the
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code on your phone and unlock it for
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them. Uh, but of course, if you have
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thumbrint unlock or Face ID enabled,
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then there's a good chance that the
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police can force you to unlock the phone
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that way by just scanning your face or
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maybe uh getting your fingerprint if
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you're in handcuffs. But if you don't
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have biometrics and you refuse to unlock
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your phone, then the police are going to
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seize it from you and probably arrest
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you as well. and back at their
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headquarters or in a mobile forensic
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unit, they're going to connect your
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phone to a device that's going to
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attempt to hack into it and extract all
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of the data from your phone and then
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they'll be able to see everything that
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you had on it. Now, the success of this
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data extraction mostly relies in keeping
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the phone in its after first unlock or
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AFU mode. This is the setting that
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phones are pretty much always in unless
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you power them off or you reboot the
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phone. And in this state, in the AFU
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state, the decryption keys for your
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phone's file system are saved in its
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RAM. And so with CellBright's hacking
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tools that they provide to law
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enforcement, they're able to most of the
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time recover that data um from most
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phone models that are in the AFU mode.
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But once a device is rebooted and then
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before the PIN code is put into it, the
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phone is in what's called before first
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unlock or BFU mode. Biometric unlock
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usually gets disabled in BFU mode and
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the encryption keys are not saved into
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the devices RAM. So the attack surface
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is much smaller. And typically the only
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way to reliably get data off a phone in
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this mode is to guess the PIN. And the
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secure element that's in more modern
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smartphones makes that brute forcing
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process much much harder. Graphine OS
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has a feature that automatically reboots
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your phone every 18 hours enabled by
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default which puts it into the before
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first unlock mode. Newer versions of
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vanilla Android also have a similar
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feature, but it's not enabled by
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default. And I think when you do enable
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it by default, it only reboots your
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phone every 3 days or so. Uh so anyway,
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if you're using Graphine OS and you
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haven't gone out of your way to turn off
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that security setting, then the police
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are going to have 18 hours at best to
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try and hack into your phone and try to
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extract the encryption keys from RAM
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before it reboots. And then this process
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becomes pretty much impossible. Graphine
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OS also disables USBC connections and
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data transfers from new devices until
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the phone is unlocked and the connection
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is allowed. So those mitigations would
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also have to be bypassed before the
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Cellbrite can even start trying to hack
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into Graphine. Now for the so-called
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consensual data extractions where you
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give up your phone password to the
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police or unlock it for them possibly
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under duress. Graphine OS has a
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mitigation for that which is very
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appropriately called duress pin.
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Essentially this is a secondary pin that
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you can enter on the unlock screen that
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will wipe your device and any eims that
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are installed into it. And if you do use
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fingerprint unlock, then graph OS limits
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the number of attempts to five. So you
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have a much better chance of doing five
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false unlocks like using the wrong
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fingers or maybe if you've got your
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hands behind your back and police are
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trying to force you to unlock it, you
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can, you know, either present the wrong
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finger or maybe just mess it up enough
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to get it to disable fingerprint unlock
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and then require the PIN. Whereas in
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vanilla Android, I think you get 20 or
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so attempts. So yeah, obviously five is
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going to be much more secure. The
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multi-profile feature also allows you to
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log into one profile without decryting
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any data for another. So, you could have
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a decoy profile that doesn't have any
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sensitive data on it that you unlock
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instead as a way to comply with a
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warrant or, you know, comply with your
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password being requested under duress
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without actually giving up any
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incriminating evidence. However, if the
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phone does end up getting rebooted, then
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the admin profile actually does need to
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be logged into before any other profile
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can be logged into. So, graphine OS
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along with good opsac really gives you a
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major privacy and security boost. So
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much so to the point that law
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enforcement agents are starting to
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profile people just based on the type of
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smartphone they choose to use. And
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obviously from a distance, the cops
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can't tell if you're using graphine OS
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or Lineage OS or anything else. They
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would actually have to get up close and
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personal to verify that. And I'm sure
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that nine times out of 10 people in
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Catalina are just using stock Android on
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their Google Pixels. But imagine how
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triggered the police over there would be
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if they actually did start discovering
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Graphun OS every single time or at least
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most of the time that they just talked
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to any run-of-the-mill Pixel user.
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Imagine you have two phones and you're
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trying to do a side-by-side comparison
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of a regular Pixel phone that's running
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stock vanilla Android and then one
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running graphine OS. The police over
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there might actually think that you're
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Pablo Escobar. So, I guess that that's a
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great way to troll police who don't want
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the citizens of their country to have
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any decent privacy. Get a second Pixel
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phone and just casually install Graphine
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OS on it. Use it as like a portable MP3
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player or whatever. Just just use it.
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And you know what? If you really want to
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mess with them, install Signal on it,
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too, and just occasionally text yourself
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on Signal and give yourself a username
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on there. That sounds like some sort of
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drug kingpen. That's probably the best
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way to speedrun going to jail in
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Catalina. But unironically, you should
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install Graphine OS on your phone if you
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want to have better privacy, and you
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just don't want the police to be
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actively scanning what you're doing and
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monitoring and tracking you because
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they're literally doing that to
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everybody. It's not even people who are
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suspects, just tracking where everybody
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goes and then they filter out suspects
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from that data. So, install graphino
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today and if you enjoyed this video,
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please like and share it to hack the
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algorithm and check out my online store
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base.win, where you can buy my awesome
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great rest of your day.
