Yeah, it is unfortunatly. Unless you are working a extremely risky job, your gonna be viewed as suspecious. And even if your a US citizen or not, you can be searched without a warrant.

Wouldnt a VPN work in that case? Even on wifi, you gotta use a VPN or you can even carry one of those portable wifi/hotspot devices. (I was actually thinking of getting one of those to try it out)

I get the seriousness of graphene but i really dont wanna have any issues if something comes up from it.

My vacation is just personal travel; away from work, and stress, nothing to serious.

But,due to the extreme situation thats going on with ICE at the airports, mass deportations, and tensions from Americans traveling to other countires, i just dont want anything to happen to my personal phone; if something was to happen.

Apple may be secure, but they are not private, they’re just better at hiding it. They use trackers everywhere on all their apps, and are pushing AI just like google. It dosent matter if you use a firewall VPN, blockers or anything, iOS can bypass all of that and still track you. Plus, you cant sideload anything, unless you jailbreak.

I no longer go on ebay because they started asking for age vertification.I tired buying a laptop there once, and immediately cancelled my account because of that. 2G basically dosen`t exist, everything now is turning into 4G/LTE, 5G or you use satellite. When signal is poor or not there, is gonna fall towards LTE or satellite. There are a couple of stores in the US you can go to find phones, but the most convenient options are not really convenient. Yeah, I hate that too. I would prefer to just book those ahead of time but that’s not happening.

I`m traveling internationally.

Yes, i know, but that’s if i can find them. I tried that with an old Oneplus Nord N200. I immediately had to return it because it wasn’t the right build number. Those phones are not easy to find unless you get something preinstalled.

Sounds like the easy way to go is to get an older Pixel and install GrapheneOS or go to an electronic store and just by a phone do degoogle. Any of these other phones, it all comes down to finding the right model and configuration, and if you don’t have the right specs, you cant download a ROM on them. Thats why for my main phone I just bought it preinstalled, because finding those types of phones are getting harder to find and they’re not easy to find.

Unfortunatly, the older Nokia phones are completely unavailable to obtain in the US and 3G is being phased out everywhere, so that already isn’t an option. Also, i would need to download specific apps that relate to taxi services and talking with my group that I’ll be traveling with. Even though the Nokias are cool, it just isnt feasible.

Thats why there are PDAs and Cyberdecks. Thats for that purpose. Cant make phone calls but its portable but for Linux mobile it should at least get that right.

See that’s my gripe with Linux. I don’t want a PDA, I can do all of that tinkering on PC.

I get the issue with the bank apps. Especially if your someone who needs to do a lot of transactions over the phone. But all these other apps, at this point we should have alternatives, its ridiculous.

But does it actually work like a phone? Calling, texting, no issues?

Thats why we need an alternative.someone, some company, anyone that can make software that dosent rely on Google just to work.

Its crazy that even in the degoogle world, we still have to rely on Google. if the whole point is to not use Google, then what’s the point? We should have our stand alone apps should we not? We can’t make them but someone our there can.

Honestly, at this point we just need alternatives to some of these Google apps in general.

Well looks like its time to start making alternatives or scream for Linux to come out with a phone.

Theres one literally called Wallet where you can store information of your credit/debit cards but unfortunatly cant use them (still learning the app). Now Catima is awesome but its for anything you need thats a QR code. For example, I mostly use it so far for my gym membership.

Yeah, I understand, it would be ALOT to record.

I can’t stand these USBC cords and now these USBC flash drives are a thing. They end up being a 2-n-1 or you gotta buy ANOTHER adapter for the USBC or whatever needs to be attach to it in order to work. Its just more money for extra work. 😮‍💨😑😑😑

The instance I’m in is definitely the odd ones out, we got no one here😅