Professional C# .NET developer, React and TypeScript hobbyist, proud Linux user, Godot enthusiast!
You should install Rethink and see how much garbage your phone constantly transmits and receives. And this is not even a kernel-level firewall, so who knows how much data Google actually exfiltrates…
I don’t know about a constant audio stream, nor about keywords, but I noticed that Google Keyboard sends out some data every time you type anything. It’s not even that subtle.
Sorry about the delay.
That’s all.
Gboard with every connection blocked through Rethink Firewall except for “media.tenor.com” and “tenor.googleapis.com” (because GIFs are cool).
I will never really know whether it really protects my privacy or if Google has other means to exfiltrate my data, but from Rethink logs it seems to be working. Unfortunately I have never found any keyboard as good as Gboard, so I would say this a risk I am personally willing to take for the convenience of a great keyboard. What would you say?
GrapheneOS is certainly on my wishlist too, but Pixels are quite pricey. I guess Rethink is the poor man’s version. Just a per-app firewall.