Good Morning from my Robotics Lab! This is Shadow_8472 with a background research project for this week. Let’s get started!
Years ago, I promised myself I would pay closer attention to the terms of service gatekeeping important tech and software (such as operating systems) before using them regularly. To keep my complaint simple: Big Tech inhales data, and it is willing to exploit the least among us to get it. A consequence of my decision has been the inconvenience of having no cell phone since we switched carriers since our old ones weren’t accepted despite still being functional.
The Problem With Android
Android is a dark sheep. While running Linux at its heart, the spirit of free and open source software has been beaten out of it like an abused puppy locked away in Google’s basement. While technically fair game for hobbyists, the search giant’s monopoly on the definitive repository, the Play Store, makes it near-impossible to make a profitable Android product without cooperating with their “quality control” (See Amazon’s Kindle for a/the counterexample).
In addition, much of Android phones’ questionable behaviors (like user tracking) is governed by closed source packages included at Google’s insistence. Some packages are like the keyboard app and can be swapped out as easily as any other app. Others are software libraries built deeper into the system and called on by independently developed apps; these are harder to strip out and replace by their nature, but it is doable if the device is rooted.
Rooting
Root is Linux’s administrator account. A rooted phone is therefore an Android with root permissions restored. Root has the power to remove that news app you never asked for and didn’t want. Root can remove those annoying battery charge caps on an old phone or change the IMEI number on a new one’s modem. Root also has the power to brick your device and turn it into a paperweight if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Manufacturers are understandibly adverse to users with root. They can’t know what they’ve been doing or how security has been compromised by poor choices. They’ll invalidate warranties (as a general rule) on rooted devices, though you are often entitled to an explanation as to how a root job could have caused the damage; rooting will let you blare your music loud enough to damage the speakers, but an accidental damage policy should still cover a screen crack from dropping it in theory.
For my research this week, I located a total of four Android devices I have leave to root as I please. My mission critical device is an LG Stylo 5, but for practice, I have two Samsung Galaxy S7 edge units in addition to my everyday use tablet (Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1). As it turns out, big-name flagship products, like my practice articles, have more protections against being rooted than the device I actually care about. I also learned how important it is to know exactly what product you’re dealing with as even the carrier a phone was made for can be the difference between a successful firmware update and bricking.
Just as there are generally multiple software applications for a particular job, so too are there multiple utilities for actually rooting. From what I can tell, the conversation about Android modification is almost exclusively done from the Windows platform, though I do remember reading about a tool for Linux. There is much research remaining.
Takeaway
I have weighted the benefits of an Android phone against Google’s terms and decided that while cell phone access is important, it isn’t important enough to me to carry around their mechanical spy. The cleanest getaway outside a so-called “Linux phone” would be flashing a custom ROM, but I tremble each time I look into that. Replacing the worst offending software is closer to my skill level at this time. I’ve already done so with my main keyboard, and I’m working up the nerve to root and fortify my phone’s privacy.
Final Question
Do you own a rooted Android? What method and tools did you use? What did you do with it once you were done?