HACKER Q&A
📣 spinningslate

Sustainable, Privacy-Respecting Phone?


My Sony Xperia/Jolla Sailfish combo is nearing the end of its useful life. So I'm looking for a privacy-respecting daily driver replacement. Needs are pretty basic: web, SMS, email, calls in decreasing order of priority. I don't tend to use many apps though would want flexibility to run e.g. Spotify.

A few options Identified so far, though nothing stands out strongly:

1. /e/, possibly one of the pre-loaded Samsungs available on the site [0]. Explicitly positioned as privacy-respecting: based on Android though, albeit without Google Services. Don't know how reliable it is?

2. Fairphone 3 [1]. Focused on sustainability rather than privacy. Runs stock Android so not viable on the privacy front. Previous versions supported alternative ROMs, though not possible yet on the 3.

3. Purism Librem 5. Strongest commitment to both privacy and sustainability, but not ready to be a daily driver yet (maybe ~1 year away).

I've excluded an iphone above. Apple's privacy claims are laudable but feel very much strategy credit rather than deeply-held principle.

Any experiences with above / other suggestions? Thanks.

[0] https://e.foundation/ [1] https://shop.fairphone.com/en/ [2] https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/


  👤 FrankyHollywood Accepted Answer ✓
@spinningslate, question, my Windows Phone is end of life in 2 weeks :) I was considering buying a Xperia with Sailfish.

Why you say it's nearing end of useful life? It's still being maintained right?


👤 Nextgrid
I'm not sure there is a 100% privacy-respecting phone, it's all about trade-offs.