![]() Murena's tracking-free app offerings even stretch to a suite of cloud services that /e/OS users can sign up for (with 1GB of free storage and paid plans on offer to expand that) - which enables it to extend the available portfolio of alternatives to cover utilities like Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar and even Microsoft Office. Whereas the whole raison d'être for /e/OS is no default scanning. Plus it sounds a sceptical note over the iPhone maker's brand positioning as a pro-privacy champion, pointing to Cupertino's choice of default search engine being Google's (a default product placement for which Apple is handsomely paid - even as iOS users can switch to a non-Google alternative if they dig in and change the setting). Murena even argues software running on Apple's iOS may be "phoning home", or else leaking to third parties such as data brokers (albeit Apple's App Tracking Transparency feature does require third party apps to request iOS users' permission to creep on their activity). We don't scan the device location, we don't scan the phone usage," it also tells TechCrunch, fleshing out the core differentiation and contrast vs the Google-configured mainstream flavor of Android OS - which, by merit of its adtech giant owner's surveillance-based business model, embeds default data collection into the platform. ![]() "We don't look at what apps are installed on the phone, we don't really care. And by default, this environment is not scanning what people do on the device," is Murena's top-line claim for /e/OS. "By default, we're looking at matching basically what people get on a standard phone or standard Google device. Users can also pick from other anti-tracking choices, via the settings, including (for now) DuckDuckGo, Qwant and Mojeek. The default search engine on /e/OS is a meta search engine called Spot which aggregates results from third party search engines while anonymizing requests to protect against tracking. Although performance did seem rather laggy, at times - but it was hard to know if that was a software or hardware issue with Fairphone's mid-tier handset. (Maps is an exception, though, as it's preloading a third party app called Magic Earth that's not open source - but it says the app publisher has agreed to provide a privacy report detailing its personal data collection.)Īll of these native apps seemed functional, enough, in a 'no frills'/zero bells-and-whistles kind of way. This includes a browser, messages app, camera software, contacts and so on. But the goal is to offer increased control over such privacy incursions.įirst up, instead of the usual Google gubbins, replete with the adtech giant's commercial trackers, /e/OS users will find a set of native open source apps and services Murena has developed to replace all that. (And, being open source, it invites others to audit its privacy-by-design claims.) It also offers tools to help users limit tracking by third party apps, while recognizing they may sometimes need to use apps and services that could compromise their privacy. It says the user can be assured the OS itself is locked down. The core promise for Murena's (open source) OS is no phoning home to Google or any other third parties by default. And our sense is, on the software side, a Google-free/Google-lite Android-compatible smartphone may command more demand now vs back then, given increased awareness of the privacy risks posed by tracking. But if you've been in tech long enough you'll be familiar with such back-and-forth product cycles. The combo seems a bit of a throwback to ideas that swirled around the Android-compatible Sailfish OS and Jolla Phone - remember 'em! - which were also pitched as a plucky alternative to mainstream Android a decade or so ago (yet never managed to be more than a niche proposition). Our curiosity was piqued to see an alternative OS running on alt hardware. We recently got our hands on a Fairphone 4 running Murena's tracker-blocking /e/OS. And, well, a deGoogled Pixel does feel like quite the flex. (Albeit /e/OS is a fork of an Android-based OS which was based on another fork of Android. Murena can even sell you a deGoogled (Google) Pixel which comes purged of the usual Google services - with no Play Store, Chrome browser, Google Maps etc - and running its alternative /e/OS, rather than mainstream Android. It's hardware agnostic, loading its open source smartphone OS onto a variety of new or refurbished handsets, including ethical smartphone maker Fairphone's kit and its own brand, eponymous mid-range handset. The French/European firm has been doing this for around five years, as a not-for-profit foundation - but also, in more recent years, opening a for-profit arm that sells devices running its alternative, anti-tracking OS. Murena is in the business of deGoogling Android smartphones in the name of privacy.
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