Straight to the point. If I use /e/ I will be using it to run proprietary android apps including ones that depend on google services. I want to jail them so they don’t have real access to my device. Will these apps work if they try to verify google services? Can I install these apps on SD card without the app knowing? Can I jail them while they run so they think they have access to my device but /e/ has them ‘matrixed’ so they can have no lasting harm? The jail will have to fake GPS, mobile data active (as opposed to wifi), camera and photo storage access, contacts access, software versions and ‘required’ updates that I do not actually have installed, allow virus scanners to verify whatever it is that claim to verify, and verify my device is not rooted even if it is?
My employer does not require me to use proprietary apps, but our clients sometimes “require” it. I don’t like this any more than my employer does. When this happens, in most cases, I or a representative of my employer (or both) explains to the client that we will not be using their app. They say we must, it is in the contract. We explain that their contract does not apply because (often) the app and requirement of it was created or updated after the contract was made and it does not apply to it. AND, even if the contract does apply to the new or updated app, this clause is not legally enforceable. We explain that everything can and will be done without the app because they are unwilling to cease business over this issue. There is usually a punitive bureaucracy delay of up to 24 hours but they always relent (these are are in fact never required as they claim). Their delay harms their profits, but it harms my companies profits more, and I’m tied up for up to 24 hours not getting paid when I could be using that time to server another client (it harms my profit more than anyone). I consider the ethical harm to be worse and am willing to pay the price. My employer is aware of the ethics but is mainly concerned about practical issues.
From a purely practical standpoint, each client uses their own app and very few devices have the capacity to install and run 100s of these apps, and employees cannot do their jobs when having to sort through 100s of daily notifications from all these apps when they really only need to see a single notification from one of them daily at most. Android once let users install to SD card (which would workaround many practical issues simply by only inserting one or perhaps one or two of three SD cards as need to run the app needed for the client then removing the card to own the phone again). Since the ability to install to SD is not longer universal, this workaround no longer works. Rooting is not an option for this either, since many of these apps refuse to install or subsequently run on a rooted phone. We would be installing and uninstalling two or three apps per day.
As an immediate ad-hoc alternative, can I install /e/ on a chromebook or GNU/Linux laptop? I know how to matrix things on those systems. And for reasons I happen to have a chromebook.