Why is there google service on a degoogled os?

[Pete7]

Hello,

I have fairphone4 which came with e/os/. I am grateful that there is alternative to the tech giants that have been openly going through our data, tracking, sensoring, and canceling as they see fit. Thanks to all involved in the development of this alternative OS and apps for the general population who want to escape the manipulation and control. There needs to be major shift leaving these platforms who will sell us to the highest bidder.

I installed exodus privacy app and saw that MicroG Services Core has 5 different google trackers and 43 permissions. I was under the impression that e/os/ was degoogled OS. Why am I finding out that there is google service installed under a different name? I switched to try out e/os/and was gonna get my friends and family to switch. Can somebody explain to me why a degoogled phone would be communicating with google servers?

The other thing I didn’t understand on this forum is some users saying they are unable to login to their google account due to MicroG… Isn’t the whole point of e/os/ to get away from google or Apple? Why don’t you just keep your android phone? Maybe I’m missing something.

I have attached screenshots so you guys can see. I hope somebody from e-foundation would have an explanation as to why its not even mentioned on the e-foundation website…So should we assume we are not there yet but is a work in progress?

I have more screen shots but im only allowed to upload one media because im a new user. If you all download exodus privacy app you can see the 43 permisions google has to access your content. I hope im wro g about this but it seems obvious to me.

[AnotherElk]

@Pete7

Can somebody explain to me why a degoogled phone would be communicating with google servers?

https://doc.e.foundation/calls_to_google_servers.html

[MRTN]

You can also read more about MicroG in this blogpost :

Discover microG, and what it is used for

The Android Open Source Project [image 2] As of 2022, approximately 70% of consumer phones are running the Android operating system. One of the main reasons for this scale in adoption is because of Android’s open license and a history of well-built mobile OS. Phone manufactures like this combination as it allows them to easily adopt Android to suit their needs. It also saves phone manufactures the effort involved in building a complete OS from scratch. It’s not enough, though. Using Vanilla …

or on the MicroG website itself :

https://microg.org/

[tcecyk]

@Pete7

Can somebody explain to me why a degoogled phone would be communicating with google servers?

because of user expectations towards popular Apps. microG is there to make that big pool work that rely on some of the components for message passing, app accounts or device registration.

You can disable the communication. By default it is enabled to cause (in my view) the least amount of surprise for new users.

It’s a discussion to disable this compatibility layer by default, the user would need to be educated in 1-2 sentences what microG is about during the setup wizard and its implications.

• microG Google calls: ask for consent during setup? - #2 by tcecyk
• microG explanation as video