Sadly CopperheadOS died (at least for me it did). The director of CopperheadOS found himself way to important with his dick move to seize ownership of the entire company, and left the other 50% owner (the main author behind CopperheadOS) empty handed.
Goodbye from CopperheadOS
I guess the following still applies for other ROMS. Just like Michael Micay advised, just use plain AOSP without gapps. For me this is CarbonROM with F-Droid and Yalp, while waiting for a more security and privacy centered ROM.
Unlike many, who apparently got nothing to hide (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_to_hide_argument), I’m a bit keen on my privacy and security. This has probably something to do with my daily job as a DevOps engineer, but should nevertheless be interesting for anyone who wants to be back in control of their data. This CopperheadOS review is about taking that control.
One approach on security is to know where your weak spots are. For me this was my Android phone. It seems like everyone is downloading all kinds of binary apps, and are trusting them blindly. This feels likes the Window 95-98 era where many would just download and run any *.exe without hesitation. Another argument was the obscure Google Play services, not knowing what it does send back to Google and what doesn’t. And even when I do know, I don’t have any reasonable opt-out possibility for sending any data. In my quest of searching for alternative ROM for better security and privacy I found CopperheadOS. Which I’ll be reviewing here.
CopperheadOS is a plain AOSP with additional hardening and focus on open source apps, without any binary sending my data to the cloud. This was somewhat a leap of faith, as I would be obliged to part from some binary apps I rely on in my daily life (altough not entirely true, but read along). But as it turned out there are lots of open source alternatives which offer same or nearly same functionality.
App repository
Because CopperheadOS is stripped from the Google Play Framwork (hooray!) it comes with F-droid as app installer. With F-droid you can find only open source apps, so this is my primary source of finding new apps before switching to an alternative.
Binary apps
My main focus is to stay functional, not becoming some paranoid hermit with a tin foil hat. With a healthy feeling of unwillingness I had to install Whatsapp to stay connected with family and friends. I could’t convince them to use Conversations (which requires registering a jabber account). And some banking apps don’t come open source either. This is why I installed aptoide to be able to install trusted binary apps. You need to (must actually) only install trusted apps. Altough I think Aptoids’ malware checking flow could be better concerning the signature checking. Checking signature against other marketplaces is kind of vague for me. So be on your guard here.
IM
Already mentioned above, I’d like to use Conversations. It offers same functionality as whatsapp, but offers great encryption on a federated network. Which is IMHO the best kind of privacy AND security you can get nowadays without compromise. A jabber account is free for registration (e.g. jabber.at). Once you have registered a jabber account and installed conversations, switch over to OMEMO encrypted messaging.
Browser
CopperheadOS comes with Chromium as default browser. Although I like Chromium very much at my desktop (not to be confused with closed source Chrome). It doesnt allow extensions on Android. Therefore I switched to Firefox to be able to install an adblocker (ublock origin) and a cookie wall (self destructing cookies for inactive tabs).
Search engine
Sorry to say Google; you gave me great search results but I don’t want to live in your filter bubble anymore. After a period of time I started to trust the quality of search results from DuckDuckGo. I’m not saying this company is great for total anonymity, but it is far more better than Google. And in combination with self destructing cookies, searching becomes even more anonymous.
SMS
Another great thing of CopperheadOS is it’s SMS app Silence, it offers a standard SMS app with the possibility of encrypting your messages. Before first usage a key needs to be exchanged with someone who also runs Silence, after which all text messages are encrypted from that point forward.
Cloud backup
Another Google thing that needed to be untied was the backup procedure. For this I installed a Nextcloud server on a VPS and the DavDroid app on Android which syncs my contacts, agenda and tasks to NextCloud. Another nice feature is the automatic backup of newly created photo’s.
Other open source apps and alternatives
CSipSimple: Excellent VOIP client
DavDroid: Syncs my contacts, calendar and tasks with my NextCloud server
OpenVPN for android: Which I use on public wifi hotspots
OSMAnd~: Excellent navigation app based on open street maps
Conclusion
Nothing in the world comes for free, Google needs to earn some to be able to provide all the services the offer. Altough I don’t want this to be a Google rant, the ties between stock Android and the Google cloud is becoming very diffuse, and gave me an itchy feeling about it. This is why I wanted a clear cut between my data and Google, instead of paying with my privacy and not knowing how much I’ll be paying in the end. With CopperheadOS you can make a clear cut, just to be back in control of your own data without any significant compromise. Installation was pretty straigh forward on a Nexus, so it’s easy to just give it a try I’m sure that (if you have the same considerations I have) you won’t be disappointed.