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Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

Because Chromebooks are more secure than Windows, Linux, or Mac laptops, but Android is markedly less secure than iOS. This isn't about which is our favorite company; it's about what the best options are for ordinary users.

If you know exactly what you're doing, and you're using a Google phone, you might be able to get approximately the same security out of an Android device as an iOS device. But ordinary users have no chance.

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Thank you for the list.

Can you help me to understand the validity of this statement [0]?

> When used with the best practices for web security, the Chromebook is secure against most direct attacks on the local hardware and the Chrome browser, but its dependence on a web-based backend where US courts have already ruled there's less of an expectation of privacy is something no amount of end-point security is going to fix.

[0] https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/09/why-t...

Files stored on cloud services have less legal protection in the US than files stored locally. Not "no" protection, but less.

But that translates to zero effective protection if the US government is interested in what a journalist is writing with his/her Chromebook.

While what you present is a possible extreme end result it is highly unlikely, and the level of attention would have to be far above just being 'interested' in the work of the journalist. The US government does not care about the work of 99.9999% of the journalists out there and if you are in the group that they care about you know it and are probably going to be using a less user-friendly but more secure process. Contra claims by the tinfoil crowd, Google is not in the habit of giving up info without fighting against the request so this option provides very strong protection for almost all of the potential audience for this.

Google is not in the habit but NSA is, as Snowden told us.

I would like to know why some people downvoted this comment.

Is my statement false? Please, explain why you think so.

I expect an intelligent interaction here in HN.

For US Persons anyway, they cannot get such data without a warrant, you are mistaken (I did not downvote you btw, as your interpretation is semi-common).

They cannot get the data without a warrant but NSA did it in spite of everything [0].

What we don't know for sure is if they're still doing it after being caught.

[0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-i...

Is there any hope for Android at this point? I like the freedom to hack on my phone, but it's quickly feeling like I'll need to get an iPhone for real work and leave the Android stuff as a hobby.

At least on Google's own phones, Android is improving continuously. When they get to the point where they're comparably secure, the guide will be updated. As you can see: it's not anti-Google bias producing that recommendation: the guide also says to use Chrome, and Chromebooks if possible.

If you don't mind elaborating, what do you consider the most important security properties still missing from Android on the Pixel phone?

My personal wishlist would include an equivalent of iOS's ability to encrypt new files to a public key while the phone is locked, as pointed out by Matt Green in "The limitations of Android N Encryption", but I'm interested in your perspective.

From the top of my head:

* Pair locking [1]

* Updates for longer than 18 months [2]

1: https://www.zdziarski.com/blog/?p=2589 - There was a more up to date guide but I can't find it.

2: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/apple-ios-10-iphone-softw...

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