I am buying a new phone, and might end up buying a Samsung, though I absolutely hate all the garbage they default install.
How do I protect myself from such attacks on Samsung in the future?
How do I protect myself from such attacks on Samsung in the future?
Haven't tried it myself, but if you want to go further, they have guides for installing /e/OS or other OSes, they support that, and reverting to Fairphone OS if you wish.
https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/440585818958...
You could try running /e/OS on Anbox to get a feel of it and what can and can't be done? That's probably the simplest way forward.
(1) Don't make a Samsung account or otherwise lean in to the ecosystem.
(2) Much of that crap can be uninstalled or disabled.
(2a) There's more nonsense than you think. I replaced the camera and all sorts of things that shouldn't have been phoning home or displaying ads.
(2b) You need a mechanism for handling updates, since all that crap will come back and all your privacy settings will be reverted. You could automate the process the first time and just search for any new stragglers, but I just disable them and manually handle it when some sort of critical RCE comes out. You're not supposed to be allowed to disable them without nagware, so see (3).
(3) DNS blocking is a godsend. The crap you're unable to remove can be effectively neutered with a little work on this front.
(4) You might want a little extra userspace modification on top of that like remapping the Bixby button.
https://technastic.com/remove-samsung-bloatware-safe-to-remo...
Or these are also temporary?
The best way to prevent illegitimate data collection is to run software made by people who don't have it as their business model.
E.g.: Lineage OS.
In India, samsung reinstalls new garbage bloatware with every update. I have to take my mom's phone and uninstall every one of them after every update. Thats the only way they keep prices low I think.