Would you pay $15 a month to keep Android from tracking you and sending your data to Google? A new Swiss-based privacy company thinks $15 is a fair amount for peace of mind.
This is supported by Apostrophy, which has created its own operating system, called Apostrophy OS.
It's based on Android, but in a version that's already stripped of Google's intrusiveness from another privacy project called GrapheneOS, formerly known as CopperheadOS. Launched in 2014, it was briefly known as the Android Hardening project, before being renamed GrapheneOS in 2019.
The Apostrophe OS "focuses on empowering our users, not exploiting them," the company says, and is "intentionally in Switzerland."
What the operating system claims to do is separate applications from the underlying operating system architecture. Therefore preventing apps from accessing various personal data, especially the all-important location data that is so dear to surveillance capitalism…
Apostrophy OS has its own app store, but it also allows users to access the Google Play Store. If you think that doesn't make sense, since we're talking about privacy, Apostrophy claims that these apps can't get to the vitals of your digital life.
Apostrophy OS has “separated departments prioritizing application integrity and personal data privacy”.
The service is free for one year with its purchase new phone MC02 from Swiss manufacturer Punkt, according to PC Magazine.
The phone costs $749 and is available for pre-order immediately. It will ship at the end of January.”
Additional features include a built-in VPN called Digital Nomad, which uses the open source Wireguard framework to protect your every activity from outside surveillance, which includes “exit addresses” in the US, Germany, and Japan with the basic subscription.
