Why trust dgdroid?

What dgdroid is for

dgdroid helps everyday people and small businesses get Google out of their phones. Some readers want a phone that arrives private. Others want to keep the phone they already have and strip out as much tracking as they can. We cover both, and we’re upfront about what breaks along the way, from banking apps to tap-to-pay.

The site has a few tools that work together. The ten-second phone lookup tells you which private operating systems your model can run. Our privacy scores and their method explain how each system and phone is rated. The side-by-side OS table answers everyday questions about GrapheneOS, CalyxOS, /e/OS, iodéOS and LineageOS. The catalog of private phones and gear lists what you can buy, and our step-by-step articles walk you through the work.

Who we write for

We write for people who aren’t technical: anyone tired of ads that seem to follow them around, parents setting up a first phone for a teenager, and small-business owners who keep client details on their phones. So we use plain English, explain each term the first time it appears, and say clearly when a step carries risk, such as unlocking a bootloader, which erases the phone.

Where our facts come from

Device support is the part that matters most, so we take it straight from the source. Our device database was last checked in full on September 20, 2026, against the official support lists of GrapheneOS, CalyxOS, LineageOS, /e/OS, iodéOS, Ubuntu Touch and Sailfish OS, and we re-check it every quarter. App recommendations link to the official store pages, F-Droid entries or developer sites, and each store link was checked before we added it.

When a fact depends on a maker, such as an update end date or a price, we use the maker’s own published figure and say when we last looked. When we can’t confirm something, we leave it out instead of guessing.

How we rate private phones

Every operating system gets a privacy score from 0 to 10 for how much tracking it exposes you to as it ships, a plain-language note on app compatibility, and an install difficulty from None to Advanced. These are editorial ratings, not lab measurements. GrapheneOS sets the benchmark at 10, and hardened stock Android, the fallback for phones that can’t be unlocked, sits at 4. The same numbers appear everywhere on the site, so a score in the checker means the same thing as a score on a product card.

How our news works

The news section publishes two stories a day. Each one must pass automated source checks before it goes live: at least two sources on different websites, key facts that appear on those pages, and a recent publication date. If a story can’t pass, we publish an explainer based on our own research instead, or nothing at all.

Why you can trust our recommendations

Trust is earned by being clear about how the site works. Here is what we commit to:

• Affiliate links never decide a recommendation. Several of our top picks, such as Jolla, Volla and Purism phones, link straight to the maker and earn us nothing.
• We say when a phone can’t be degoogled. US Samsung phones, Samsung foldables and iPhones get an honest “not possible”, along with a plan to reduce tracking anyway.
• We don’t track you. No cookies, no ad networks, and the newsletter is double opt-in with no tracking pixels. The full details are in what this site collects and why.

You can read exactly how we earn money on our affiliate links explained page.