A normal Android or Apple phone is a spying device that most of us are addicted to carrying with us. Without any modifications, that phone is, at the very least, tracking your location (even if you put it on airplane mode).
Not only tracking your location, the installed applications can also do covid contact tracing, recognize your voice, log your call history, grab your contact list, etc, etc. Apps can also be tracking your Internet history and thus create a profile of who you are and what you are doing on the Internet (and maybe even outside the Internet).
Degoogling is the process of removing the proprietary Google code that is tracking you in order to provide privacy.
A very small percentage of Android phones can be degoogled because there is an open source portion of the Android system. It is this Android Open Source Project (AOSP) code that a degoogled phone is based on, not the extra/replaced code by the phone manufacturer and Google.
There are no deappled iPhones as Apple does not make the iOS operating code open to the public. iOS is a closed source proprietary phone and only Apple can make extensive changes to it. Jailbroken iPhones allow for application installation from other than the Apple App store, but they are not designed to stop the iPhone from being tracked.
If you currently have an iPhone, then for privacy reasons and it’s within your means and ability, it’s best to keep that iPhone at home. It can be your stay-at-home phone.
If you currently have an Android, there is a small possibility that it an Android model that is degoogleable.
Otherwise, one can purchase one of the degoogled phones on this site.
Here is the Internet Privacy Guy, Rob Braxman, explaining about degoogled phones.
