[Discuss] Syncing Android phones directly

[gboyce at badbelly.com (Gregory Boyce)]

On Jul 2, 2013 7:24 AM, "Edward Ned Harvey (blu)" <blu at nedharvey.com> wrote:

>
>
> > I should clarify that it's specifically Contacts data, and to a lesser
> > extent calendar data, that I'm worried about.  Yes.  I know you can turn
> > off syncing contacts with GMail, but I had assumed if I turned that off,
> > then I wouldn't have to worry so much about them getting my contacts.
>
> This is a little tricky.  Because in order to add the google account, you
obviously need to be on the network.  And when you add it, by default, sync
contacts & calendar is enabled.  At best, within a few seconds you might be
able to quickly un-check the sync contacts & calendar checkboxes, but in
the meantime, it has been sending your stuff as fast as its little brains
could.
>
> When you disable the checkbox for sync contacts & calendar, it doesn't
REMOVE stuff from the server.  It just stops syncing.
>
> You want to get around this, I don't see any alternative.  You'll have to
start with a blank empty phone, add your google account, disable sync, and
THEN populate your addressbook / calendar.
>
> You need the google account in order to get apps from the Google Play
store.  Which basically means, you need to add a google account.
> ___

A while back a tried going without gapps on cyanogenmod.  There's an open
source app store (f-droid), but it unfortunately didn't have a carddav
client with bidirectional syncing.

One thing I've been considering is installing the Amazon store instead of
the Google one.  It adds drm, but should give you a bit better control of
your data.