Title: In an attempt to de-Google my life, I recently disabled Play Services. Now, my Pixel 2 XL complains every time it can&#x27;t &quot;phone home.&quot;<p>Google wants to contact Play Services (itself a rootkit) every time you receive a call. You&#x27;ll see the notification&#x2F;complaint several seconds <i>before</i> the phone rings.<p>While driving with Maps, Google attempts to track you each time you enter a destination or cancel one as well as at regular intervals during your drive.<p>Play Services also tries to track me at random times for no reason when I&#x27;m not using the phone.<p>It tries to track you while listening to voicemail and the notification&#x2F;complaint stops the voicemail playback every few seconds when it can&#x27;t.<p>But perhaps the worst offense is that it tracks you <i>as you scroll through your contacts.</i> God help if you look up a phone number because, every few seconds as you scroll through your contact list, Play Services attempts to report it to Google.<p>I find this behavior reprehensible and I&#x27;m sorely looking forward to getting a Puri.sm or &#x2F;e&#x2F; device.<p>Just for fun, try it for yourself by disabling the Play Services app and see how often Google is spying on <i>you.</i>
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