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My device:
Motorola Moto E. (android 4.4.4), rooted with Xprivacy to control permissions.

The Problem:

  • No security updates since 2009.
  • Can't find a way to use Google Play Market without giving it too much permissions.

Leading to...

The Situation:

Since I cannot find a good alternative market, I'm stuck downloading apps from my computer and copying over to phone (tiring, and c'mon it's 2016).
I don't browse the internet, becouse of the non-patched vulnerabilities.

What I want to do:

  • I want to flash a secure ROM with constant security updates like Nexus devices are getting,
  • Be able to use Google Play Market without it spying on me;

I don't want another OS, since I'm dependent on few apps like Sleep Cycle, my task manager and Dropbox.

What I tried:

I've been browsing forum.xda-developers for a couple of days, where I did stumble upon custom AOSP ROMs for moto E, but usually it also says things like:
This is started from kernel and device tree by CyanogenMod.
(Is it the same as AOSP then? Will I get the same updates?)
Regarding CyanogenMod; It's not an option.

As for Google Play Market, it gives an all-or-nothing ultimatum. Either I give it all permissions, or It doesn't work properly.

I find it absolutely incredible that as long as only proxies for money (your sensitive data) is at stake, most people are ok with it.
Also while I deem myself quite savvy, I found myself totally disarmed with the lack of options, this question is my last resort.

If this is not the apropriate forum, please, let me know I will move the question.
All constructive critique welcomed!

Thanks in advance.

ravik1222
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  • CyanogenMod lives on as LineageOS - wait a bit for that to pop up around the forums. – Andy Yan Dec 28 '16 at 00:18
  • "I want to flash a secure ROM with constant security updates like Nexus devices are getting" - then buy a Nexus/Pixel device (Nexus 5X or newer). You won't find any this kind of custom ROM for your ageing device, unfortunatelly. – Bálint Babics Dec 28 '16 at 00:35
  • @BálintBabics, It's a rather large amount of money for a college student where I'm from.
    That paints a rather bleak picture for mobile security, doesn't it?     – ravik1222 Dec 28 '16 at 12:04
  • You can run Chromium for Android on 4.4, but understand that at the end of the day, nothing you can ever do will make that device secure. A secure low budget phone exists in the form of feature phones and Nokia makes a bunch of them. – andDevW Apr 06 '17 at 21:39
  • You can use alternative apps to download from Play Market https://android.stackexchange.com/a/205238/32571 – janot Dec 20 '18 at 21:47

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