OK, for context, none of us have Graphene, Lineage, Murena, etc compatible phones. However, at work, we use an MDM that let’s me manage Apple and Google devices result. I see they offer a free tier for <25 devices (I would be under that limit for desktops, laptops, and mobiles) and I know they can deploy apps without a Google account. So maybe that’s the trick! Deploy my kids phones with someone I can easily track, where they can’t disable location, can’t install social media apps, and no need for A Google account.
I understand a Google account is needed for the MDM, but I would make up a bogus one, lock down app permissions quite well, etc. Have a kid profile and a grown up profile for when devices are registered. Seems like it’d be a rather simple thing overall that gives way more control than Google family does.
Anyone else run something like this? This would be Endpoint Central. I know they’re India based, but to me that’s a bonus as it’s not US tech either!
Edit: oh yeah and should help to bypass age verification limits too since it’ll be “corporate owned”
Google only respects corporate boundaries for specific things (like email and cloud storage of the org doing the mdm).
Your use case has a lot, outside of that, meaning all consumer services they track anyway.
If its without an account they keep a profile without account info, but every data point they get adds to it nonetheless.
In NL we did research of MDM kids accounts for schools. Turns out all those things not school related they keep tracking.
Damn! OK. Well, at device setup or boot, it says the device is not private, but I was hoping bc is a corp device not bc Google still had their grips on it.