Catalonia Police Suspect Google Pixel Users As Drug Dealers, Here's Why

JAKARTA - In the Catalonia area, Spain, police officers have unusual suspicions. Because every time they see someone using a Google Pixel phone, they immediately think the person may be a drug dealer.

According to a report from Xataka Android, Pixel phones are the main choice among criminals, drug dealers, and gang members in the region. However, this phenomenon is not caused by the Pixel feature as a Google product, but because of the open and can be modified nature of the Android operating system.

GrapheneOS And Extreme Privacy

What makes Pixel attractive to criminal groups is its compatibility with GrapheneOS, an Android-based operating system designed for high-level privacy and security.

GrapheneOS offers a very powerful full disk and metadata encryption, making it popular among users who want to completely avoid tracking, including criminals.

In many cases, users even remove cameras, GPS, and microphones from their Pixel devices to minimize the risk of monitoring. Some even operate their Pixels with very limited interfaces, only for encrypted communication needs.

GrapheneOS officially supports modern Pixel series such as Pixel 8 and Pixel 9, as both use ARM V9 CPUs with very strong memory tagging-based security features. The system also gets a long-term security update directly from the GrapheneOS project.

Setelah laporan ini muncul, tim di balik GrapheneOS memberikan pernyataan keras di akun resmi mereka di X (sebelumnya Twitter):

European authoritarian governments and their supporters in the media have incorrectly described GrapheneOS and Pixel phones as if they were only used by criminals. GrapheneOS opposes countries and police who want to keep an eye on everyone."

They assert that security is a neutral tool, can be used for good or crime, and GrapheneOS is only 'very good at what he does.'

Meanwhile, the police in Catalonia are said to have developed tactics to counter the abuse of this device, including by embedding malware on the suspect's cellphone to gain full access to applications, media, documents, and others.

Pixel Becomes A Symbol Of Suspicion

Although Google has never intended to make Pixel the choice of criminals, in reality the advanced safety features, their easy-to-modify nature, and support for systems like GrapheneOS make them very attractive to people who want to avoid detection.

Now, in Catalonia, seeing someone using Pixel not only creates curiosity about technology but also criminal suspicion.