> or bootloader unlocking, one or more steps involve running some tool that isn't open source
fastboot is open source. That's literally all you need to unlock the bootloader on a great number of phones. The vast majority of users don't need to root their phones, and doing so is a pretty big security hole for the users that think they need to.
On the other hand, your alternative is to stick with OEM/carrier OSes, which are quite obviously compromised for benefiting the OEM/carrier and not the user.
Many apps allow exporting their data without requiring root. There are adblockers that set themselves up as a 'VPN connection' on your device for filtering out ads, those do not require root.
Seconding DNS66. Another benefit over hosts file based ad-blocking is you can disable/enable it without having to restart, which is super handy for the occasional "is this site broken or is it my ad-blocker" sanity check.
Upon reflection, I suspect those localhost-vpn ad blockers have to reconstruct your ip traffic back into outgoing socket api calls, which can't work really well for non-web traffic.
I .. only learned about these ad blockers from this thread, so take everything I write with a healthy amount of table salt.
That said, as far as I understand this DNS66 thing only intercepts DNS requests (which yes, it needs to break apart and reassemble) and nothing else? That is - if you don't talk to a server that is part of the application's custom DNS server list or a DNS server given to you by your network configuration, then I'd expect this packet to bypass the VPN entirely.
Maybe someone who understands the Android VPN service thing a bit more can chime in and confirm?
fastboot is open source. That's literally all you need to unlock the bootloader on a great number of phones. The vast majority of users don't need to root their phones, and doing so is a pretty big security hole for the users that think they need to.
On the other hand, your alternative is to stick with OEM/carrier OSes, which are quite obviously compromised for benefiting the OEM/carrier and not the user.