Is there a technical reason for non-removable Android Gmail accounts?
 

Factory reset to remove an account?!

Disable Gmail to remove an account?!

https://www.lifewire.com/remove-goog...ndroid-4151120

no, there is no technical reason. The account is just tied to android and used by several apps (which will not work without an account). You can install an ungoogled android on your phone (lineageOS), but that will also limit the features you can use.
Factory reset will force to forget the previous settings and probably will ask a google account again.

Surely the whole purpose of android is to harvest extra user information for Google. If it comes with a compulsory gmail account, most people will use it, and the contents of their emails can then be used to target them with "appropriate" ads.

As far as I know, at least on the my phone, a gmail account is not compulsory.

I set up my wife's Android without a Google account, then installed Aurora store. All the apps she uses seem to function.

Maybe not compulsory but obligatory. The average user is not going to do anything other than create a Gmail account to use Android or use an existing one.

I am a sophisticated user but not technical. I do not write programs, for example. My interest is in the mainstream userbase of Linux, acknowledging we are relatively stuck with Android on our phones.

I am impressed with the ability to change Android os. If it were easy I would try.

In the case of this device, I added the obligatory account which was coincidentally hacked. I removed the account in Settings, added a 2nd account, and the 1st account is still there.

A factory reset is tempting. I do not mind having just the 2nd account.

Not at all.

I don't think that the average user (me included) is informed enough to realize that there is an alternative to Google or apple spyware.
Our first "smart phones" were HTC One v. We were so impressed, that they were retired and replaced by Blackberry. Our main phones are/were BB. One had to be retired due to G3 shutdown. That is when I started looking for an alternative. I considered the Punkt Phone https://www.punkt.ch until I read Android OS. The company explained it was AOSP ???????. That was when I started to open my eyes. Actually I am still considering that phone and when I must check my social media score tether a de-googled or Linux tablet/ laptop to it.

Factory reset, drop the google account, download one of the other store, Aurora, Fdroid, uptodown. Then you can download all the apps without as much spyware.

I an just testing a OnePlus 6T running Lineage OS + Aurora Store and Fdroid. All the apps I use are there, Bank apps also.

I know this is a Linux forum, as much as I like Ubuntu Touch it lacks my most used apps, that is why I mentioned Android and their stores

It's not obligatory as I never set up an E-mail account. I find the phone works better this way as I don't experience as much Gagle garbage since I use the phone as just a phone. For other things I have a Laptop running MX Linux when I travel.

Not sure what the alt-stores are about but am interested. This spying is Mountain View or the apps in the store?

I will tell you, my hesitancy with the reset is not just backing up data, but the apps that are no longer available on Play Store. I don't know why they do that, but it requires expert knowledge to maintain deprecated apps.

If I reset, those apps are probably gone.

From a recent study:

Lineage is most certainly not doing any of that. If people choose to install gapps, well yeah, google apps do that. Microg doesnt, which is what /e/ pre-installs. Lineage users can install that if they want too. Or not use google services at all. You linked a badly worded article about the study, not the actual study.
https://www.scss.tcd.ie/Doug.Leith/A...acy_report.pdf

Some quotes from that report...

"Apart from Google’s GApps, no third-party system apps on the LineageOS handset were observed to perform data collection. On /e/OS, we observed no data collection by system apps"

"In contrast, LineageOS and /e/OS were not observed to collect handset data. "

And even that PDF has some inaccurately worded stuff, i.e.: "On LineageOS it is necessary to install GApps to use the Google Play store, but this is not necessary with /e/OS (which uses the open-source MicroG re-implementation of Google Play Services..."

That is bullshit. You can install microg on lineage if you want to use playstore that way. It is absolutely not "necessary" to install GApps for that functionality, they imply somehow /e/ is magic and can do something lineage can't. Microg works for all. It even works on sailfishos (with alien dalvik).

You're not wrong; but AOSP itself (the open source code for Android), which ALL "alternative" Android-like OSs are based on, also pings* Google. It would be (relatively) easy for developers to change those URLs, but in my experience, most do not.
Information on this is hard to come by. GrapheneOS mention this very clearly in their FAQ:

One can also search the source directly - I was able to find at least the URL mentioned above.

All this and more (DNS nameservers etc.) also goes for Chromium - I know the devs of ungoogled Chromium mention it.

ALL "alternative" and "privacy-focused" Android-like OSs I know of use phrasing like "reducing [calls to Google] as much as possible", instead of "eliminating".

But what I personally find even worse is this:
You're still tied into the Googleverse with AOSP, and chances are very high that either knowingly - out of convenience or laziness - or unknowingly, you WILL hand your personal data over to them.

I'm not saying everybody must stop using Google products, but one should not delude oneself into thinking one can escape the kraken that is Google/Alphabet by using their products, be they open source or not.

Some more interesting links I found while composing this reply:
https://www.androidauthority.com/how...google-827287/
https://android.stackexchange.com/qu...d-how-do-i-opt
https://www.androidpolice.com/2021/0...o-google-apps/
https://www.news18.com/news/tech/no-...d-3739961.html
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18154484

* and let's be clear: even regularly pinging a server is data collection.

Spam; reported.