I’ve had a Galaxy S22+ for 2 years and still want to use it. When I look up how to maximize privacy on Android, many results say to install custom ROMs which I can’t since its a US model and the bootloader is locked. I just want to minimize tracking and sharing of personal information. I could use a firewall app like RethinkDNS to block trackers, but could I completely block tracking from Google and Samsung? Are there any lists of packages to uninstall to improve privacy? (I’ve used ADB to remove a bunch of bloatware. Ex: pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.arzone)
Are you sure it can’t be unlocked?
https://xdaforums.com/t/guide-to-root-galaxy-s22-plus-b-e-n-0-unlock-bootloader-and-flash-official-firmware-noob-friendly.4404351/
Many phones that don’t officially support unlocking can be exploited to do so anyway. Some will lose relatively minor functionality in the process (camera enhancements were lost on mine, but the camera still works fine) but the tradeoff is often worth it.