alt Hacker NewsYou have the ability to do what you want on your device. Root access in AOSP is just used as a hacky shortcut to achieving specific functionality. To do it properly while maintaining the security model would be to build it into the OS itself. The same concept applies to desktop platforms and the Librem 5. This isn't related to freedom.
That device, and the Debian derivative it runs, are not private or secure.
What do you mean when you say "not private"? Are you accusing the company of sending private data to their servers, as Google and Apple do?
Freedom of computing on Librem 5 doesn't end with the root account. It also allows to natively run any desktop software and develop it in any language, without reliance on Google's decision on how one must use the phone, how your OS must evolve and when you may get your updates. Or install a completely different OS from different developers, because there is no reliance on anything proprietary at all.
How you can call a device with a ton of opaque binary blobs more private and secure without mentioning this fact is beyond me. I do not call Librem 5 more secure. But its security depends on what I choose to run on it. And I only run trusted software, so it can be secure.