@rozenglass @VIPPER @david >The OS storage /is/ read-only, in almost all phones I had the displeasure of using.
The NAND is r/w, it's just only the proprietary master who decides what to allow the user to write and not you.

>even though it is popular to call them that, it is traditionally wrong.
It's a popular error, as Read Only Memory cannot possibly be writable - it has nothing do with tradition.

>I don't live in the land of the free
The USA is the land of the nonfree.

>I live under a peculiar political situation, and without a phone I could easily end up detained or worse.
Big yikes. I would leave or overthrow the government in such situation.