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Three quarters of Android apps track users with third party tools

theguardian.com

21–30 of 102 posts

Re: Three quarters of Android apps track users with third party tools

#21

I don't get it. If you're in IT in any role, you know this is happening. I install zero apps on my iPhone. I don't need them. Banking and other secure things are more properly done on a desktop or laptop running some form of nix with proper security in place. I would never access my bank or other secure website with crucial information via a mobile phone. Call me an anachronism should you wish, but I've never had the…

That's rather impressive. Unfortunately, I believe I've made the sacrifice of security for convenience and I may need to reevaluate that sooner than later.

Re: Three quarters of Android apps track users with third party tools

#22
post #7

I don't get it. If you're in IT in any role, you know this is happening. I install zero apps on my iPhone. I don't need them. Banking and other secure things are more properly done on a desktop or laptop running some form of nix with proper security in place. I would never access my bank or other secure website with crucial information via a mobile phone. Call me an anachronism should you wish, but I've never had the…

I'm not sure why you are being downvoted here. I learned a lot from your post! I set up my cookies to stop 3rd party and delete at the end of a session. I also learned about /etc/hosts and blocked a ton of bad stuff at the system level. You are awesome, thank you!

It will never be reasonable, feasible, or worth discussing that e.g. every day users run a linux only locked down desktop and never use their mobile phones. Every time a privacy topic comes up, there is always someone to come in and say "uninstall windows and OSX, delete all of your social media accounts and block the entire Internet, quit your job that requires you to use these devices and services, run your own mail server, if you REALLY care about privacy you'll essentially stop using the Internet, cut yourself off from all of society and make your devices unusable" -- which can offer advice for people looking to do this but adds little to the discussion around tracking, privacy, data security.

If you try to fight against advertisers and privacy-invading trackers and malware alone you will always lose. They are huge companies. They bribe your computer manufacturers to auto-install malware. They infect your operating systems. They have CAs. They have millions to spend on thousands of brilliant engineers who will work around anything you come up with to attack your security and privacy. An answer must be feasible for almost everybody so that we can all enact it collectively, technical or not, or it is no answer at all.

Re: Three quarters of Android apps track users with third party tools

#23
I wish I could edit the hosts file of Android devices without root. Barring that, I wish I could force a DNS server for both wi-fi and mobile data links, which I believe also requires root.

Either one of these options would allow the use of DNS blackholing for adware/malware domains. Without it, protecting yourself on mobile is that much more difficult.

Re: Three quarters of Android apps track users with third party tools

#24
This is a bit alarmist. I develop a popular app that has no advertising but I still ship mixpanel and crashlytics. I do that because I need to know how people are using the app in order to make the app better. That's it. If the app crashes and I don't know about it then I can't fix it and my users would hate me. Without these tools the apps would be worse.

Re: Three quarters of Android apps track users with third party tools

#25

I wish I could edit the hosts file of Android devices without root. Barring that, I wish I could force a DNS server for both wi-fi and mobile data links, which I believe also requires root. Either one of these options would allow the use of DNS blackholing for adware/malware domains. Without it, protecting yourself on mobile is that much more difficult.

You can do this with the VpnService API, and there are multiple apps that do this for you. Example (not an endorsement — do your own research): https://github.com/x-falcon/Virtual-Hosts

Re: Three quarters of Android apps track users with third party tools

#26

"Third party tools." Ads. They're called ads. Don't beat around the bush. Google won't fix the problem because their business is selling ads.

And Apple won't even let you know this is going on. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15809283

Re: Three quarters of Android apps track users with third party tools

#28

I wish I could edit the hosts file of Android devices without root. Barring that, I wish I could force a DNS server for both wi-fi and mobile data links, which I believe also requires root. Either one of these options would allow the use of DNS blackholing for adware/malware domains. Without it, protecting yourself on mobile is that much more difficult.

I wish root were easier to get on my own damn phone

Re: Three quarters of Android apps track users with third party tools

#30
post #15

"Many of these trackers are also available in the Apple iOS app store, though technical and legal barriers limit privacy and security analysis ." https://law.yale.edu/yls-today/news/isp-privacy-lab-publishe... And from https://boingboing.net/2017/11/25/la-la-la-cant-hear-you.htm... : "As Exodus and Yale note, these trackers are almost certainly also present in iOS: the companies that make them advertise their iOS com…

The data the trackers can gather is more restricted but the principle remains the same. I've installed various of different kinds for my customers. Most of them are simply tracking what users do in an application to see how they can be improved but I've seen an app that uploaded your whole contacts book immediately (when it was still allowed, not the case anymore).

I'm not too much in the know about Android permissions. I know it improved a lot lately but I think still some permissions are still accepted silently on install.

Gathering data about the movements of your users within your application can really be helpful, I draw the line where things get shared with third parties or excessive data is gathered.

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