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Tracking my phone's silent connections

kushaldas.in

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Re: Tracking my phone's silent connections

#101

Post by kop316 »

SubiculumCode wrote: post #71
kop316 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you misunderstand me. What I mean is you wipe the phone, reinstall either AOSP or LineageOS (or other custom ROM), do NOT install any Google Apps (to include Google Play Services, Google Store, Google Maps, etc.). Use F-Droid ( https://f-droid.org/ ) as your App Store. I have been using OsmAnd ( https://osmand.net/ ) as my map service.

Im annoyed how much cheaper phones cant be rooted

How cheap are you looking for? When my Nexus 5x broke, I simply looked through the lineageOS site to look for phones. I ended up with a Sony Xperia XA2. I found it new for $220, but I found an open box for $150.

Re: Tracking my phone's silent connections

#102

Post by dkoston »

aaaaaaaaaaab wrote: post #94
lbacaj wrote: post #35

To clarify, outside of the CDN providers or AWS calls and the big 3 (Facebook, Google, Apple), the vast majority of the calls seem to be to marketing providers or developer tools Branch - these guys provide deep links into phones and tools to analyze who clicked on the links and if they worked. mParticle, Appsflyer, Braze formerly Appboy, Appboy all provide internal app marketing teams tools like mobile push or analy…

>letsencrypt (free SSL certificates) Wait, what? How would a client app get SSL certs from letsencrypt?

Likely that OP used the browser on their mobile phone alongside other apps

Re: Tracking my phone's silent connections

#103

Post by jabberthemutt »

kekebo wrote: post #24
jabberthemutt wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can highly recommend NetGuard on android, it's non-root and free software. I wish there was a system that lets me whitelist specific hosts per app.

You can do that with NetGuard, but it's a pro feature you have to unlock

Oh oops! I bought it to support the developer and never even noticed that. Thanks!

Re: Tracking my phone's silent connections

#104

Post by marak830 »

HenryBemis wrote: post #21

Regarding iOS: I stopped using iPhones and (edit typo) quot the ecosystem altogether (apart from an app I still sell in apple app store) because with the lack of an untethered Jailbreak I could no longer install "Firewall IP" and I could not edit the hosts file. Regarding Android: I switched to Android for the "NoRoot Firewall" and since most Android phones are Root-able I can also edit my hosts file. The article giv…

Noroot firewall was a bit of an eye opener for me, and I began by not trusting anything!

By block list is huge at the moment, and have basically stopped installing any apps, or allowing non-allowed apps to update.

Re: Tracking my phone's silent connections

#106

Post by m463 »

lbacaj wrote: post #35

To clarify, outside of the CDN providers or AWS calls and the big 3 (Facebook, Google, Apple), the vast majority of the calls seem to be to marketing providers or developer tools Branch - these guys provide deep links into phones and tools to analyze who clicked on the links and if they worked. mParticle, Appsflyer, Braze formerly Appboy, Appboy all provide internal app marketing teams tools like mobile push or analy…

CDN providers cross over into analytics and tracking.

Re: Tracking my phone's silent connections

#107

Post by m463 »

bostik wrote: post #40
DavideNL wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's not a proper solution (apps can simply communicate with their servers public ip instead of looking up a domain name.)

If that becomes more widespread, I would expect a future generation of blocking software to start use ASN information.

On IOS apple only allows (some) dns based blocking afaik

Re: Tracking my phone's silent connections

#108

Post by m463 »

mr_toad wrote: post #96
DavideNL wrote: post #39

Apple promotes privacy (which is great), but at the same time they behave like a dictatorship by not providing an opt-out of the iOS walled garden, which they do provide with System Integrity Protection on macOS. What he is doing will not prevent apps from extracting information and uploading it to their servers. For example, by using an ip address instead of a hostname/domain, an app/service can exclude themselves f…

Apple could easily add a per-app permission for network access just like they do with mobile data.

I wish there was a true ios firewall.

and a way to turn off deep linking

and a way to turn off ble beacons

and the possibility of local location services only such as photo tags, without all the rest.

sigh.

Re: Tracking my phone's silent connections

#109

Post by jlokier »

filleduchaos wrote: post #84
jlokier wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you may be in the first world on this one. I saw a very interesting talk last year about how Google Maps is often useless in third world areas, and OpenStreetMaps provides the only useful coverage. It's due to armies of volunteers mapping an area during disasters, while Google has no economic interest in mapping the area. https://media.ccc.de/v/emf2018-157-how-the-internet-has-chan...

I live in West Africa, and yeah I think I'll take the difference between the two services that I've experienced for myself for what it is. Those "armies of volunteers" aren't exactly interested in the region either.

> Those "armies of volunteers" aren't exactly interested in the region either.

I don't doubt your experience.

The talk is about disaster response, so it only describes maps in regions where a response is taking place.

Elsewhere, the rest of the time, I'm under the impression there is no serious mapping taking place, neither by Google or OSM.

What I found surprising from the talk I linked was instances where there was a hardly usable Google Map to use for the area (just big expanses on the map and the occasional large feature), and the fact that at times up to 1000 volunteers would work together mapping a region at short notice, down to street and building level, by analysing satellite images, and coordinating with responders on the ground.

In the opinion of those disaster responders, those volunteer created maps were much more useful than the Google ones.

Re: Tracking my phone's silent connections

#110

Post by filleduchaos »

jlokier wrote: post #109
filleduchaos wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in West Africa, and yeah I think I'll take the difference between the two services that I've experienced for myself for what it is. Those "armies of volunteers" aren't exactly interested in the region either.

> Those "armies of volunteers" aren't exactly interested in the region either. I don't doubt your experience. The talk is about disaster response, so it only describes maps in regions where a response is taking place. Elsewhere, the rest of the time, I'm under the impression there is no serious mapping taking place, neither by Google or OSM. What I found surprising from the talk I linked was instances where there was…

> The talk is about disaster response

We haven't exactly had one of those in decades, so yeah. I'd say it's a bit telling that there's only interest/means for volunteers to map the developing world when there has been a disaster, but I digress.

Google Maps is perfectly usable where I live (apart from its continued if understandable confusion about how...irregular roads and road access can be here), and in my experience has been at least useful in all the cities in my home country I've visited. OpenStreetMaps is...not.

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