Google sued: Idle Android eats mobile data to send telemetry and preload ads • Hacker News Board

Re: Google sued: Idle Android eats mobile data to send telemetry and preload ads

#21

Post by ugexe » Sat, Nov 14, 2020, 1:29 PM UTC

rainingcatndogs wrote: post #11

janwillemb wrote: post #6

Good that the root cause is being addressed. In the meantime, I'll be reducing the symptoms by routing all my DNS traffic through my pi.hole instance.

I wouldn't be surprised if these mentioned apps comes with google's dns resolvers baked in, in that case routing through pihole doesn't help here.

There are block lists for DoH servers and other DNS queries can be forwarded to your own resolver.

Re: Google sued: Idle Android eats mobile data to send telemetry and preload ads

#22

Post by CodeGlitch » Sat, Nov 14, 2020, 1:30 PM UTC

janwillemb wrote: post #6

Good that the root cause is being addressed. In the meantime, I'll be reducing the symptoms by routing all my DNS traffic through my pi.hole instance.

How are you routing through your pihole when connected only to mobile broadband?

Re: Google sued: Idle Android eats mobile data to send telemetry and preload ads

#23

Post by curiousgal » Sat, Nov 14, 2020, 1:31 PM UTC

CodeGlitch wrote: post #22

janwillemb wrote: post #6

Good that the root cause is being addressed. In the meantime, I'll be reducing the symptoms by routing all my DNS traffic through my pi.hole instance.

How are you routing through your pihole when connected only to mobile broadband?

VPN

Re: Google sued: Idle Android eats mobile data to send telemetry and preload ads

#24

Post by CodeGlitch » Sat, Nov 14, 2020, 1:33 PM UTC

curiousgal wrote: post #23

CodeGlitch wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are you routing through your pihole when connected only to mobile broadband?

VPN

But your phone is still connecting out to the internet and therefore using your data allowance.

Re: Google sued: Idle Android eats mobile data to send telemetry and preload ads

#25

Post by hereme888 » Sat, Nov 14, 2020, 1:35 PM UTC

I'm removing this comment.

Re: Google sued: Idle Android eats mobile data to send telemetry and preload ads

#26

Post by buran77 » Sat, Nov 14, 2020, 1:35 PM UTC

CodeGlitch wrote: post #22

janwillemb wrote: post #6

Good that the root cause is being addressed. In the meantime, I'll be reducing the symptoms by routing all my DNS traffic through my pi.hole instance.

How are you routing through your pihole when connected only to mobile broadband?

A VPN should do the trick. A Raspberry Pi running PiHole Wireguard can be set up quite easily, with dozens of tutorials on the internet.

Assuming you know what to block, the connection would fail after the first DNS query thus saving you bandwidth and privacy.

Re: Google sued: Idle Android eats mobile data to send telemetry and preload ads

#27

Post by BenjiWiebe » Sat, Nov 14, 2020, 1:36 PM UTC

CodeGlitch wrote: post #24

curiousgal wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VPN

But your phone is still connecting out to the internet and therefore using your data allowance.

But instead of loading an ad or sending telemetry, it will merely query DNS and then give up.

Re: Google sued: Idle Android eats mobile data to send telemetry and preload ads

#28

Post by 411111111111111 » Sat, Nov 14, 2020, 1:36 PM UTC

CodeGlitch wrote: post #24

curiousgal wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VPN

But your phone is still connecting out to the internet and therefore using your data allowance.

But it won't be able to download the ads, so only the dns query will go over the air.

If you're using Android: Blokada from f-droid is another option if you want to skip even that.

Re: Google sued: Idle Android eats mobile data to send telemetry and preload ads

#29

Post by chrisseaton » Sat, Nov 14, 2020, 1:37 PM UTC

CodeGlitch wrote: post #24

curiousgal wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VPN

But your phone is still connecting out to the internet and therefore using your data allowance.

I think most people have basically unlimited data these days, and I'm sure nobody is worrying about the cost of a DNS request.

Re: Google sued: Idle Android eats mobile data to send telemetry and preload ads

#30

Post by indymike » Sat, Nov 14, 2020, 1:40 PM UTC

geogra4 wrote: post #3

I wish Microsoft didn't kill windows mobile. The Android monopoly is terrible

Windows mobile wasn't going to change the world. That said, I'd love to see a real alternative to iOS and Android if for no reason than my phone is a very powerful, very real computer and I can't use it as such.