Thats why I use 2gb per month watch only a couple videos... thanks Google, I was really trying to restrict myself.
Google sued: Idle Android eats mobile data to send telemetry and preload ads
271–280 of 320 posts
Re: Google sued: Idle Android eats mobile data to send telemetry and preload ads
#272Very simple way I know that not many people know:
Download a cert from offending Google servers, and blacklist it in Android.
The TLS library on the Android will then block it
Re: Google sued: Idle Android eats mobile data to send telemetry and preload ads
#273These bits of litigation are interesting, but my usual takeaway is a mild contempt for the whole thing. Whether it's something minor like this or a major antitrust cases (eg, the recent adwords EU case), what is and isn't legally actionable seems arbitrary from a non-legal perspective. Even legislation efforts like european "cookie laws" and such seem bumbling and naive. What's the legal fix to this, assuming google…
Whether or not google are "stealing" data allowance from customers, or acquiring this right voluntarily/contractually from customers is interesting in the abstract Specific example of harm: international roaming data fees are outrageous and even a small use of data can stack up. If I visit Canada using my UK mobile phone, I have to be sure to keep data roaming turned off because I get dinged for £6/Mb (about US $7.50…
It takes huge effort to cut your traffic to 0 even on nominally "ungoogled" phones.
I myself found it out the same way when Google service somehow managed to bypass every lock on roaming traffic.
Re: Google sued: Idle Android eats mobile data to send telemetry and preload ads
#274Earlier quoted context omitted.
Whether or not google are "stealing" data allowance from customers, or acquiring this right voluntarily/contractually from customers is interesting in the abstract Specific example of harm: international roaming data fees are outrageous and even a small use of data can stack up. If I visit Canada using my UK mobile phone, I have to be sure to keep data roaming turned off because I get dinged for £6/Mb (about US $7.50…
Not that you should “need” to do so (as in its absurd we still pay such high fees, but carrier roaming interconnect is still legacy tech for the most part), but most carriers these days have a “Intl data” add on that gives you either unlimited data for the day (usually around $10/£10/10€ based on experience) or as a full month add on for around $20 and it then uses your normal data allowance.
Do you see that the man don't have it? Your suggestion is irrelevant
Re: Google sued: Idle Android eats mobile data to send telemetry and preload ads
#275Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can't you lock the bootloader again after flashing a new rom?
I've read this is a very easy way to brick your phone because the bootloader will check if the signature matches the one from the OEM.
Been a few years since I was playing with this stuff, but can you not still just unlock the phone with fastboot? Has something changed that it’s actually bricked or is this the modern sense of the word bricked (mildly inconvenient and maybe some data loss)?
Re: Google sued: Idle Android eats mobile data to send telemetry and preload ads
#276Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I set up a rule on my router to drop any DNS traffic and DoH traffic to well known DNS providers unless it comes from the server running pihole. Otherwise it was proving very hard to find out how to force applications / mobile devices to use my DNS server.
That only works as long as you can easily distinguish the DNS traffic from the rest, right?
For instance if my VideoApp serves content from videoapp.example.com and I use my own DNS also at videoapp.example.com, served over DoH, I think that's basically the end for host-based content blockers.
Re: Google sued: Idle Android eats mobile data to send telemetry and preload ads
#277Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm currently using LineageOS and I'm not going to use it in the future. The issue I have is that unlocking my phone creates a security trade off that doesn't seem better than the privacy gains. I'm more afraid of losing my phone and someone replaces the bootloader than I am of telemetry. I really have enjoyed the LineageOS and it's been great to have a phone that isn't as dumb as a flip phone but doesn't have all th…
Can't you lock the bootloader again after flashing a new rom?
Depends on the device. This could be done (with some hackery) on Sony Xperia phones from several years ago, but more recent ones will brick if you try it. I think Google's Pixel phones will let you re-lock, but my impression is that most devices are in the latter category.
Re: Google sued: Idle Android eats mobile data to send telemetry and preload ads
#278Earlier quoted context omitted.
It doesn't really matter who's involved, the security model in android is extremely user hostile. Many organizations are given super user access on device and the end user isn't. Only one of these needs to be poorly behaved (not even selling ads) for the device to be full of unremovable malware. There's definitely a social problem here, but I think for once people HN are underestimating the importance of a technical…
Company selling phone should by law be required to hand over any keys to the user. User should be able to change any aspect of the os or even delete it if they wish. We need to end the abuse of Google and Apple.
[deleted]
Re: Google sued: Idle Android eats mobile data to send telemetry and preload ads
#279Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm currently using LineageOS and I'm not going to use it in the future. The issue I have is that unlocking my phone creates a security trade off that doesn't seem better than the privacy gains. I'm more afraid of losing my phone and someone replaces the bootloader than I am of telemetry. I really have enjoyed the LineageOS and it's been great to have a phone that isn't as dumb as a flip phone but doesn't have all th…
Well what's wrong with a bootloader unlocked if your device is encrypted?
If left unattended, an attacker could install bootable code that impersonates your normal startup sequence, prompting for your encryption key and booting as normal, but secretly storing or forwarding the key to the attacker.
(I believe this is an example of an evil maid attack, although that name for it is somewhat new to me.)
A locked bootloader would prevent such code from being installed, or at least refuse to run it.
Re: Google sued: Idle Android eats mobile data to send telemetry and preload ads
#280Earlier quoted context omitted.
Linux high end phones will never be a reality, at least not what people here would consider Linux at best you’ll get is Android or Android like OS. Other than that you’ll get low volume low end devices at high end or higher prices due to lack of economy of scale. What most consumers actually want and I’ll put in that list also many many people that say they want a “Linux Phone” but in reality will go back to their iP…
I'm currently using an Fxtec Pro1 [1], which has a respectable Snapdragon 835 and 6GB of ram. It was released last year with an older processor but compare the Geekbench scores to the "High end" new Pixel 5 [2]. It unofficially supports quite a few distributions of Linux including Ubports Ubuntu Touch, Sailfish OS, and LineageOS. Official support for Ubuntu Touch and LineageOS is coming next month. It's a niche devic…
Whoa. This looks exactly like what I've been looking for.
Taking a serious look