131–140 of 465 posts
few QR code apps from F-Droid.
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.example.barcodescanner/
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.secuso.privacyFriendlyCo...
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I use iOS and have App auto-updates disabled (not the system update). We are at a point where auto-updates are more risky than the security flaw itself - especially since iOS has a pretty good sandbox, especially since its impossible for one app to access the data of another. Additionally, the App usually connects to a pretty limited set of servers, and is not publicly reachable. So the attack vector is pretty small.…
> We are at a point where auto-updates are more risky than the security flaw itself - especially since iOS has a pretty good sandbox, especially since its impossible for one app to access the data of another. Additionally, the App usually connects to a pretty limited set of servers, and is not publicly reachable. So the attack vector is pretty small. I'd have to say that most apps now connect to a rather large number…
Just think through the implications of that phrase for a moment, though. Your own device comes with a built-in mechanism specifically designed for advertisers to track you. Why was that ever a good idea in the first place?
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School tried to make me use camscanner, glad I took the extra effort to do something else. Thanks for the anecdote.
I absolutely love Camscanner, and I have been for over a year on the old version because I refuse to update to the new version which requires network permissions. I exactly suspected this is why it needs those permissions. To what did you switch? Camscanner is otherwise an excellent app, especially for combining multiple images and straightening them out.
I recently noticed that the "Barcode Scanner" app by ZXing ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.zxi... ) was being review-bombed with 1* reviews. People were talking about the "recent update", even though the last update is from February 2019. As far as I know, that app is open source and never contained ads. (Of course, without reproducible builds, we'll never know for sure.) Was ZXing also hit…
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I’m usually like this. Then my bank’s app refused to launch until I updated. They re-designed it. When I went to click my usual “schedule payment” button on a bill payment, it just said “Coming Soon”. I wasn’t a happy person about it. Big Canadian bank too. US$65b mkt cap.
I never use my bank app because I don't fully trust my phone but they redesigned their website to be more mobile friendly. Now I can only see 10 operations at once instead of 30 before, and I can no longer sort by amount... When I complained 2 years ago about it my banker told me to participate in their feedback program... Now they send me market research polls about future products and features, no way to report usa…
I'm glad that Firefox on Android now has a built-in QR code scanner. This is the best UI and security improvement they added in the last 5 years.
I'll never undertand why Google didn't include one from the start. They finally added it to the camera app but very few people know about it.
I recently noticed that the "Barcode Scanner" app by ZXing ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.zxi... ) was being review-bombed with 1* reviews. People were talking about the "recent update", even though the last update is from February 2019. As far as I know, that app is open source and never contained ads. (Of course, without reproducible builds, we'll never know for sure.) Was ZXing also hit…
The dev says the app hasn't been updated since 2019.
One can say that the solution to this is more control/power for the app store, but te opposite, the solution for this problem on computer was solved decades ago: Open source software and more open and transparent platforms! Today users of common brands of Android and Apple devices are really restricted in control of their devices, so there is very few ways to check what the system or apps are doing, inspect, firewall…
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Stallman is almost always right but nothing he says is particularly surprising or useful. Yes auto updates allow delivery of malware but its not like manual updating was any better. No user was auditing changes before hitting the update.
Give a user a choice though, and they dismiss the update notification because it's naggy and annoying and usually involves restarting your app or OS (I'm mainly thinking of operating systems here). Microsoft went in hard / aggressively and are forcing update installs and restarts, which IMO is going the wrong direction. Wasn't there a Linux project where they could update the OS / kernel without a restart? I feel lik…
Ubuntu? Last time I updated, they asked me if I wanted to start using Livepatch, so it seems pretty integrated: https://ubuntu.com/security/livepatch
(though I'm horrible at noticing the critical battery warnings so I get frequent reboots for free – but that method wouldn't work on Windows which installs updates on shutdown!)