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Android phones are sending significant amount of user data with no opt-out [pdf]

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Re: Android phones are sending significant amount of user data with no opt-out [pdf]

#341

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

hilbert42 wrote: post #329
bubblethink wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, if you want an airgapped phone, use it in airplane mode. Obviously, the phone needs some network infra for things like updates or timekeeping. You can route it over vpn if you want and you can build everything yourself and host all the servers yourself too if you so prefer. This type of pedantry is more harmful than useful to casual users who would be far better served with grapheneos than some non-existent ideal…

"...if you want an airgapped phone, use it in airplane mode." Right, that's what I do. In fact this post comes from a smartphone sans SIM with airplane mode on, with a firewall against apps phoning home, no Google or Gmail account, all Google Gapps nuked including playstore - in fact all Gapps have been completely removed - not to mention that most replacement apps come via F-Droid. Yes, technically it's not fully ai…

Is the pocket router battery powered. Really we need an suitable open source, easily compiled OS to run on a suitable "smartphone" that can be re-purposed into a "pocket router". This to function as the gateway through which our "phones" reach the internet.

Re: Android phones are sending significant amount of user data with no opt-out [pdf]

#342

Post by hevelvarik »

hilbert42 wrote: post #329
bubblethink wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, if you want an airgapped phone, use it in airplane mode. Obviously, the phone needs some network infra for things like updates or timekeeping. You can route it over vpn if you want and you can build everything yourself and host all the servers yourself too if you so prefer. This type of pedantry is more harmful than useful to casual users who would be far better served with grapheneos than some non-existent ideal…

"...if you want an airgapped phone, use it in airplane mode." Right, that's what I do. In fact this post comes from a smartphone sans SIM with airplane mode on, with a firewall against apps phoning home, no Google or Gmail account, all Google Gapps nuked including playstore - in fact all Gapps have been completely removed - not to mention that most replacement apps come via F-Droid. Yes, technically it's not fully ai…

Based

Re: Android phones are sending significant amount of user data with no opt-out [pdf]

#343

Post by Forbo »

troyvit wrote: post #331
Forbo wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OsmAnd has been real hit or miss for me. It definitely has a lot more friction than Google Maps, and sometimes I'm not able to find a destination even with the full address. I want to use it, and I want to support the ecosystem, but damn if it doesn't make it difficult.

I agree. I'm trying to switch to OsmAnd from Here and even that is tough when it comes to finding an address on the map. You can find place names if they have been added to OpenStreetMap, which is mostly in big cities but that doesn't cover everything. I uses a separate app called GPS Coordinates. I give it an address and it gives me lat/long which I paste into OSM. I'm sure there's gotta be a better way.

Thanks for the coordinates tip, I'll likely end up using that as a stopgap.

Re: Android phones are sending significant amount of user data with no opt-out [pdf]

#344

Post by jstrebel »

Do yourself a favour and and disable the Google Play Services on your Android Phone.

Almost all apps will keep on working, the power consumption will decrease dramatically, your battery lifetime will be about 3days on one full charge. (My observations on a Samsung Galaxy A41).

I assume that the Google Play Services are the culprit that phones home all the time.

Re: Android phones are sending significant amount of user data with no opt-out [pdf]

#345

Post by daneel_w »

bubblethink wrote: post #226
daneel_w wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ...and have a better experience in every category than iOS, hardware and software. Really? I tried GrapheneOS on a Pixel 4A, and without exaggerating or trying to come off sensationalist the experience was really tepid compared to iOS, and even "normal" Android. Stuttering and jerky UI (which often also wanted to take a brief nap), very poor GPU hardware acceleration support, notably worse battery life, loads of th…

>very poor GPU hardware acceleration support Pretty sure GrapheneOS doesn't do anything to change GPU h/w acceleration.

Pretty sure GrapheneOS didn't even engage with GPU HW acceleration. Everything felt like software framebuffer.

Re: Android phones are sending significant amount of user data with no opt-out [pdf]

#346

Post by numair »

FreezingKeeper wrote: post #288
numair wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I understand it, each iOS application is sort of like its own 3D plane within a larger environment, hence why the launcher shows up without any lag. I hope someone can do the work of pasting the original Aqua framework overview that’s probably still hiding somewhere on the Apple website. The manner in which the combination of OpenGL (Metal?) and PDF work to render UI and elements on OS X and iOS is really quite re…

https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Co... might be what you're after?

This is close. There was something that introduced Aqua to the world and played up the combo of PDF and OpenGL... Probably also explained in some WWDC 2001-ish video.

Re: Android phones are sending significant amount of user data with no opt-out [pdf]

#347

Post by kaba0 »

markenqualitaet wrote: post #335
kaba0 wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I’ve seen, he gets summoned, and angry when things like “Calyx pays great attention to usability, while GrapheneOS gives more focus to security at the price of usability” gets mentioned, which is just false. Also, do note that it is indeed a dangerous business — false sense of security is the worst. And there are plenty of companies taking advantage of people wanting something “privacy-oriented”.

Nah, it's not about having strong options. I've been around nerds forever, that doesn't bother me. Yours might be the impression on recent HN, but if you look around he is all over the place, attacking people on various platforms, while promoting some conspiracy narrative; derailing, gaslighting and manipulation. Whatever is going on with that guy, something is definitely going on. He doesn't inspire trust, he probab…

Micay started working on the project and got some funding from copperhead os, with the plan being that the company could provide paid support and the like.

But copperhead os broke its promises and basically hijacked the project - but Micay being a professional, he invalidated the validation keys so that existing users would not get served code not associated with him.

Afterwards he continued working on the open source project without any partnership, while copperhead os continues to take the code, add some questionable modifications to it and sell it, while badmouthing GrapheneOS.

I wouldn’t go as far as to make psychological advice on someone based on a few interactions, but seeing how people in the industry can burn out from some rude comments, being totally backstabbed does explain his behavior. Also, do note that he is a professional security expert (the upstream android project routinely takes commits from his project) and unfortunately even with the best intentions, one can create absolutely shitty distros regarding security. Being critical of them may look “competitive”, but he only wants end users safe.

Re: Android phones are sending significant amount of user data with no opt-out [pdf]

#348

Post by hansel_der »

cookiengineer wrote: post #123
doc_gunthrop wrote: post #69

A distinction needs to be made clear here with regards to the data being transmitted to Google by LineageOS in this study. In the cited paper ( https://www.scss.tcd.ie/Doug.Leith/Android_privacy_report.pd... ), the device used to test LineageOS was a Google Pixel 2 running LineageOS 17.1 which also included an installation of OpenGapps 10.0 nano . It's not the OS that is transmitting the data over to Google, but rath…

Technically, the Internet Connectivity Check on LineageOS also sends your position/IP to Google, and also avoids a VPN tunnel because it's lower down the stack. I can recommend LineageOS, however be aware that lots of malware infected builds have made it to xda dev in the past, so you should build it yourself if possible (or use the official downloads). Regarding the Connectivity Check: You can add all google related…

> Regarding the Connectivity Check

the last (stock) android phone i touched had an option to change the url used for the check. i was pleasently surprised - comments here suggest this is not "normal"?

> or use the official downloads

ime the meaning of the word "official" has been severely diluted esp. in the android community

Re: Android phones are sending significant amount of user data with no opt-out [pdf]

#349

Post by hansel_der »

marcellus23 wrote: post #66
extr wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How have you found the transition to iOS? For me, the task switcher OCR feature is absolutely killer, one of the main things still keeping me on Android. Does iOS have anything similar?

iOS 15 now OCRs text across the OS, including screenshots. So you can take a screenshot and get OCR'd text from there.

from what i gathered, this is only available on the newer phones thou

Re: Android phones are sending significant amount of user data with no opt-out [pdf]

#350

Post by hansel_der »

aritmo wrote: post #26

Android takes snapshots (screenshots) of apps as soon as you switch to another app. When you view the app list, it already has the last view of each app. But the Xiaomi/MIUI Android sends over those screenshots back to the company is new information.

> But the Xiaomi/MIUI Android sends over those screenshots back to the company is new information.

i looked in the paper but could not corroborate this

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