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Effectively Using Android Without Google Play Services with Gplayweb in Docker

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Re: Effectively Using Android Without Google Play Services with Gplayweb in Docker

#71
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. Strictly speaking Google Play Services is a rootkit. One that can be used remotely. And it contains heaps of invasive user tracking code. Is is pretty much malware.

Yet on geek kingdom, bad Microsoft pushing W10 telemetry on us, but Google is cool and doesn't do no evil.

I don't think many geeks think that anymore.

Re: Effectively Using Android Without Google Play Services with Gplayweb in Docker

#72

Time to mention https://microg.org/ / https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12864429 again. It's a FLOSS re-implementation of Google Play Services. It offers e.g.: * Optional completely offline geo location service via an on-phone database which often preserves battery and even works when no internet access is available. Online backends using e.g. Mozilla Location Service are also available * The often unavoidable Pus…

Can I use Signal under this setup?

Kind of? https://zepman.tweakblogs.net/blog/12999/signal-on-android-w... (April 2016)

Re: Effectively Using Android Without Google Play Services with Gplayweb in Docker

#73
post #2

What is the worst thing about G Play Services you can't turn off?

Besides the security issues that other people will talk about, it's huge in terms of both RAM usage and storage, so if you have a low-end phone, that's quite significant. It can also be a major battery consumer.

Re: Effectively Using Android Without Google Play Services with Gplayweb in Docker

#74
post #25

Uber, Tinder, and other apps I use require Google Play Services in their latest version. They simply refuse to work without it and there is no web alternative. It's either downgrade to a bug-prone version or use Google Play Services. There is really no privacy on a fully functional Android Phone that isn't just email and phone services - though I guess if you're using Uber and Tinder there is no privacy one way or th…

The Economist magazine not only requires Google Play Services, but also access to your microphone. There is no way to disable that. I cannot figure out why they would need such intrusive access -- there is no "speak" feature in their app that I'm aware of.

Have you checked it recently? There's no microphone permission listed: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.economis...

Re: Effectively Using Android Without Google Play Services with Gplayweb in Docker

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This particular code looks fairly straightforward (could definitely be clearer). It's building a url and including the email as a path segment. What the remote service ( http://tokendispenser-yeriomin.rhcloud.com/ ) is doing with that email is harder to determine.

That part is open source too: https://github.com/yeriomin/token-dispenser That said, if you're sketched out by it, don't use it on a Google account with any data on it. Just make a new empty account for apk downloading.

"Stores email-password pairs, gives out Google Play Store tokens"

I couldn't tell if it was encrypting the password but even if it was... yuck!

Re: Effectively Using Android Without Google Play Services with Gplayweb in Docker

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That part is open source too: https://github.com/yeriomin/token-dispenser That said, if you're sketched out by it, don't use it on a Google account with any data on it. Just make a new empty account for apk downloading.

"Stores email-password pairs, gives out Google Play Store tokens" I couldn't tell if it was encrypting the password but even if it was... yuck!

[deleted]

Re: Effectively Using Android Without Google Play Services with Gplayweb in Docker

#77
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even high end devices often have batteries issues. Battery tech is just not that great. Usually they arrive at the one year date though. Otherwise, you should be able to track the culprit with the battery historian (unless it is hiding behind play services ..)

They'd be a lot better if they just made the phone 1mm thicker ;-)

that would help a lot for sure. Batteries would still lose roughly half of their maximum capacity over time though, afaik battery tech has not solved that yet.

Re: Effectively Using Android Without Google Play Services with Gplayweb in Docker

#78

Time to mention https://microg.org/ / https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12864429 again. It's a FLOSS re-implementation of Google Play Services. It offers e.g.: * Optional completely offline geo location service via an on-phone database which often preserves battery and even works when no internet access is available. Online backends using e.g. Mozilla Location Service are also available * The often unavoidable Pus…

Can I use Signal under this setup?

Copperhead maintains a fork called Noise available in their F-Droid repository

https://fdroid.copperhead.co/repo

The repo's signing key fingerprint (sha256) is

    F0 D4 EB 11 93 AD 82 FE B2 24 BD 11 74 B6 FB
    D8 9A 39 D8 ED 98 8C 9F FF 2A DD 0D CD 1C 4E
    27 1B
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