Everyone knows all the apps on your phone - by peabee
Everyone knows all the apps on your phone - by peabee
peabee.substack.com
Everyone knows all the apps on your phone
23 comments
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Seeing people say "GrapheneOS fixes this!" "It's only on old versions of Android!"
This is on a Pixel 8 Pro with the latest version of GrapheneOS. This is an issue and has been for a long time. Many apps detect root by looking for the Magisk package using this method, and many collect this information just for advertising (go ahead, export your Snapchat data)
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*if you have an older Android phone.
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What do you mean? The article is talking about current versions of Android.
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So the first line says that it's for older versions of android before 2022. But the next paragraph says:
For extremely specific use cases such as file managers, browsers or antivirus apps, Google grants an exception by allowing QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES permission, which provides full visibility into installed apps.
So this may still be possible, however sandboxing, especially GrapheneOS' implementation likely mostly, if not entirely reduce this risk.
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The second half of the article talks about how the apps get around this permission requirement.
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Well that was a horrifying read. Is there any software that can protect against this? GrapheneOS? LineageOS? A Magisk module?
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Island, Insular, Shelter; apps that allow managing separate profiles.
My setup: mostly Open Source apps on a custom ROM like LineageOS, the neccessary proprietary apps in shelter, connections managed via,Tracker Control. That one proprietary app that's too useful to have separate is fixed via App Manager.
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Separate profiles, although graphene is supposedly working on it last I heard.
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I know apple products are mortal sin on this site, but I’m thankful I switched to iOS a decade ago. I loved my Android phones but I’ll never be assed to do CFW again, and since I don’t use my phone for much, I honestly appreciate the walled garden. Fuck apps. Messaging and basic browsing = phone. Anything else is for Big Screen.
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It's probably because of the bubble I live in, but I most of these apps.
Same here, i hadn’t even heard of Swiggy or Ola or TATA 1mg.
Btw, there was Island on a list there.
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I know this happened a few years ago but would having a separate work profile through Shelter, Island, or Insular limit the app to only see those on the profile?
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Yes, it would. Those basically create sandboxes.
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That's what I assumed. Thanks for confirming.
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Everyone
\ AllOn some versions of Android
\ Mostly Indian apps
\ Workarounds exist
\ Workaround only works for checking a hardcoded list of apps, and can't check all your appsInformative article, but damn the clickbait
23 comments