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A comment on Tracking my phone's silent connections.

Re:Tracking my phone's silent connections by ignoramous on Sunday February 24, 2019 @10:05AM (#19238791)
Some patterns I've found useful that most of my non-tech savvy friends can use (for Android) without going through hassle of setting up a VPN.

1. Use AdGuard DNS. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18788410

2. Do not install the app if there's a website equivalent you could use (Facebook, Banking Apps).

3a. Force Stop or Disable apps you use frequently despite web equivalents (Google Maps).

3b. Enable permissions required by apps used occasionally only when in use. Disable them again, once usage is complete (Banking Apps).

4. Use websites on mobile on Firefox with uBlockOrigin/uMatrix, PrivacyBadger, CanvasBlocker, WebRTC blocker.

5. Prefer using 'lite' versions of apps, if you must use an app (Uber Lite).

6. Try to use apps that do not require GooglePlayService or slowly force yourself to (OpenStreetMaps).

7. Use privacy-oriented apps as a replacement to apps that you you use very frequently (Signal, ProtonMail, DuckDuckGo) or use a separate user-profile for those apps (WhatsApp) altogether. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18873433

8. Use LawnChair as your default launcher (or some such privacy oriented launcher).

----

Of course there's a big matter of Google services running the show underneath, and you couldn't get rid of that unless you went the microG+LineageOS route. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15617615

Also see:

EFF's Surveillance Self-defense https://ssd.eff.org/en#index

Dumber Phone: https://nomasters.io/posts/dumber-phone/

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Tracking my phone's silent connections by eitland on Sunday February 24, 2019 @10:38AM (#19238946)
> 3b. Enable permissions required by apps used occasionally only when in use. Disable them again, once usage is complete (Banking Apps).

Bouncer - Temporary app permissions seems to be a brilliant tool for this. I installed it the other day together with Glasswire. Both are paid, and I happily pay (reasonable amounts) for good tools.

Together they should hopefully mitigate the risk connected to useful apps with broad permissions.

Haven't tested them too much yet, so if anyone knows problems with those apps, feel free to let me know.

Bouncer is available here:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.samruston....

Glasswire is here;

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glasswire....

Of course, depending on your threat model some of you might never be safe with a smartphone or any portable phone at all. Personally however I feel this might solve it for me for now.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Tracking my phone's silent connections by zcid on Sunday February 24, 2019 @11:03AM (#19239055)
I will strongly second Bouncer. It's an amazing app for keeping permissions in line on my phone. It's also a shame I rarely have to open the app itself because Sam Ruston is a master of clean UIs.
[ Parent | on HN ]