If you do not want to root your device:
1. Install NetGuard or No Root Firewall to view what's going on from network perspective.
2. Install ExodusPrivacy to generate a report on apps wrt sdks in use by them.
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If you are okay to root the device:
1. Install XposedMod, and then XPrivacyLua module, and work through the options.
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If you're okay with flashing a ROM:
1. Consider LineageOS + microG
2. If you are using Pixel, consider ChromeheadOS (edit: CopperheadOS) [3].
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If you're okay with a new device:
1. Consider purchasing puri.sm Librem 5.
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[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18788410
[1] https://guardianproject.info/apps/orbot/
For example, did you know that many shopping malls track you with license plate readers? Did you know that your credit card transactions are up for sale? Or that your cell phone provider will give up your location to a third party with a flimsy consent?
Bruce Schneier has written a book on the topic, and you can view him speak on it here: https://youtube.com/watch?v=GkJCI3_jbtg Highly recommend it.
I'm no expert but I do not agree with the 'failing battle' part... still quite a way to go in that regard, I think, specifically because the Math behind crypto hasn't failed us yet (ocassionally, the implementation has) and because the government agencies themselves need tech that helps them stay underground (Tor, for instance, continues to get funding from the US Government).
Is it getting difficult? Yes, absolutely. People still hold the 'nothing to hide' stance and most are okay giving up privacy esp if it means their life becomes a little more secure and things get more convenient (most would support AI powered street surveillance that helps keep tabs on criminals, for instance).
Also: vote with your wallet. If you see a technology that aligns with your ethical goals, pay for it. To that end I will probably buy a Librem 5, even though I don't expect it will actually do much for my privacy.
Or, fetching the ads from the same hostname as also used by the app itself to provide whichever service the app provides, which means that hostname can't be blocked even by a firewall because the app itself will stop working.
So i agree, the only proper solution is laws to stop the privacy abuse.
The internet isn't a "US" thing. It's not a "EU" thing. It's not even a "China" thing (GFoC aside).
The internet's a worldwide thing. And that means, sure your puny law may say you can't do X (ad tracking). Ok. I'll just make a shell company in shithole country, pay some protection money, and run tracking or whatever. And that data I generate will be sold to anyone who wants to buy. I'll make it so everybody has to buy to compete - even if against the law.
And it too is a failing battle in the US. Experian, Equifax, and Transunion... If what happened regarding Equifax didn't bring the corporate death penalty either by fines or dissolution of their corporate charter, nothing will.
When (for example) Toyota is paying a bunch of money to target customers in France, they're playing with the same rules as Ford is when targeting the same customers. They don't have to do things against the law to compete in advertising, and they'll even be eager to identify competitors breaking advertising law to screw them over; there has been lots of legal action taken as a result of such industry self-policing to ensure that competitors aren't able to benefit from misleading advertising.
Sure, there are lots of businesses who would by "under the table" data and apply it illegally, and it is a huge advertising market - but it's absolutely dwarfed by the much, much, much larger advertising market funded by the major international public companies. The advertising money flowing from a single company such as Procter&Gamble or Nestle is larger than all the total advertising turnover from whole smallish industries. If you cut off the tracking-adtech companies from the legal market, it's like restricting oxygen for them - they'll still have some customers, but they'll get an order of magnitude less money to do their things.
1. spying apps
2. the saudi arabian woman-tracking/permission app
3. chinese social credit app
As well as cell-phone tracking to analyse footfall around the shopping mall (i.e., high-traffic areas, low-traffic areas).
https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2018/11/an-update-...
I even remember having to short two pins in the motherboard of my mobile to recover from a particularly bad brick. And it worked fine.
But a complete brick, as in you have to throw away your mobile? Impossible, I'd say.
IMHO the best option for a secure phone is pure Android without Google blobs. That is, AOSP on a Pixel phone. Plus an F-Droid userland.
If a Pixel is too expensive, you can always try to get an AOSP device-independent image on a new phone that supports Treble. For example, the super cheap Nokia 1 seems to work well [1].
[1] https://github.com/phhusson/treble_experimentations/wiki
I don't have a supported device so I can't comment.
https://old.reddit.com/r/GrapheneOS/
https://seamlessupdate.app/ (website)
I want to but I can't even if I "own" it.
> 1. Consider LineageOS + microG
Probably should avoid microG if you care about privacy...
They most definitely do not remove such apps.
Use an app like Charles Proxy or Burp Suite to inspect the traffic of your phone when running the “Perfect365” app. It is really remarkable, and Apple is aware of what they are doing.
One interesting side effect of GDPR is the surprising amount of PC games - games for which I paid price that's presumably profitable to the authors - that started throwing up consent forms.
The closest you could get would be to buy burner phones with cash.
It wasn't a large enough amount (by far) to take it to court, though, so I can't know for sure, but lying about not having the data and keeping it secret when hundreds of employees are in the know (if they are indeed selling it, or at least a handful of employees if it's just storage for billing) sounds rather conspiratorial. A little like dieselgate, so I'm not ruling it out as possible, it just seems very unlikely.
How much would it cost me to have a phone with all trackers turned off? (Or, perhaps, routed through a core application that requires whitelisting?)