Advanced Privacy

/e/OS Foundation & Community Data Privacy
21

Tomorrow I have deactivated VPN for a moment, then later enabled again (random IP set in options).
No new connection to the VPN can be set up now. It does not work even after hours.
Even a reboot had no effect.
…so also problems with it (the same problem Arnaud has, I think).
Is it a bug or does it result from overload?

1 Like
23

Advanced Privacy uses Orbot with the end of life Tor 0.4.4.6 from November of 2020(!!!) and fragments of personalDNSfilter under the hood:

It also uses the proprietary(!!!) Mapbox SDK 9.6.1 sadly:

The trackers list is just from Exodus

7 Likes
24

Confirmation: You can have Netguard running together with turned on Advanced Privacy. But not together with “IP hiding”. You can have only one VPN active at the same time.

4 Likes
25

It would nice if we can get an option to spoof location only on specific apps (you’ll get tired of toggling on/off just to nav or get a ride)

Otherwise it is a step in the right direction

11 Likes
26

That will likely require a lot more (and also conceptually different) work.
As I see it, Advanced Privacy currently uses Androids built in “mock location” feature that only works system wide.
Previously hidden in the developer options and requiring installation of a app to provide a fake location, this feature is now easily accessible :+1: .
To get this working on a per app basis probably requires a lot more development deeper in the core of android than it took to get to this state.

1 Like
27

Is anyone else having trouble turning Advanced Privacy back off, after turning it on out of curiosity? I slide the slider back off, close Settings, reopen and return, the slider’s back on again.

28

With 2 profiles you can now use Advanced Privacy on one and TC/Blockada on the other, that actually works out good. With the vpn you have to turn on the Advanced Privacy location spoof and turn off your normal vpn (turn off always on and turn off block connection w/o vpn) and reboot your phone. Your phone should then automatically connect to the Advanced Privacy vpn.

29

Is anyone else having trouble turning Advanced Privacy back off, after turning it on out of curiosity? I slide the slider back off, close Settings, reopen and return, the slider’s back on again.

Yes, I had it too.
Also I deactivated VPN in the control panel.
And then (after turning on again) the program could not connect.

30

Deactivate the vpn from Settings>Network & Internet>VPN

31

Thank you! I’d worked that one out, but then had to separately deactivate the location hiding (or OsmAnd thought I was Somewhere Else). It just seems odd that the slider is not easily reversed, and no warning is given.

32

Hi all !

Great analysis by all of you guys who is able to understand all those settings and possiblities.

From my non-tech side, could anyone confirm what I think I understood from this post. It might interest more than me (hopefully). If I let my VPN active, and all features from Advanced Privacy enabled, both running (the question is not how useful it is :joy:) then :

  • The trackers will still being blocked from Advanced Privacy ;

  • The location will be the one displayed from my VPN (which is not mine anyway) ;

  • IP address will be the one displayed from my VPN (which is not mine anyway).

Am I correct by saying that like this or missed I something ?

Thanks all of you !

1 Like
33

The trackers will still be blocked. Your ip address seems to default to the 3rd party vpn (like Nord or Proton). If by location, you mean GPS for Maps and stuff, that will be accurate to your actual location, if your location is turned on. A vpn has no affect on GPS location.

34

Thanks @Dave1 for replying :+1:.

You’re right and apologise for that. I missed up location and IP address, as you can choose from which country on my VPN (ProtonVPN) my internet address / IP address is supposed to come.

So, location within Advanced Privacy is the GPS location and it is for Apps that are interested to access your location and forward it “home” ?

Then, if I’m not mistaken and to summarize, if all features from Advanced Privacy are enabled and the VPN is on with rerouting from another country (IP-wise) :

  • The location will be the one from Advanced privacy, as you said ;

  • The IP address will be the one from the VPN.

Of course, supposedly if you’re GPS is on, on the device. If switched to off, no affect right ?

35

I’m assuming the Advance Privacy location setting only affects ip and not GPS location, but I haven’t tested it.

36

For what I see in my case, I can access to geo-blocked content from France from my phone with the following setting :

  • VPN to a french server ;
  • Location, from Advanced Privacy, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

My conclusion is that with both enabled, the location is extract from the IP location rather than the one selected within Advance Privacy.

37

Same problem here! But it’s a quite exciting new feature

1 Like
38

The fake geolocation does in fact change your GPS coordinants

1 Like
39

All I can tell you is Microsoft Outlook hates Advanced Privacy. They just forced me to recover my Outlook acct. and change my password. Which now means I have to relogin to Outlook on many other devices.

The problem is I don’t know which apps or services might be effected by Adv. Privacy and on a phone some things need to just work for business and emergencies. I appreciate the effort with Adv. Privacy but I don’t need it that badly.

2 Likes
40

@Brad
That is what happens when you sign-in to many services over Tor: blocked, forced to verify, or banned.
I haven’t tried AP myself but if there is not a VERY CLEAR message that it uses Tor, users are going to get hurt.

3 Likes
41

I believe that it is not only here that it becomes visible what a huge task the few people at Murena have tackled with “Advanced Privacy”!

After all, Murena stands with its OS against a whole world full of billionaire tech corporations - and their interests!

I think eOS is a great step into a new direction - for me one of the greatest IT innovations (in the interest of the user!) since the invention of Linux and Open Source!

For me the approach is successful - I look forward to further developments and hope that your mission will be successful!

15 Likes