Have a question pertaining to apps and privacy. When apps are downloaded/installed from the App Lounge and later uninstalled, are the apps still collecting and sending one’s data? Or does it require something more I need to do to stop the collection and sending of this data? In other words are the “uninstalled” apps operating in the background?
Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/ the unGoogled mobile OS and online services
For me it is clear that an uninstalled/deleted application can no longer, in fact, collect data.
This can be verified simply by collecting connection logs, for example with Netguard. No more requests from the deleted application will appear. This is the advantage of having a “sandboxing” architecture for applications on Android, one de-intallation = one deletion.
However, sometimes traces of this application can remain stored on the internal memory:
Of course I don’t know if it’s as easy with “malicious” app…
EDIT: There are several apps available for managing and uninstalling apps on Android devices. Maybe this one can be usefull: App Manager on F-Droid.
There is also this one but there is a crash reporting tracker -_-
Thanks for the reply and the link showing how to completely delete an app. Never knew that. This community e.foundation is excellent with person’s such as yourself who provide not only support but enable us to have a greater understanding by the example shown.
Thanks Nicolas_Sas
Have another question Nicolas about Netguard. Before I install it will connect me to their vpn. I run ProtonVPN and wondering if there will be any side issues or conflicts with the two vpn’s. Maybe this would be better answered by ProtonVPN? Netguard is really a firewall I believe.
Android, no matter if G or /e/, allows only one VPN at time
NetGuard is an open-source firewall app for Android devices that allows you to control which apps have access to the internet. It works by creating rules that block or allow internet access for specific apps. The app allows you to block all internet access for an app, or allow only specific types of internet access, such as WiFi or mobile data. It also allows you to create custom rules based on IP addresses, hostnames, or domains.
One of the key benefits of NetGuard is that it provides a simple and easy way to control internet access for apps on your device, which can help to protect your privacy and reduce your data usage. Additionally, it doesn’t require root access to function and it’s open source.
NetGuard can also be used to block unwanted ads and trackers and to block unwanted background data usage. It also provide a detailed log of all the internet access attempts, including the blocked ones, which can be helpful to detect potential malicious apps.
It’s worth noting that NetGuard is not a VPN but uses the VPN slot provided buy android. That’s why you cannot use Netguard and a real VPN like ProtonVPN at the same time:
Here is the FAQ from Marcel (the developer of netguard)
If the VPN application is using the VPN service, then no, because NetGuard needs to use this service. Android allows only one application at a time to use this service.
NetGuard is a firewall application, so there is no intention to add VPN support. However, NetGuard supports a SOCKS5 proxy to chain VPN applications. You can find one possible community contributed solution here.
Appreciate your thorough explanation. Understood.
Here is an application that seems to be interesting:
https://github.com/d4rken-org/sdmaid-se
In addition to what I said it seems that the application in question is capable of “Removing data that belongs to apps that are no longer installed” : CorpseFinder features.
To test.