Document access to *.google.com

Using /e/OS Troubleshooting
1

This is just a minor request for documentation. If I’m wrong, let me know.

I have a phone from efoundation and I expected no access to google servers (otherwise why buy a degoogled phone) but NetGuard reports access to mtalk dot google dot com and ANDroID dot cliENTS dot gOoGLE dot COM from the microG Services Core. If this is needed, please mention it in your documentation.

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Pl raise an issue on gitlab sharing issue details. The developers can have a look at it and remove any such calls if it exists.

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Thanks @Manoj !

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So you realize that it is not an issue if using Google Cloud Messaging. In microG Settings check what’s enabled. If Cloud Messaging is On then traffic to mtalk.google.com will happen, obviously.
If you have no need for GCM or Firebase notifications you can turn off Cloud Messaging and I guess Google device registration(?) in microG Settings. Then there should be no traffic to mtalk (I figure).
/e/OS is ungoogled but microG provides Google functionality for apps if needed. On ROMs I setup from scratch I usually keep those items turned off as I don’t need notfications.

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I expected a phone I bought from https://esolutions.shop to have turned off “Cloud Messaging and I guess Google device registration(?) in microG Settings”.

Anyway, how can I turn that off?

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Agreed.

I believe there will be an icon for microG Settings in the app drawer. It also has an entry in Settings, upfront or in a category depending on Android version.

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Copied from here:

There is a persistent connection to mtalk.google.com for push notifications, when enabled. If you don’t need that, go to settings | system | advanced | microG | Cloud Messaging | disable “receive push notifications”.

Personally, if I see value on any of the following, I’ll mention it here:

  1. android.clients.google.com is used daily for device registration for various other services and push notifications. I went to settings | system | advanced | microG | Google device registration | disable “register device” to see if I’ll miss it. The good news are that microG strips device identifier (MAC addresses, IMEI, etc) from requests where they normally would be (and if required use random but valid identifiers instead).
  2. I’m blocking googleapis.com, gstatic.com and google.com which are used when applications use Firebase. If my apps stop working properly, I’ll enable network access to these domains.
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