Privacy in /e/ for new dummies

Using /e/OS Applications
1

Hello everyone.

First of all, I apologies in advance for my bad english.

I’m new to /e/ and privacy/security in general. I’ve recently bought a galaxy s9 provided by /e/ and i have a few (maybe stupid) question.

  1. Is there a way to use OpenVPN on an /e/ device. My VPN provider (ExpressVPN for instance)
    gave me this message :

PPTP and L2TP/IPsec provide weak security benefits and should only be used for anonymization or for changing locations.

I’d like to know if this is a big threat.

  1. I was wondering about a way to use application with bad privacy in a sandbox. I’ve read about Shelter but i’m not really sure of what it does.

Thank you in advance for your answer and have a great day.

2

Welcome and wish you fun with eOS.

Regarding VPN I think you will find some answers here https://community.e.foundation/search?q=Vpn

Regarding sandbox/shelter. Shelter creates an work profile on your device. All apps you install in this work profile doesn’t have access to your main profile data. For example: the shelter address book has no access to the contacts of main profile. But all apps in work profile dies gave access to all app data in work profile. So it’s recommended to install only some apps in work profile.

3

Thank you for your answer, I might have missed a thread about OpenVpn/PPTP, I’ll try again.
Thanks to you, I understand more what shelter do. I’ll go with it then.

Have a good day.

4

Good luck :+1::+1::+1: …

5

@crocodile, your VPN provider supports multiple protocols so there’s nothing to worry about. Use OpenVPN or IKEv2. Their support section has tutorials I believe for settings things up along with using third party tools like the OpenVPN app, etc.

6

Thank you @marcdw, I found the OpenVPN for Android app in the /e/ App store. I suppose that third party tool is to be trusted isn’t it ? I don’t have much knowledge about what i should trust or not. I 'll try it (with the hope it’s safe)

Have a good day.

7

Heh, not sure about trust but OpenVPN is also available via F-Droid.
I use an app called strongSwan (Play Store) so I can use test out the IKEv2 protocol. No particular reason though they say it has less overhead than some of the other protocols.

8

You should know, that e-apps store includes also ‘unsecure’ (not privacy friendly) apps.

If you want ‘secure’ apps, use apps from f-droid

9

Thank You both @harvey186 and @marcdw
I’ll try to download OpenVPN for android via F-droid.

@harvey186: it may seems simple but i had no idea that F-droid was more secure than the e-apps store.

10

F-droid has only FOSS (open source) apps without commercial trackers.

Apps store shows open source apps AND closed source apps with trackers like the most spying app ever WhatsApp.

11

So if I understand correctly, the e-Apps is safe if we only open-source app with no trackers while every app in F-droid has already been selected as an open-source app with no trackers.

Thank you @harvey186, I’ve learn something.

12

If you are not sure, install ClassyShark app from f-droid. After install of any app fromApps Store load CLassyShark and have a look how much trackers the new app has. Than you can decide if yo want use it or uninstall.

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13

@harvey186 : Awesome ! This is doing exactly what i wanted to do. I found some trackers in my app (some org.acra but it seems to be ok)

Thank you very much. This is a great help for a beginner.

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14

Always welcome :+1::grinning: …

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