Tracking -- Who can help me (us) understand?

[harvey186]

here an 'unofficial" answer :

@dotcoma

Some apps contain trackers. It would be great to avoid these apps
altogether, but sometimes some of us need to use some of these apps,
for example for work reasons. My question is: Do these trackers track
“only” what we do while using that specific app, or is there a risk that
they can track other things we do while using our phones as well?

trackers are never good. Ask you self, why should a app collect any data from you, what you do or where you are ? And if you will have a look what kind of trackers are used, most are from google or FB and what google and FB is doing with the collected data, I think everyone is knowing.

regarding permissions is the same. Ask yourself. Why should a calendar app get access to phone ? Or why should a game should have access to contacts ? So it’s really easy to decide by yourself. be a little self-critical and everything’s good.

@dotcoma

Does Gmail import all the contacts we store on our phones,
– like Whatsapp notoriously does, or are they not as nasty, and only use
the contacts we stored online with them on Google Contacts?

I only can say, Manoj is absolute right. do not infect a google free OS with google apps.

[e.follower]

@dotcoma

Do these trackers track
“only” what we do while using that specific app, or is there a risk that
they can track other things we do while using our phones as well?

Unfortunately, I can’t prove this with a link, but I’ve read somewhere that trackers really can “go beyond” their own application.

[harvey186]

yes, that is absolute right. some trackers. for example the FB tracker, are able to collect data also from other apps. The are reading the whole phone memory.

[e.follower]

@Manoj

What can be done is more information where possible about what these trackers ‘track’ and how much they track can be shared where available.
This may need some good documents and topics about trackers and how they track user info on the forum.

This massive work is being successfully carried out by Exodus privacy project: https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/trackers/

P.S. love this forum for these kinds of discussions.

[anon84098008]

@e.follower

This massive work is being successfully carried out by Exodus privacy project: https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/trackers/

Be careful with Exodus. Yes it is a very useful resource, but it only looks for “known tracker” addresses in the app. For example exodus reports zero trackers for chrome browser, yet google sucks up every drop of information it can while using the browser.

[harvey186]

and it’s checking the app in play store. For some apps (telegram for example) a version is also available in f-droid. he playstore app does have trackers and that one in f-droid not.

Don't trust exodus website result

The exodus website is using ir testing the apps from Google play store and not from f-droid. So it could be, that there are different versions are available. Example : telegram or twidere. The exodus website is than showing the resolut of the playstore apk with trackers. But the version in f-droid (most times older) has no trackers or only the ‘good’ 143org.acra tracker. Which is an open source framework for crash reporting. From my site if view, you should install an app from f-droid and tha…

[e.follower]

@anon84098008

For example exodus reports zero trackers for chrome browser, yet google sucks up every drop of information it can while using the browser.

There is a way out – simply disable Internet access for Chrome with AFWall+.

I think your remark is most relevant for those applications with which any significant or sensitive activity is performed. Fortunately, there are not too many such scenarios where this activity goes online, so the app can’t be cut off from the Internet. However, this is a worthy remark.

[harvey186]

We have had this discussion some days before in telegram group. And the result was, there is no way to stop data collecting.

[dotcoma]

Forgot to thank you all, so: thank you!

What are you using instead of MyMaps from BigG?

For example to add places you have been to, or want to go to, on a map.

Is this any good?

http://mapcreator.here.com/

[harvey186]

I’m using maps form f-droid or OSM.

[dotcoma]

I tried Magic Earth, Maps (F-droid) and Trekarta Lite,
but I am not very happy with any of them really
(maybe just because I’m not used to their interfaces).

Will try OSM as well. Thanks.

[dotcoma]

P.S. @harvey186: Is it possible to import my “favourite places”?

Export them from MyMaps and import them into OSM ?

[harvey186]

@dotcoma

Export them from MyMaps and import them into OSM ?

Sorry, don’t see a way to import them

[sarimak]

The simplest thing you can do against the trackers is NetGuard with blacklist of hosts. Apps from FDroid are ok, apps from Yalp store are best if they are not allowed to access the internet. Manually check all permissions of all apps in LOS Privacy Guard and disable what doesnt make sense. Avoid apps from Google, Facebook and similar vendors, use apps from multiple vendors. I use Mapy.cz as a better frontend to OSM but its best to download the maps offline, disallow internet access and wipe all this app’s data before upgrading the map data - redownload needs more bandwidth but happens few times a year, just do not forget to re-disable the network access. Use a RSS reader and opensource website wrappers like Newpipe. Install uBlock origin and uMatrix to Fennec and use FF Klar/Focus for one-off quick searches.

[dotcoma]

Hi @sarimak,

so, NetGuard is something I can download from
F-droid and then set up?

LOS Privacy Guard is Lineage OS Privacy Guard?
Is it installed on /e/ as well ?

Thx-

[sarimak]

Exactly, install NetGuard from F-Droid, it will act as a VPN. Allow only selected apps to use the Internet. See https://www.netguard.me/ for details.

Open the Android settings and type Privacy to the search bar on top. You will see of you can access it. It allows you to ignore requests for some permissions for selected apps without the apps noticing. It has priority over the native permission system in Android. See https://www.guidingtech.com/42045/cyanogenmod-privacy-guard/ for review of (very old) version of the feature.

[sonyxa2]

Hello,
Just to help me understand (the more I read the less I understand …): my understanding of trackers is “anything that tries to send somewhere some of my personal information without my consent”.
Which app will help to avoid avoiding that?
-Privacy Guard?

• Netguard?
• Blokada?
• XprivacyLUA?
  I do not mean a tool that totally prevent network connection to an app (which would prevent it from accessing the web), but something that let the connection open apart from the sites too interested in my data …

Thank you in advance for your help

[pally]

@sonyxa2

“anything that tries to send somewhere some of my personal information without my consent”.

Pretty sure you “consented,” technically if not consciously.

Maybe spend some time at https://www.privacytools.io/

@harvey186

trackers are never good. Ask you self, why should a app collect any data from you, what you do or where you are ?

Every rule has exceptions… How can we display traffic on maps if nobody gives up location data?!

And the pinned post:

But we have noticed that many users have already started to use /e/ OS daily. /e/ OS OTA update servers are getting pinged by more than 2,000 running smartphones each day,

Would you call this “pinging” good tracking? Gael is watching.

[ralxx]

Trackers are a bit like cookies - just a bit of a different flavour.

Well, I’ll try to explain that with the words of a non-techie (@community, in case I am mistaken, pls correct me).

What is a tracker?
A tracker is a bit of code that is shipped within an app allowing to track and analyze the users’ behavior (what he/she is searching, the usage of apps etc). Very roughly spoken, a tracker for an app is what a 3rd Party Cookie is for a website. Certain trackers - as the ones from Facebook - allow to track users even across different apps.

Where do trackers come with?
Trackers are delivered not only with apps from ambiguous sources, they are just delivered with most apps that can be found in Google’s Play Store. Many apps (especially games, dating, fitness and shopping apps) are even stuffed with a variety of trackers and ads.

Examples: Tinder for instance, delivers with its installation currently 13 trackers and Spotify 10. That means: Tinder is sharing personal user data with 13 ‘partners’. Those partners are companies who typically base their business model on the collection, linkage of user data and their commercialization. That’s a huge business. Among those data collectors there are two really important ones, ‘old accquaintances’: Google and Facebook. Google is already well placed as it stores user data from most Android phones on their servers and processes them through their enormously popular apps such as Google Maps, Gmail etc.Additionally, they collect more user data through apps installed on phones. The same with Facebook: Although you may not have an account with Facebook/WhatsApp/Instagram, it is likely that Facebook is holding a collection of data about you - data that originates from installed apps that come with trackers… those are the troyan horses of 21st century…

What to do against?
Thanks to projects such as Exodus Privacy and ClassyShark3xodus, we may find out whether an app integrates third-party software components (=trackers), even without extensive analysis. Alternative app stores such as Aurora, Yalp or /e/'s AppsStore integrate the findings of Exodus Privacy in an user friendly way. So, there you may find out before installation what trackers come with apps.

If you want to be sure to avoid trackers entirely, it seems the only easy way is to download apps exclusively though F-Droid. This alternative app store that is curated in a way that only open source and tracker-free apps are integrated. (All apps from the F-Droid store can by found in /e/'s AppsStore too. Unfortunately, for now it is not possible to hide all those apps in AppsStore that are not curated by the F-Droid team, hopefully this feature will be available quickly).

Fortunately, there is software that allows to identify and block tracker (and ads). As a consequence, those trackers become harmless as they cannot ‘call home’ anymore. Examples for such DNS-based ad and tracking blockers are Blokada or Netguard. They pretend to be a Virtual Private Network, so all data that is flowing in and out of our phones have to pass this app, which is playing the role of our phone’s guardian. The technique of those apps is pretty reliable as far as I understand. The big downside is that they can (of course) only filter what they know. So there might be trackers around sucking our private data as they are still unknown to Exodus, Blokada et al.

So what to do? In my humble opinion: Make sure that you have a privacy-enabled smartphone operating system (/e/ !!!) and use exclusively open source apps from F-Droid and open source apps from /e/'s Apps Store. If you absolutely need other apps (with trackers), the second best option is: Install as few of them as possible and make sure that you have Blokada, Netguard et al. running…

[sonyxa2]

Thank you pally and ralxx.

Shall I understand that apps like Blokada and Netguard are equivalent?