Disappointed!!! - Themer General Discussion

I'm sorry, but why the funk should I use an app that FORCES me to login with stupid Facebook or Google +??
Funk ur application!
I've rooted my phone just to get rid of that brain washing Facebook!
This app is for sheep! Baaa..

Just login with your normal google account or simply stop trolling us.
Gesendet von meinem GT-I9505 mit Tapatalk

This app is simply letting you login because of their connection to their website. go back to 9gag or 4chan or whatever troll corner you come from, XDA is not the place for it.

Well, as per the OP's handle, I've said "Sayanora" to them as well. In fact, say "konnichiwa" to my ignore list! :highfive:

Aside trolling, I would like to use this launcher without an authentication or at least an anonymous mode or something... It looks like very nice launcher and more people would probably try it but don't want any personal info involved.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A

slimslim said:
Aside trolling, I would like to use this launcher without an authentication or at least an anonymous mode or something... It looks like very nice launcher and more people would probably try it but don't want any personal info involved.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The devs have stated, in other threads, that they do not store your personal data. They use either your Facebook or Google account to verify that you are who you say you are in order to have access to the servers to download the themes. It's to prevent people from having spamming their servers which they provide to us for the themes. This is much easier than having to register ANOTHER account and password. Rather, use the Google or Facebook account as a way to authenticate you to have access to their servers.
They do NOT store your personal information on their servers nor store it nor send/sell it out to other parties. It's authentication and that's it. Period. No malice is being done to you or your information.
Heck, just having a smartphone alone is putting more PI out there than this app would.
And all those permissions it needs access to? You do realize that the majority of the stock apps you have loaded already have access to one or more of those services? Since Themer acts as a one-stop-shop for all those different apps (notifications from text messages, email read count, weather (which needs GPS), etc), and gives you access to different widgets to provide that information, then yes, it does need access to a lot of the services within Android. But, no one complains that Gmail needs access to that and your contacts, or that the weather app needs access to GPS info, etc. But, when they see one app have all that permission, they freak without actually researching.
Paranoia sure does run rampant in these parts! :laugh:

SaySayonara said:
I'm sorry, but why the funk should I use an app that FORCES me to login with stupid Facebook or Google +??
Funk ur application!
I've rooted my phone just to get rid of that brain washing Facebook!
This app is for sheep! Baaa..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
As mentioned above, it's for security reasons on our side. We'll soon be implementing Facebook's 'anonymous login' feature.

I haven't used Themer for few months because of poor performance with my Optimus 2x(512 mb RAM), however this thing with Google account seems to be a much bigger problem than the slow performance. I simply do not want Google servers messing around my phone, I don't use sync or Play store. Is there a chance for Themer team to reconsider this decision?

Troll thread cleaned and now will close.
Many ways to be respectful...the opposite ways kind of jump out at us moderators.

Related

Researcher Says That 8% of Android Apps Are Leaking Private Information

http://digitizor.com/2011/07/21/android-malware/
Android has had its fair share of malware problems. Whenever malware are detected, Google reacts swiftly and remove them. However, according to security researcher Neil Daswani, around 8% of the apps on the Android market are leaking private user data.
Neil Daswani, who is also the CTO of security firm Dasient, says that they have studied around 10,000 Android apps and have found that 800 of them are leaking private information of the user to an unauthorized server. Neil Daswani is scheduled to present the full findings at the Black Hat Conference in Las Vegas which starts on July 30th.
The Dasient researchers also found out that 11 of the apps they have examined are sending unwanted SMS messages.
Google needs to take charge
This malware problem on Android has become too much. One of the main reason that we see malicious apps in the market is because of the lack of regulation in the apps that get into the Android Market.
Sure, the lack of regulation can be good. It means that developers can make their apps without worrying if Google will accept their apps or not. It fits into the pre-existing application distribution model where anyone can develop and publish their own apps.
However, this comes at a price - the malware problem. Yes, most of the problems with these malicious apps can be avoided if only users read the permission requirements of the apps. But, what percentage of the users actually read the permission requirements of all the apps they download?
I think that it is time that Google make approval of the apps a requirement before it gets into the Market. They do not need to do it like Apple, but a basic security check before an app gets on the market will be nice.
If nothing is done about and this problem is allowed to grow, it will end up killing the platform.
Ur a good man
Sent from my PG86100 using XDA Premium App
Get an iPhone then.
Don't know if apple should approve or disaproove since that can slow down the release of new apps, but they need to check, that's for sure.
Yeah, just read permissions when installing applications. A lot of them will state access to personal data (such as contacts, browser history, etc.)
Such apps like MP3 downloaders contain ALOT of this malware.
if you're that paranoid.....LBE Privacy Guard + Droidwall = #winning
This article is very true in sense of lacking of control on big G part. My friend developed an app and he was able to get it into market almost instantly. I was very shocked to find that no scanning or checking was done.
Therefore, it's a risk that we take everyday to use these apps, specially, custom ROMs because who knows what it installed really. Users just need to be aware of their action, and don't use bank apps on rooted devices, or corporate email on rooted devices, or email yourself passwords to your online banking from your rooted devices. My thought is that, if it's out there then somebody can get it these days with all the technologies.
A little bit of common sense when installing apps can go a long way. You stifle the market too much when you cater to the lowest common denominator but then if you don't you get stuff like this.
+1 on Droidwall too, great app. Just don't turn it on and then forget about it before getting it set up properly, it's a pain figuring out why you can't use the internet on anything lol
xHausx said:
A little bit of common sense when installing apps can go a long way. You stifle the market too much when you cater to the lowest common denominator but then if you don't you get stuff like this.
+1 on Droidwall too, great app. Just don't turn it on and then forget about it before getting it set up properly, it's a pain figuring out why you can't use the internet on anything lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hahaha, was tryna to download a new app and wondering why it just stalled kept on saying, downloading..... downloading paused....blah blah!!! lol
turns out it was droidwall (even with market enabled) lol
Yea when a simple clock widget wants to read your contact, data and location but has no ads or settings, I avoided that one.
I prefer the risk of an open system to the purgatory that is a closed system ruled by a draconian company any day.
Oh look iOS does this too.
/troll
DoctorComrade said:
Oh look iOS does this too.
/troll
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hah, they're at almost 50%

[Q] Android without GAPPS?

I am not really comfortable with the idea of sharing data with Google, so I wonder how it could be possible to run Android without the Google apps.
Using CM7 as the base for my devices (SE X10 mini pro & ZTE Blade) is already a good starting point, by not installing the GAPPS package.
But then what?
How to get apps from the market without GAPPS?
Which (offline) navigation software instead of Google Maps?
Which calendar app instead of Google Calendar?
Any other Google service replacement?
Any suggestions are highly appreciated.
You could probably use amazon appstore instead of market. The real market requires google's framework. As far as the calender i'm not sure look around on the amazon market for one.
Personally i would just use gapps what could you possibly be doing where the info google collects could hurt you ? They don't collect personal data like sms or phone calls. So unless you download child porn its prob ok to use google's apps.
I am not thinking about anything illegal, but you can be identified by your (required) Google account, and once you enable data synchronization / localization service, or the background data submission required for using the Market, you are already deeply caught in the Google network.
I don't know about the Amazon Appstore. Does it feature the same apps as the Google Market? I guess not, and when I try to access it, it tells "The Amazon Appstore is only available to customers located in the United States.", so I don't think this is a suitable alternative anyway.
So the only real downside of not using GAPPS is access to the market. A possible workaround could be to use the Android emulator of the Android SDK to download apps, then package them up to APKs and copy them over to your mobile.
I am sure there are a lot of others which are not comfortable with Google as well, but do not want to surrender their Android phones.
If you just want the apps you can install them from your pc to your phone on the market website. If you don't have a Google account or want one at all maybe use 4shared to download them. You can also usually download them from the developers website.
Sent from ???
I am still testing the use of Android without GAPPS, but there are some issues I have no idea how to overcome:
There seems to be no suitable Calendar App that does not rely on the Google Calendar / synchronization with Google. My preferred app would have been aCalendar, which works kind of, but no appointment can be saved because it tells "You have no calendar". Any suggestions? How is the calendar issue solved on Android-without-GAPPS devices like the Kindle Fire?
Some apps simply can not be installed without the Google framework present. For example when trying to install the Adaffix and QR Droid apk's manually, it simply tells "Application not installed" without any error message pointing out the problem. Any idea about that?
These two issues are the main problems with having no GAPPS on the phone, and as much as I would have liked to run my Android phones without GAPPS, it seems there is no way around it, if one does not want to have it overly complicated.
I have been using android for a few weeks now with no google account. Installing a firewall and lbe privacy seems to work fine. Just dont allow any google services access to the net. Works fine for me
I don't understand why you would by a Google OS but not want google apps.
UPDATE: Android without GAPPS is a go now!
Android is NOT really a GoogleOS, it's a Linux distribution with proprietary Google apps added. You can successfully run Android without Google, which is what Amazon already proofed with the Kindle Fire on a large scale.
I am not talking about running Android without Google account, but Android without GAPPS installed, and I am happy to confirm, that it is indeed possible without too much hassle, since I overcame my initially major issues:
The calendar issue could be solved by installing Jorte, which uses its own database.
I simply omit apps which rely on the Google Framework, so I replaced QR Droid with Barcode Scanner, and just deleted Adaffix, for which there is no replacement (not that much of a loss, especially since I was not really sure about their privacy policy; would you willingly submit the phone numbers of all your callers to a private company?).
I am going to use MapQuest instead of Google Maps, a free app based on https://www.openstreetmap.org
I already installed all my apps, which I previously downloaded from the Market, on that Google-free phone, in addition to AdFree, to get rid of the advertisement in the typical free apps, as well as AmazonAppstore (just in case). Now for my kind of use I don't miss any Google services at all.
The next logical step is to install the Android SDK on a computer, run Android 2.3 including GAPPS for Market access in the Android emulator, and just download all the desired software and software-updates there, to be exported (using ASTRO) to the Google-free phone.
Some may argue that it may not be worth the hassle, but I am still in the opinion, that it's best not to share ANY data with Google ever.
BTW Don't use Google at all, not even for simple searches -> have a look at https://duckduckgo.com (they even have an Andoid app)!
Where to start?
Android is not a Linux distribution, it only uses a Linux kernel, these two mean vastly different things and should not be confused.
What exactly do you want to hide from Google?
Your email? It goes through dozens of servers without encryption. The only people not reading it are the ones who don't want to.
Your location? Your cell phone provider has it. And so does your government)
Your searches? Okay you're right on this one I use duckduckgo on my pc.
The point is that most of your data is tracked by hundreds of companies. They use your os and flash version, your cookies, user agent, screen resolution. You can run but you can't hide.
You're not on Facebook, are you?
---------- Post added at 09:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:12 PM ----------
smokin1337 said:
You could probably use amazon appstore instead of market. The real market requires google's framework. As far as the calender i'm not sure look around on the amazon market for one.
Personally i would just use gapps what could you possibly be doing where the info google collects could hurt you ? They don't collect personal data like sms or phone calls. So unless you download child porn its prob ok to use google's apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never make the assumption that if you're not going anything illegal than you shouldn't worry about tracking. Never never never. Okay? If you do you don't deserve privacy. Read "little brother" by Cory Doctorow.
For the calendar and the contacts i use to synchronise every day my Desire S with an old version of Lotus Notes (7.xx) on my Job computer. I use MyphoneExplorer with a USB connexion. It works very well without microsoft exchange or any connexion with google agenda.
Wikipedia said:
Android is a Linux-based operating system for mobile devices
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From my point of view I consider everything based on the Linux kernel a Linux distribution. Android = Linux kernel plus a bunch of open source software, the proprietary Google code does not have to be considered to be part of the base system.
What I want to hide from Google? About everything. Isn't it the same with Facebook, where the user is not the customer, but the product?
Of course everybody leaves a large track in the net, but one can at least try to prevent data sharing as much as possible, and not using Google services and not providing them any additional info is part of it.
Of course that topic is mind splitting, but I know I am not alone on this, and as shown, it it indeed possible to successfully use an Android phone completely without Google, and I do not see any disadvantage in it.
Hope this helps:
http://www.androidauthority.com/how-to-download-any-apk-to-your-computer-62153/
(apk leecher)
There are many other reasons for wanting to avoid Google. For example, let's say you have your contacts synchronized. You're using gmail and calendar and you have a card linked to your Google Play account.
You go on holiday and you card gets cloned. The criminal uses your card to do something horrendous and you wind up in jail. Because you had all your eggs in one basket your account has been disabled and your defense has no access to your emails to plan your case and defend you in court. You're utterly screwed.
By using different companies and services you at least have more chance of keeping access to those services.
Google services are pretty monolithic. They're great, but there's advantage in using separate services if you can.
Here are some alternatives to the Google apps:
- Gmail = K9mail
- Play = app leacher, sdk virtual image method. fDroid
- Maps = MapQuest. Various SatNav apps. Waze
- GTalk = Skype or Fring (though both of those aren't greatly done). Various SIP/VoIP apps like cSipSimple
- contacts = t9dialer?
- Goggles = any barcode scanner will do for me
- any others?
I use f-droid.org .
It is strictly open-source. Has all the basic apps in there (Email, Firefox, tons of Timers, AlarmClocks, etc).
randomchars said:
You're not on Facebook, are you?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course ! Why not ? Facebook leaves you the choice what to upload.
i agree with this thread, i dont mind sharing my information with companies, i do it all the time, but i dont like forced sharing with no opt out, this is essential stealing. eg ics and motoblur contacts
i guess you could say the opt out is to not install, which is what the thread is talking about
i think we are lucky to have android available without the gapps bloat such as with cyanogen mod
zzerozzero1 said:
I use f-droid.org .
It is strictly open-source. Has all the basic apps in there (Email, Firefox, tons of Timers, AlarmClocks, etc).
Of course ! Why not ? Facebook leaves you the choice what to upload.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
// Puts on tinfoil hat.
Sure kid. Whatever helps you sleep at night.
haydent said:
i agree with this thread, i dont mind sharing my information with companies, i do it all the time, but i dont like forced sharing with no opt out, this is essential stealing. eg ics and motoblur contacts
i guess you could say the opt out is to not install, which is what the thread is talking about
i think we are lucky to have android available without the gapps bloat such as with cyanogen mod
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
here's my fix http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1808037
zzerozzero1 said:
I use f-droid.org .
It is strictly open-source. Has all the basic apps in there (Email, Firefox, tons of Timers, AlarmClocks, etc).
Of course ! Why not ? Facebook leaves you the choice what to upload.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually facebook track you a lot. Use your browser to visit youtube and you'll see a share button for it just as many sites have now.
Facebook know a lot about where its members visit
Dave
( http://www.google.com/producer/editions/CAownKXmAQ/bigfatuniverse )
Sent from my LG P920 using Tapatalk 2
randomchars said:
// Puts on tinfoil hat.
Sure kid. Whatever helps you sleep at night.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL ...
You obviously don't agree. Which is fine.
But plz don't troll
---------- Post added at 01:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:22 PM ----------
mistermentality said:
Actually facebook track you a lot. Use your browser to visit youtube and you'll see a share button for it just as many sites have now.
Facebook know a lot about where its members visit
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been using Ghostery and Adblock Plus for years. They should take care of that.
If your really worried about your privacy you should check out Orbot the Tor client for android (https://guardianproject.info/apps/orbot/)
I will revive this thread, because I also install CM10.1 and try to use withoug GAPPS.
My phone is already running much smoother than with stock rom (Galaxy S3 I9300).
No Samsung push service, Google push, Calender...
So I am already using f-droid and androidpit now. At the moment I am missing Skype and Facebook Messenger.
I know worrying about privacy + using facebook might sound strange. But most friends I can only contact by Facebook (or SMS, lol), so I have to use it.
David.

[Q] Never lose my stuff - backing up app data

Hello,
According to the Android Design Principles
Never lose my stuff
Save what people took time to create and let them access it from anywhere. Remember settings, personal touches, and creations across phones, tablets, and computers. It makes upgrading the easiest thing in the world.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
which I think is great. The app I'm designing involves storing photos and data about them. Is there a good way to back this up? I could sync with a webservice I could write/host, but then I'm opening myself up to potentially large bandwidth/storage charges.
I considered using drop box or something, but that would require my non tech savvy users to sign up. Is there any easy way to integrate the google cloud service (as my users will of course have a google account)? What do people normally do when they want to meet this design principle?
Many thanks
Russ_T said:
Hello,
According to the Android Design Principles
which I think is great. The app I'm designing involves storing photos and data about them. Is there a good way to back this up? I could sync with a webservice I could write/host, but then I'm opening myself up to potentially large bandwidth/storage charges.
I considered using drop box or something, but that would require my non tech savvy users to sign up. Is there any easy way to integrate the google cloud service (as my users will of course have a google account)? What do people normally do when they want to meet this design principle?
Many thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe there is an api for backing up user data to Google drive and since users will have a Google account they automatically have Google drive (Your app will have to request permissions to access users Google account I believe). This would be the easiest way to implement things as the drive api is a native part of Android, and you don't have to worry about bandwidth and hosting storage. In the past people have hosted there own storage for users to used and then usually tie this to an account users have to create. Overall, like I said I'd look into using the Google drive api.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
shimp208 said:
I believe there is an api for backing up user data to Google drive and since users will have a Google account they automatically have Google drive (Your app will have to request permissions to access users Google account I believe). This would be the easiest way to implement things as the drive api is a native part of Android, and you don't have to worry about bandwidth and hosting storage. In the past people have hosted there own storage for users to used and then usually tie this to an account users have to create. Overall, like I said I'd look into using the Google drive api.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks very much. A bit of an oversight on my part so I'll have a look through the API and see what it offers.
I do intend to charge a subscription for my app/service ultimately, but I think I need to make storage space the users problem to save myself sleepless nights.
I'll investigate and post back here what I find. If anyone can give me a link to an article on this I'd appreciate it.
Thanks
Russ_T said:
Thanks very much. A bit of an oversight on my part so I'll have a look through the API and see what it offers.
I do intend to charge a subscription for my app/service ultimately, but I think I need to make storage space the users problem to save myself sleepless nights.
I'll investigate and post back here what I find. If anyone can give me a link to an article on this I'd appreciate it.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is the official Google documentation on using the Google Drive Api:
https://developers.google.com/drive/
Check out this article on network storage and android:
http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/data/data-storage.html#netw
As well as this article on using the backup api and cloud sync:
http://developer.android.com/training/cloudsync/index.html
Also since you talked about eventually charging a subscription fee here is the official android developer documentation on that as well:
http://developer.android.com/guide/google/play/billing/billing_subscriptions.html
Wonderful, thank you very much indeed! I will give those a good read over when I get chance and let you know how I get on. It seems this could definitely be the answer, saving me money concerns and allowing my app to be multi user and backed up.
What I need to do is get my head around how I will use the cloud storage to allow my app to be multi user. Potentially I can make my database file based, and sync between two devices that way. My only trouble is when both devices are editing the same file / working on the same thing. I want the app to work offline, as I don't want connection issues to affect its usage.
Hmmm, I'll give it some thought.
Thanks again!

[Q][Paranoia] Can GO Launcher really be trusted?

GO Launcher seems to be the "go to" launcher of choice for many people, including well read, influential online publications, like lifehacker. I can't bring myself to trust GO Launcher EX though. Outside of the eye candy and polished interface, its aggressive pushing of its own storefronts, apps, libraries, and widgets, many of which request unusual permissions like log file access and root, leaves me feeling that it's very liberal with what it does with any information it collects or tries to collect.
To confirm my suspicions, I whitelisted the launcher in Droidwall and monitored the connections and packets it sent out using Android Network Log .
What I found wasn't all too surprising and honestly not that different from most of the fun "free" apps on the marketplace that phone home and monetize user data. It's just that GO Launcher is phoning home to servers in Bejing, as well as a Chinese operated personalized content delivery network (ChinaCache) with servers in the US (essentially the Chinese counterpart to our Akamai). Many of the packets were directed to 69.28.54.217, which is a ChinaCache Los Angeles CDN server. I'm sure those hundreds of packets was all very intredasting data that gets sent to Beijing, too. Which is why one of 3G.cn/GO Launcher's employees has a linkedin page, one where she obviously forgot to confer with her company's marketing/PR department prior to candidly listing some of her responsibilities which include, verbatim, "data mining". lol. I'm very sure it's to 'serve personalized ads, quality products, and actionable data to high value customers', but still, the writing is on the wall. With how active Chinese companies are in tailoring the online footprint/reputation of their products and software on various websites, I'm sure that linkedin page will be taken down or revised.
Western corporations that broker information vs state influenced Chinese corporations that broker information. While I view both as not the most trustworthy entities in regards to my privacy, I do feel that there are at least some restrictions that could be theoretically enforced to limit the scope of the data shared by corporations in the West.
While I can easily block outbound packets and revoke permissions from GO Launcher EX, I just don't feel like I want to bother using it anymore.
ADWLauncher EX, my main launcher on several of my Android devices, does not generating any outbound traffic and there are no indications that it is collecting or selling my data. A much friendlier option to privacy, in my opinion.
Should I be this paranoid? Should you? I was surprised that I didn't see too much information about GO Launcher's data collection on the web, so I thought I'd share. Thoughts?
Just stick with adw launcher. I use sock launcher to save battery but it is what you prefer to use so sick with it.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
Phone: Samsung galaxy s2 t989
Rom: Jedi knight 6 4.0.4
Kernel: Jedi kernel 2
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
and you thought celebrities weren't smart. =P
Not paranoid at all. Good info, thanks for sharing.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using xda app-developers app
Very detailed and helpful post. I have always felt this about GO products, but thanks for doing your research and making it publicly known.
Sent from my Desire HD using xda premium
To be honest I don't trust Go products at all after they refused to say how their SMS app was able to remember someone used their app even after changing phones and phone numbers. We have to remember that there are things that are legal in China but not in the States which include monitoring of personal data.
Batcom2
zelendel said:
To be honest I don't trust Go products at all after they refused to say how their SMS app was able to remember someone used their app even after changing phones and phone numbers. We have to remember that there are things that are legal in China but not in the States which include monitoring of personal data.
Batcom2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's definitely a very scary factoid. Can you link me to the thread or webpage where they did that? I have seen the developer be very active in shutting down any negative comments towards the software, with some explanations that no identifiable information is stored or accessed, which runs counter to what is actually happening.
One of the reasons I started more heavily scrutinizing app developers is that I've seen the American press increasingly lauding, praising, and recommending Chinese developed software products, without fully vetting just what these products do, or what kind of security concerns they possibly present. Of them, was a remote desktop access software called Splashtop, which inexplicably had numerous foreign field offices, several being in mainland China. Among those offices, one was literally next door to a "Party Member Service Office". Splashtop, for many years, used zero end to end encryption, without any valid reason. Remote desktop applications and launchers provide so much unfettered user whitelisted access to elevated privileges, file system, network communications, root access, and keystroke/input monitoring, that it seems unconscionable to voluntarily install such a huge backdoor.
With many millions of downloads to date, they have quite a lot of data immediately available, to entities whose endgame is unknown, in a country that lacks the kind of regulatory checks, balances, and accountability that, for the most part, have earned user's trust of Western corporations and developers.
A worst case scenario I can imagine is that with all of the unique device ID's stored in their database (GO Launcher also creates a copy of your device ID and places is it in the file system, in plain text, which remains after uninstall) and likely profiling of each user, a malevolent company could essentially push a custom software update on someone's phone that deploys a more aggressive/invasive payload. With today's level of technology and the state of rampant state sponsored corporate espionage, I see it definitely within the realm of possibility.
MifuneT said:
That's definitely a very scary factoid. Can you link me to the thread or webpage where they did that? I have seen the developer be very active in shutting down any negative comments towards the software, with some explanations that no identifiable information is stored or accessed, which runs counter to what is actually happening.
One of the reasons I started more heavily scrutinizing app developers is that I've seen the American press increasingly lauding, praising, and recommending Chinese developed software products, without fully vetting just what these products do, or what kind of security concerns they possibly present. Of them, was a remote desktop access software called Splashtop, which inexplicably had numerous foreign field offices, several being in mainland China. Among those offices, one was literally next door to a "Party Member Service Office". Splashtop, for many years, used zero end to end encryption, without any valid reason. Remote desktop applications and launchers provide so much unfettered user whitelisted access to elevated privileges, file system, network communications, root access, and keystroke/input monitoring, that it seems unconscionable to voluntarily install such a huge backdoor.
With many millions of downloads to date, they have quite a lot of data immediately available, to entities whose endgame is unknown, in a country that lacks the kind of regulatory checks, balances, and accountability that, for the most part, have earned user's trust of Western corporations and developers.
A worst case scenario I can imagine is that with all of the unique device ID's stored in their database (GO Launcher also creates a copy of your device ID and places is it in the file system, in plain text, which remains after uninstall) and likely profiling of each user, a malevolent company could essentially push a custom software update on someone's phone that deploys a more aggressive/invasive payload. With today's level of technology and the state of rampant state sponsored corporate espionage, I see it definitely within the realm of possibility.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Search for the Go sms thread. I and another Mod brought it up in the thread and they tried to BS us. Then toss in a keylogger that was found (and removed?) in the Go keyboard and it has given me enough not to trust them.
of course you can, but I prefer Apex
zelendel said:
Search for the Go sms thread. I and another Mod brought it up in the thread and they tried to BS us. Then toss in a keylogger that was found (and removed?) in the Go keyboard and it has given me enough not to trust them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Didn't know that. Never used their products but shouldn't that be enough to merit a ban from XDA? Bugless Pete was booted for less (source code issues but nothing as malicious as a keylogger).
We need solid proof and they will be.
Batcom2
zelendel said:
We need solid proof and they will be.
Batcom2
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Click to collapse
With the aggressive number of "updates" they immediately push once you install one of their products or add ons, I don't imagine it shouldn't be too difficult to find something of interest to confirm or deny suspicions. I did find it odd in that GO SMS thread that there were some mentions of whitelisting GO SMS to prevent AV from interfering with it.
I'll see about installing GO on one of my spare devices and routers after work, along with something like wireshark, so I can analyze packet data. This isn't something that I'm too familiar with so it may be a little bit while I re-acclimate myself to the program. If anyone is more familiar with packet analysis and wants to run tests alongside, it can build a stronger case for or against the dev.
Bump. I use go sms, so I would really like to know if this app is doing any other malicious things.
Sent from my XT720 using xda premium
good thread, :good:
anyway i hate this launcher since the day i have an android device.
its tooooooooooo overloaded with useless things.
its my opinion,i prefer apex,adw or holo.less wheight in data,ram,battery usage and looks more cool as the parishilton go launcher a.....s........ssss.lol.
Well, I'm running cm9, and for whatever reason, it won't let me download picture messages with the stock messenger. I actually use google voice for my texts, but that doesn't get mms. Go sms is the only thing that actually let's me download the pictures that get sent to me, so I just use it for that specifically.
Sent from my XT720 using xda premium
i stop using Go Products since they force people to use their CLOUD storage to backup people sms on Go SMS.
i dont know about now, local backup is back or not.
it was really fishy back there.
and many other thing, like many permission things needed for something like launcher and sms app.
their looks are cartoonish iphoney and cute (like many asian app) which is not my taste at all.
also overloaded with a bunch of crap.
that's my opinion.
---
Sent from Android Device
marhensa said:
i stop using Go Products since they force people to use their CLOUD storage to backup people sms on Go SMS.
i dont know about now, local backup is back or not.
it was really fishy back there.
and many other thing, like many permission things needed for something like launcher and sms app.
their looks are cartoonish iphoney and cute (like many asian app) which is not my taste at all.
also overloaded with a bunch of crap.
that's my opinion.
---
Sent from Android Device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Too true. The last product I used years back was GO SMS, and I stopped after they started insisting on registering for their Go Chat service and backing up SMS. I couldn't even unregister from Go Chat once I logged in by mistake, and they never responded to my emails about deleting my account. Very shady behaviour.
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 4
sashank said:
Too true. The last product I used years back was GO SMS, and I stopped after they started insisting on registering for their Go Chat service and backing up SMS. I couldn't even unregister from Go Chat once I logged in by mistake, and they never responded to my emails about deleting my account. Very shady behaviour.
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 4
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Click to collapse
Go Launcher + EX were my first "custom" ones but after reading about their data-collection-stories I've decided to go and stick with Apex Launcher never regretted doing so. I always thought Go was and is too agressive in pushing their widgets, services I don't like that
frankgreimes said:
Go Launcher + EX were my first "custom" ones but after reading about their data-collection-stories I've decided to go and stick with Apex Launcher never regretted doing so. I always thought Go was and is too agressive in pushing their widgets, services I don't like that
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly. I used Go Launcher EX & Go SMS Pro a lot on CM7. They were good till they became creepy. And most of the services were opt-out not opt-in. That's sucks.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4
A key question now is can the "Next" launcher be trusted? Can anybody run the same packet tests on this one? I'm officially ready to remove Go (launcher Ex from my old Tbolt and HD/Pad from my TF300) but I wonder if I'm also going to remove Next from a device.
NapalmDawn said:
A key question now is can the "Next" launcher be trusted? Can anybody run the same packet tests on this one? I'm officially ready to remove Go (launcher Ex from my old Tbolt and HD/Pad from my TF300) but I wonder if I'm also going to remove Next from a device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure, but just to be safe I'd stay awake from anything by the Go Dev Team. Too shady for my taste.

[Privacy] Is there any Dialer and Contact App that request no permissions?

Hi,
I used to surf around xda-devs since its early beginnings, but This is my first interaction with this great community, and I am sorry 'cause it is a question.
So, I'm really wondering if there's any dialer or contact list App which don't steal users data .. I really hate it when I find a top rated Apps that requests almost every single permission available on the SDK, it's really disgusting. :banghead:
Even if there's such dialers that would ask for bunch of permissions, if you really know that it's from a clean company and it wont steal information from you, that would be helpful. :thumbup:
# Why I'm thinking of such a Dialer?
Because I was using android for years now, and I figured out that I don't really needs other apps to know my contacts and read my call history, I literally get no benefits from that, So I think if I used a 3rd party Contact list, apps like Facebook will be no longer able to fetch phone numbers out of my Android, by talking about Facebook it was very mean when I learned that they still going to copy your phone book to their cloud even if you consciously touched the 'Skip' button :banghead:
# Otherwise:
How can I prevent such apps from taking my contact list without rooting the device, (you know you try to control your privacy by rooting that device but what are you actually doing is giving access to many apps to many secret places).
Thanks in advance
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app

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