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Sometimes, you grab an app where you have to question whether it's safe (even from the market).
You can always use Droidwall to block the internet access, but that doesn't mean the app isn't sending out SMS messages or making calls.
What's the best way to monitor apps to determine if they're safe?
I don't know if typical traffic counter apps would work for this type of situation, or if they only catch stuff a user does through the dialer or installed sms app.
You can try Lookout - http://www.mylookout.com I think you'd need the pay version, but you can try it out for 2 weeks and see if it does what you want. I just use the free version for now.
Thanks, but Lookout won't do what I'm looking for. Lookout will only scan for know viruses or trojans. It's not going to find custom coded malicious behavior.
I suppose the best compromise is to find an app that will log all incoming and outgoing SMS messages and calls. The problem is that I haven't found any that log the stealth messages/calls that don't go through the dialer and UI-based sms apps.
Download SystemPanel from the market - it runs in background, but shows you exactly which app uses how much CPU and time. Also plots battery drain/CPU usage etc... essential app! maybe not quite what you are after though......
aussois said:
Download SystemPanel from the market - it runs in background, but shows you exactly which app uses how much CPU and time. Also plots battery drain/CPU usage etc... essential app! maybe not quite what you are after though......
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Thank you, but that doesn't really have anything to do with what I need. Thanks, anyway, though.
Haphim said:
Thank you, but that doesn't really have anything to do with what I need. Thanks, anyway, though.
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Looks like you are looking for something like this:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.stericson.permissions&hl=en
xploited said:
Looks like you are looking for something like this:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.stericson.permissions&hl=en
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Good link! But not useful here, for a couple of reasons:
1. As an example, apps may legitimately need to send sms messages. The goal in this case is to make sure they're only sending (or receiving) when they are supposed to - and not trying to sneak any past you.
2. It's a nice idea, but realistically, modifying permissions will break many apps.
The idea is to find out if an app is doing something it shouldn't, which means this is all about monitoring.
Haphim said:
Good link! But not useful here, for a couple of reasons:
1. As an example, apps may legitimately need to send sms messages. The goal in this case is to make sure they're only sending (or receiving) when they are supposed to - and not trying to sneak any past you.
2. It's a nice idea, but realistically, modifying permissions will break many apps.
The idea is to find out if an app is doing something it shouldn't, which means this is all about monitoring.
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Well how do you suppose a security app is going to know if something is abusing permissions? For example, how does a security app distinguish between a legit sms being sent or non legit sms?
You say that a full monitoring app will fix your concerns. Well a typical phone is running 10+ applications at any given time. Imagine yourself being bombarded by constant notifications: app1 accessed internet, app2 read from SD card, app3 sent sms..... so on so on.... Not only will this get overwhelming in 10 minutes, it will probably drain your battery at a serious rate.
I think the answer to your concern is common sense. There's no reason to monitor 99% of apps. If you really feel some app is suspicious, just block it's permissions.
xploited said:
Well how do you suppose a security app is going to know if something is abusing permissions? For example, how does a security app distinguish between a legit sms being sent or non legit sms?
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I'm not asking for an automated process. I'm asking for the tools that will help me make the determination myself.
xploited said:
You say that a full monitoring app will fix your concerns. Well a typical phone is running 10+ applications at any given time. Imagine yourself being bombarded by constant notifications: app1 accessed internet, app2 read from SD card, app3 sent sms..... so on so on.... Not only will this get overwhelming in 10 minutes, it will probably drain your battery at a serious rate.
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I never said I wanted notifications. An app that simply logged the info would be fine. I could go in once a day and check to make sure that all calls and sms messages sent and received were legitimate. Once I knew that an app was trustworthy, I could turn the logging off.
xploited said:
I think the answer to your concern is common sense. There's no reason to monitor 99% of apps. If you really feel some app is suspicious, just block it's permissions.
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That doesn't work if blocking its permissions breaks the app. There are many apps coded by fly by night developers whom you don't know and have no reason to trust. If it's an app that doesn't have permissions to cause harm anyway, then it's no big deal. But if the app has permissions to send and receive sms and calls, you have no way of knowing what it's doing behind your back. I'm looking for an app that will answer that question.
LBE security service monitors when apps access info. U can also deny permission. Its in the market.
**edit** LBE privacy guard
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
Sass86 said:
LBE security service monitors when apps access info. U can also deny permission. Its in the market.
**edit** LBE privacy guard
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
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Thanks! At a quick glance, this looks like exactly what I wanted.
Greetings to everyone
I have question about security. I have to know what options are there to find out sms conversation. I use Handcent sms in which I use privacy box with one person to determine that noone else except me would know what we are texting about. But one thing happened. Third person know what exactly we are texting about, even if I constantly deleted sms everyday. I can't imagine the way how he find out this.
I study software development so about security I know something. I know that handcent saves database of sms even if they are deleted or not. I used sqlite to find out what is exactly in the db and find out, that this is not right way how he find out. I also find out that in handcent autobackup option was checked, but noticed that when you delete sms, backup file changed and there were only sms i intented to be there. I also tried antivirus programs to find out if there is some kind of malware or trojan, nothing found.
So my question is: what options of finding out sms conversation are there? Even if third person can access mentioned mobile phone or not?
I will appreciate any good advice
EJAX said:
Greetings to everyone
I have question about security. I have to know what options are there to find out sms conversation. I use Handcent sms in which I use privacy box with one person to determine that noone else except me would know what we are texting about. But one thing happened. Third person know what exactly we are texting about, even if I constantly deleted sms everyday. I can't imagine the way how he find out this.
I study software development so about security I know something. I know that handcent saves database of sms even if they are deleted or not. I used sqlite to find out what is exactly in the db and find out, that this is not right way how he find out. I also find out that in handcent autobackup option was checked, but noticed that when you delete sms, backup file changed and there were only sms i intented to be there. I also tried antivirus programs to find out if there is some kind of malware or trojan, nothing found.
So my question is: what options of finding out sms conversation are there? Even if third person can access mentioned mobile phone or not?
I will appreciate any good advice
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Was it a known person? Or a random person? If he was a friend/person you know, then he either heard through the grape vine or got your phone or the person you were textings phone. I dont think there is a way to "hack" your phone from a computer and view the texts you sent. Unless he got them from your carrier.
elesbb said:
Was it a known person? Or a random person? If he was a friend/person you know, then he either heard through the grape vine or got your phone or the person you were textings phone. I dont think there is a way to "hack" your phone from a computer and view the texts you sent. Unless he got them from your carrier.
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Yes, it was person we both know. He had access to the phone, but with deleted sms with no backup.. It's possible to get this informartion through mobile operator?
EJAX said:
Yes, it was person we both know. He had access to the phone, but with deleted sms with no backup.. It's possible to get this informartion through mobile operator?
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Yes it is but would need to go through tones of red tape and have to be a Cop of some kind.
Most likely it was who ever you were texting. There are also other ways that it could happen. Apps that forward all texts to another number used to be a big one back in windows mobile days. Not sure if there is an app like that for android
Sent from my Inspire 4G using Tapatalk 2
zelendel said:
Yes it is but would need to go through tones of red tape and have to be a Cop of some kind.
Most likely it was who ever you were texting. There are also other ways that it could happen. Apps that forward all texts to another number used to be a big one back in windows mobile days. Not sure if there is an app like that for android
Sent from my Inspire 4G using Tapatalk 2
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It's probably the problem that this person has a friend which works for vodafone which this phone uses. Forwarding all texts is not possible i think, because this person would catch up on this earlier..
EJAX said:
It's probably the problem that this person has a friend which works for vodafone which this phone uses. Forwarding all texts is not possible i think, because this person would catch up on this earlier..
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There used to be an app that could be installed that did all this with the user even knowing about it. Once installed it was hidden away and it never showed that the messages would be forwarded. It was a proof of concept app that someone made for learning. If they had someone working for the company it would have to be a higher up to have access to the cached data bases the company keeps which are encrypted.
I have a feeling the OP was ratted out by the one they were texting.
zelendel said:
There used to be an app that could be installed that did all this with the user even knowing about it. Once installed it was hidden away and it never showed that the messages would be forwarded. It was a proof of concept app that someone made for learning. If they had someone working for the company it would have to be a higher up to have access to the cached data bases the company keeps which are encrypted.
I have a feeling the OP was ratted out by the one they were texting.
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Ok, thank you for your advice. So if there is hidden app registered as service it can be seen through logcat when I intent to send sms, am I right?
About the company, this person works here on higher places, dont realy know what is his position some kind of IT specialist, gonna investigate this..
There is a REALLY cool feature I'd like to be able to utilize where the G4 pulls up your most recent contacts when you start to share something.
*see attached image* (names and numbers have been edited out for privacy reasons)
Only problem is, that even though my default messaging app is Next SMS if I select one of these recent contacts at the top. It still opens up "messaging" to send the message. Which actually is very limiting because it doesn't like not being default with MMS's.
Is there an easy way to change that behavior?
Thanks,
Gilligan
The app has to be made To use that function. It is part of stock Android. All my messaging apps use it. I can't say about handcent as I stopped using them a few years ago when the company when down hill and the app went to garbage.
zelendel said:
The app has to be made To use that function. It is part of stock Android. All my messaging apps use it. I can't say about handcent as I stopped using them a few years ago when the company when down hill and the app went to garbage.
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What do you recommend and why it over Handcent? I'm not married to Handcent, but it does ok by my books. I don't really venture out and try other apps either.
gilligan8 said:
What do you recommend and why it over Handcent? I'm not married to Handcent, but it does ok by my books. I don't really venture out and try other apps either.
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Handcent is known for not delivering messages. Along with other huge issues. I use YAATA myself or textra. Both work wonderfully. I choice YAATA over textra so I can hide that God awful material design. Just avoid Go sms at all costs.
zelendel said:
Handcent is known for not delivering messages. Along with other huge issues. I use YAATA myself or textra. Both work wonderfully. I choice YAATA over textra so I can hide that God awful material design. Just avoid Go sms at all costs.
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I'll give YAATA a go... I can't say that we have experienced much issues with Handcent. Always looking for something better though!
gilligan8 said:
I'll give YAATA a go... I can't say that we have experienced much issues with Handcent. Always looking for something better though!
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Yeah unless you ran a logcat or people contacted you every time you didn't reply then you really wouldn't know. I used to use handcent until people started getting mad I wasn't replying. Then I looked into it and saw it was failing. It was a great app until it was sold to a China based company.
So, how do you turn off the row for messaging if you have a different app (YAATA) doing the messaging for you now?
gilligan8 said:
So, how do you turn off the row for messaging if you have a different app (YAATA) doing the messaging for you now?
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It should auto replace the normal messaging.
As you can see from my SS
Hmmm.. mine is acting differently. I has two rows. One replaced, one didn't.
As you can see here, top row is YAATA, bottom is still "Messaging".
The more you use it the less they will be there. If you have root you could always freeze it or disable it. It could also be the device. I know some apps are making it annoying to replace the stock apps. Like Samsung devices.
So, every time I pick up my phone, I get new targeted Google ads. Any way to make them stop (besides throwing my phone in the river?)
Rideit12 said:
So, every time I pick up my phone, I get new targeted Google ads. Any way to make them stop (besides throwing my phone in the river?)
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Adguard?
Sent from my official open market LG US998 V30+
Installed Adblocker...didn't do a thing. Still google ads every time I pick up the phone.
Adguard wanted access to all of my files in chrome, which seems weird.
Rideit12 said:
Installed Adblocker...didn't do a thing. Still google ads every time I pick up the phone.
Adguard wanted access to all of my files in chrome, which seems weird.
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Adguard goes through a VPN to block ads.
Sent from my official carrier unlocked LG V30+ US998
Hunh. I don't use a VPN.
Rideit12 said:
Hunh. I don't use a VPN.
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Adguard automatically sets it up and uses it, to block ads.
https://kb.adguard.com/en/android/faq#howitworks
Unless you have root, and then you can use http proxy method with Adguard.
Sent from my official carrier unlocked LG V30+ US998
Block ad's
grab f-droids "blokada" works with it's own built in vpn, you can white list things you want to still d/l in background,
blocks google ad's like a boss!
RoxAbout said:
grab f-droids "blokada" works with it's own built in vpn, you can white list things you want to still d/l in background,
blocks google ad's like a boss!
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I use Blokada as well on my V30 and V30+. It is a must when you don't have root.
Using Blokada, totally works! Thanks for the tips.
Have good results using uBlock Origin, primarily do not use Chrome and even when I do, never as a logged in user. Most browsing or reading is performed on Firefox or Opera ... no ads whatsoever...
Rideit12 said:
Using Blokada, totally works! Thanks for the tips.
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Using bkokada do you still get the stupid key in the notifications bar?
Sent from my LG-US998 using Tapatalk
fatboysh said:
Using bkokada do you still get the stupid key in the notifications bar?
Sent from my LG-US998 using Tapatalk
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Yes.
jcsww said:
Yes.
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It's there anyway to get rid of it without root?
Sent from my LG-US998 using Tapatalk
fatboysh said:
It's there anyway to get rid of it without root?
Sent from my LG-US998 using Tapatalk
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It shows you're connected you a VPN. It's important to know, in case you do not want to be connected to a VPN. So you don't mix your personal stuff with your corporate stuff.
In this case is just being used for ad blocking, but a lot of people use VPN for work.
Sent from my official open market LG US998 V30+
To the OP,
Have you taken a look at your gmail account settings on a desktop or laptop (not on the phone) ? Reason is that it is easy to see just how much "you allow" Google to either preserve, store, analyze of the data you create and transmit.
I always turn off everything with a new gmail account (have many), attach it to a new phone (new gmail account), access account settings and turn off everything, including history and then later on, may slowly enable some parts.
fatboysh said:
Using bkokada do you still get the stupid key in the notifications bar?
Sent from my LG-US998 using Tapatalk
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Haven't noticed anything new or unusual, just works.
Odd, I have never seen a single ad. Perhaps you are infected with a bad application or your carrier is crap.
Blocking Ad's
xdafly said:
Have good results using uBlock Origin, primarily do not use Chrome and even when I do, never as a logged in user. Most browsing or reading is performed on Firefox or Opera ... no ads whatsoever...
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100% agree on what you said.
I was able to suggest to Blokada that they allow "black listing" by APP and they agreed to insert this feature in a future update.
Cant wait for that to roll out!
Enjoy the blocked Ad's!
I've been using the default messaging app with my v60 and I actually love it. Up until a few days ago rcs was working perfectly with it and then it just stopped working. No read reports no typing indicators ..nothing. just wondering if anyone knows how I can fix this issue and get rcs working agian as I would prefer to keep using the stock messaging app. I already tried wiping cache and data for the app. Any help/ideas are appreciated
lendawg said:
I've been using the default messaging app with my v60 and I actually love it. Up until a few days ago rcs was working perfectly with it and then it just stopped working. No read reports no typing indicators ..nothing. just wondering if anyone knows how I can fix this issue and get rcs working agian as I would prefer to keep using the stock messaging app. I already tried wiping cache and data for the app. Any help/ideas are appreciated
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For some reason RCS has never worked in the stock app for my wife and I ever since we switched to TMobile. It works in Google messages, but never the stock app. And after today's announcement that T-Mobile was rolling out universal profile, I tried it again and it still doesn't work
Ryano89 said:
For some reason RCS has never worked in the stock app for my wife and I ever since we switched to TMobile. It works in Google messages, but never the stock app. And after today's announcement that T-Mobile was rolling out universal profile, I tried it again and it still doesn't work
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That's so strange. I wonder why it was working....literally since I got the phone in hand, and then just stopped. Hm...I hope they get it figured out as I actually prefer the stock TMobile messaging app.
lendawg said:
That's so strange. I wonder why it was working....literally since I got the phone in hand, and then just stopped. Hm...I hope they get it figured out as I actually prefer the stock TMobile messaging app.
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That is strange. Although, I'm having a weird problem where mms doesn't even work at all on the stock app, but it works fine on Google messages or any other 3rd party apps. Which sucks because I like the stock app but I can't use it since I can't send or receive pics or group messages. T-Mobile literally had to open a trouble ticket in my account and are trying to figure it out
Ryano89 said:
That is strange. Although, I'm having a weird problem where mms doesn't even work at all on the stock app, but it works fine on Google messages or any other 3rd party apps. Which sucks because I like the stock app but I can't use it since I can't send or receive pics or group messages. T-Mobile literally had to open a trouble ticket in my account and are trying to figure it out
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Weird....mms works for me. Hopefully they can fix this with a future update as I really don't want Android messages.
Maybe it has something to do with TMobile agreement with Google regarding RCS.
Sent from my SM-F900U1 using Tapatalk
skinnytoo2 said:
Maybe it has something to do with TMobile agreement with Google regarding RCS.
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I would have thought that could be it, and maybe it is, but I've had the phone for well over a month and it hasn't worked from day one. Supposedly T-Mobile is going to contact me on Tuesday after the "engineer's look at the provisioning" on my account
Aaaaaand just like that, RCS is working again for me in stock messaging app wtf?