Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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Maximizing privacy on Android without custom ROMs? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 months ago by TheTwelveYearOld@lemmy.world to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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I've had a Galaxy S22+ for 2 years and still want to use it. When I look up how to maximize privacy on Android, many results say to install custom ROMs which I can't since its a US model and the bootloader is locked. I just want to minimize tracking and sharing of personal information. I could use a firewall app like RethinkDNS to block trackers, but could I completely block tracking from Google and Samsung? Are there any lists of packages to uninstall to improve privacy? (I've used ADB to remove a bunch of bloatware. Ex: pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.arzone)

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[–] OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Cutoff internet access on all apps that expressly do not need it. Install Netguard or the likes if you don't used a VPN and see what apps are calling home.

[–] refalo@programming.dev 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I thought you needed root for app-level firewalls?

[–] OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Straight from their site.

NetGuard provides simple and advanced ways to block access to the internet - no root required. Applications and addresses can individually be allowed or denied access to your Wi-Fi and/or mobile connection.

Blocking access to the internet can help:

reduce your data usage save your battery increase your privacy

Edit: Uses the same slot as VPN on a phone. Thus you have one or the other. Not both. PC is different.

[–] refalo@programming.dev 1 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Unfortunately I cannot use a VPN because several apps I use (including android auto) do not work with it.

[–] merde@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

in netGuard you can create exceptions for apps that "do not work with" a vpn

[–] refalo@programming.dev 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

how on earth does that work? I thought it had to have an always-on VPN connection to do any filtering (or not)

[–] merde@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

it's an "always-on vpn connection". NetGuard passes through the apps in the exception list unfiltered

[–] refalo@programming.dev 1 points 1 month ago

exactly... it needs the vpn to even pass anything through... but the apps that don't work with vpns... don't work with vpns. as in, it detects the presence of an android vpn connection and refuses to work, it's not related to what internet connection it actually uses, just that a system-controlled vpn is active on the device.

[–] OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Then perhaps this could be a way for you to lockdown internet traffic to and from your device. Major privacy improvement.

[–] refalo@programming.dev 1 points 2 months ago

I don't understand how if this requires a VPN which I can't use?