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Where are the torrent links? Anyway, There are more paid tracking SDKs in the wild and probably more invasive than Facebook's. For example, in Poland there is

by blfr 8y ago

Where are the torrent links? Anyway, There are more paid tracking SDKs in the wild and probably more invasive than Facebook's. For example, in Poland there is a service called Cluify which supposedly tracks millions of phones to then target ads at them. Although they're Google ads. In fact, they're a "proud partner of Google." On the website https://cluify.com/ https://cluify.com/ they mention using wifi but in sales pitches they boast inclusion in many popular apps. As their client you can geofence an area and buy ads directed at devices which frequent them. I purged and fumigated most of these parasites from my phone. Going even as far as replacing the OS because LG thought the Facebook app should be an integral part of their distribution and not removable. Hopefully they at least charged Facebook dearly for it.

zozbot123 8y ago
You can use adb commands to "disable" system apps FWIW, all you need is the "developer options" menu, to temporarily enable adb access from USB. This lets you use all the features of a "locked", stock "ROM" (payment services, DRM apps, better camera), and also works on "locked down" devices where you can't unlock the bootloader and install a different OS. Of course, it's only worthwhile if you trust the "ROM" vendor (LG in your case) and can isolate the problem to some specific app(s).
- jake_the_third 8y ago
  This type of control is still possible on android devices?! I had given up on buying new devices because of how restrictive and abusive phone manufacturers have become towards their customers. If adb can really do what you say it can, maybe I can finally upgrade my phone after all these years. Can you recommend an online article that goes over using `adb` like this? (especially for disabling locked apps)
  - zozbot123 8y ago
    See e.g. https://github.com/jaredsburrows/android-bloatware/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/jaredsburrows/android-bloatware/blob/mast... the "non-root" section. Some tutorials suggest slightly different commands, viz. `pm hide` rather than `pm disable`, and that in order to 'uninstall' apps without root the command `pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.bloatware.app` should be used. Either way, do backup your data before doing any of this stuff (if stuff gets screwed up, you might need to perform a factory reset from recovery mode in order to revert to a sensible state), and do not expect this to always work; it might not, depending on the specific "rom" you're running.

by blfr 8y ago

zozbot123 8y ago

You can use adb commands to "disable" system apps FWIW, all you need is the "developer options" menu, to temporarily enable adb access from USB. This lets you use all the features of a "locked", stock "ROM" (payment services, DRM apps, better camera), and also works on "locked down" devices where you can't unlock the bootloader and install a different OS. Of course, it's only worthwhile if you trust the "ROM" vendor (LG in your case) and can isolate the problem to some specific app(s).

jake_the_third 8y ago
This type of control is still possible on android devices?! I had given up on buying new devices because of how restrictive and abusive phone manufacturers have become towards their customers. If adb can really do what you say it can, maybe I can finally upgrade my phone after all these years. Can you recommend an online article that goes over using `adb` like this? (especially for disabling locked apps)
- zozbot123 8y ago
  See e.g. https://github.com/jaredsburrows/android-bloatware/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/jaredsburrows/android-bloatware/blob/mast... the "non-root" section. Some tutorials suggest slightly different commands, viz. `pm hide` rather than `pm disable`, and that in order to 'uninstall' apps without root the command `pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.bloatware.app` should be used. Either way, do backup your data before doing any of this stuff (if stuff gets screwed up, you might need to perform a factory reset from recovery mode in order to revert to a sensible state), and do not expect this to always work; it might not, depending on the specific "rom" you're running.