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I'm sure many people (even on HN) don't really realise when and where their phone calls home. If anybody is interested install this on Android and just run it
by ffpip 6y ago
I'm sure many people (even on HN) don't really realise when and where their phone calls home.
If anybody is interested install this on Android and just run it for an hour to see the DNS logs. You can uninstall it later.
https://github.com/AdAway/AdAway/releases https://github.com/AdAway/AdAway/releases
Install the APK, turn it on and turn on the DNS logs. Run it for an hour or two.
- novaRom 6y agoCan you please be more specific? What should an average Android user expect to see in those DNS logs?
- ClikeX 6y agoNot the OP. But as I understand you would be able to see all the outgoing requests. And thus how much your device phones home. Considering it's an adblocker app, I'd imagine you'd specifically see all the times it tries to ping back to ad companies.
- ffpip 6y agoInstall the app. Then close all apps and don't browse any sites for 1 hour. Then open the app and check the logs. Just see if it phones home to Facebook, Taboola, Google, Adjust and some other 200 or so companies.
- crispyambulance 6y agoWhen you say "phone home", how can we determine what kind of info is it sending to places like Facebook, Taboola, etc? What does "phone home" actually mean?
- izacus 6y agoIn most cases this comes from mobile ad/analytics frameworks (Facebook Ads/SDK, Google AdMob, StartApp, Chartboost, MoPub, etc. etc.). They usually ping back with usage counters and probably other analytics data. In many cases those SDKs even join data between apps on your device (e.g. you give your age to app A, your name to app B, your location to app C and they merge it on the backend). This data is then shown to users and in a lot of cases also sold in bulk. Note that most of these frameworks target iOS first and Android second - due to population and revenue.
- meonkeys 6y agoThis app requires a rooted phone. I don't have root on mine. Is there something similar that doesn't require root? My Pi-Hole is useful for tracking/blocking via DNS, but I can't tell which apps make which DNS queries. I'd imagine you must be running on the phone to get these data, or use deductive reasoning/matching/etc.
- severine 6y ago> Is there something similar that doesn't require root? Yes, I think DNSfilter and DNS66 are what you're looking for. https://f-droid.org/packages/dnsfilter.android/ https://f-droid.org/packages/dnsfilter.android/ https://f-droid.org/packages/org.jak_linux.dns66/ https://f-droid.org/packages/org.jak_linux.dns66/
- URfejk 6y agoBlock this: https://github.com/ggsava/block-this https://github.com/ggsava/block-this Invizible: https://invizible.net/en/ https://invizible.net/en/ Blokada: https://blokada.org/ https://blokada.org/
- ffpip 6y agoThat app doesn't require root. Click here - https://github.com/AdAway/AdAway/releases/download/v5.0.9b/AdAway-5.0.9-200913.apk https://github.com/AdAway/AdAway/releases/download/v5.0.9b/A... install,open, grant permissions and turn on logging. It's in the menu at the bottom.
- jdofaz 6y agoI think this is the real motivation for implementing DNS over HTTPS, at least for google anyway.
- dwiel 6y agoI ran a similar app and it was surprising how many requests were getting made, it wasnt super helpful as they were all either AWS or gcloud requests. I did see which apps were making the requests and at what frequency, but that was about the level of detail available.
- mehrdadn 6y agoDoes it show which app is responsible? If not, is there something that does show that?