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Open source apps can absolutely have trackers in them. F-Droid isn't a security solution by any measure. I have inspected code of at least one popular "privacy"

Open source apps can absolutely have trackers in them. F-Droid isn't a security solution by any measure. I have inspected code of at least one popular "privacy" app that absolutely tracks its users out in the open (I mean, the code is right there on GitHub), yet I see repeatedly that app (and F-Droid) being touted as some elixir that fixes security and privacy for one and all. It doesn't. Don't place your trust on F-Droid apps blindly, and more importantly, refrain from blanket advocating F-Droid apps as a security / privacy panacea. What I do instead is monitor Android's traffic with a LittleSnitch-esque firewall and block all apps I don't use. Also, I've disabled auto-updates on non-essential apps. Only Photos, Maps, Chrome, and Firefox are allowed to auto update on my Android.

krageon 6y ago
It would be more compelling if you actually mentioned what app you've found that's so naughty.
rectang 6y ago
What open source gives you is an audit trail, which is helpful but not sufficient. You still need to be able to trace malicious code to actual individuals. Then you need the ability to punish those individuals, ideally through criminal prosecution.
marcodiego 6y ago
F-droid flags apps that have known anti-features. Using Open source software is a very significant security solution.
- epicide 6y ago
  (F)OSS by itself is not a security solution. Largely because you can't "solve" security. There are plenty of insecure open source apps. To deny that would be to deny tons of security-related CVEs. Yes, open source software is easier to audit, but does nothing to a) make those audits actually happen (frequently enough), nor b) improves the quality of those audits. i.e. just because I have access to information does not validate that information. Work still has to be done.
  - marcodiego 6y ago
    FLOSS may have security vulnerabilities, just like any other software. An OSS android app which has no anti-feature flags on f-droid with intrusive advertisements or malware behavior, deliberately implemented by its own developer, is something I have never heard about. The same can't be said about 'free' (or sometimes even paid) proprietary apps from play store.
higerordermap 6y ago
It's manually curated and generally flags such things as anti-features if found, and I'd believe them more than some tensorflow_script_to_detect_malware.py
- ignoramous 6y ago
  I wouldn't depend on F-Droid or FOSS as a measure of security. Of course, I get that F-Droid is run by volunteers, but I hope no one is spreading the notion that the F-Droid apps are magically uber secure and private or anything.
  - higerordermap 6y ago
    I wasn't clear. What I told was comparative.
schmorptron 6y ago
What app are you talking about specifically?
- ignoramous 6y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25492855 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25492855 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25263876 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25263876
  - schmorptron 6y ago
    ah, thanks!
  - You-Are-Right 6y ago
    why is nebulo not on fdroid?
    - ignoramous 6y ago
      It is on the main developer's f-droid repo: https://github.com/Ch4t4r/Nebulo#f-droid https://github.com/Ch4t4r/Nebulo#f-droid
      - You-Are-Right 6y ago
        I do like the fdroid review process - private repos do not have that.
JeremyNT 6y ago
Were the trackers already labeled in F-droid? They maintain a list of these anti features for all apps. If not, when you reported your findings to F-Droid, did they flag the app as having trackers at that time? Nobody said blanket trust anything. F-Droid is a community project with a framework that allows for disclosing user hostile behavior in apps. By using it and paying attention, we can all make it even better - the exact opposite of Google, whose incentives do not align at all with these goals.

krageon 6y ago

It would be more compelling if you actually mentioned what app you've found that's so naughty.

rectang 6y ago

What open source gives you is an audit trail, which is helpful but not sufficient. You still need to be able to trace malicious code to actual individuals. Then you need the ability to punish those individuals, ideally through criminal prosecution.

marcodiego 6y ago

F-droid flags apps that have known anti-features. Using Open source software is a very significant security solution.

epicide 6y ago
(F)OSS by itself is not a security solution. Largely because you can't "solve" security. There are plenty of insecure open source apps. To deny that would be to deny tons of security-related CVEs. Yes, open source software is easier to audit, but does nothing to a) make those audits actually happen (frequently enough), nor b) improves the quality of those audits. i.e. just because I have access to information does not validate that information. Work still has to be done.
- marcodiego 6y ago
  FLOSS may have security vulnerabilities, just like any other software. An OSS android app which has no anti-feature flags on f-droid with intrusive advertisements or malware behavior, deliberately implemented by its own developer, is something I have never heard about. The same can't be said about 'free' (or sometimes even paid) proprietary apps from play store.

higerordermap 6y ago

It's manually curated and generally flags such things as anti-features if found, and I'd believe them more than some tensorflow_script_to_detect_malware.py

ignoramous 6y ago
I wouldn't depend on F-Droid or FOSS as a measure of security. Of course, I get that F-Droid is run by volunteers, but I hope no one is spreading the notion that the F-Droid apps are magically uber secure and private or anything.
- higerordermap 6y ago
  I wasn't clear. What I told was comparative.

schmorptron 6y ago

What app are you talking about specifically?

ignoramous 6y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25492855 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25492855 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25263876 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25263876
- schmorptron 6y ago
  ah, thanks!
- You-Are-Right 6y ago
  why is nebulo not on fdroid?
  - ignoramous 6y ago
    It is on the main developer's f-droid repo: https://github.com/Ch4t4r/Nebulo#f-droid https://github.com/Ch4t4r/Nebulo#f-droid
    - You-Are-Right 6y ago
      I do like the fdroid review process - private repos do not have that.

JeremyNT 6y ago

Were the trackers already labeled in F-droid? They maintain a list of these anti features for all apps. If not, when you reported your findings to F-Droid, did they flag the app as having trackers at that time? Nobody said blanket trust anything. F-Droid is a community project with a framework that allows for disclosing user hostile behavior in apps. By using it and paying attention, we can all make it even better - the exact opposite of Google, whose incentives do not align at all with these goals.