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XPrivacy for rooted android could do this 7+ years ago and there are other modern alternatives (but I haven't rooted my phone for a long time so I can't vouch f

XPrivacy for rooted android could do this 7+ years ago and there are other modern alternatives (but I haven't rooted my phone for a long time so I can't vouch for them): https://github.com/M66B/XPrivacy https://github.com/M66B/XPrivacy Obviously that is not mainstream, I agree it should come built in. But then both Android and iOS allow bullshit like region-locked apps or preventing screenshots from DRM content, so good luck with that.

Nereuxofficial 3y ago
XPrivacy was incredibly cool. But on modern phones rooting and installing Xposed has either gotten massively more complicated or disabled ougright. GrapheneOS wasn't working with banking apps, Google broke rooting via Magisk multiple times on the Android Beta and at some point and i stopped bothering. Maybe GrapheneOS or similar Projects could do this
- flutas 3y ago
  FWIW: Rooting seems fairly easy at this point in time, at least for pixel devices. Flash with magisk, install Universal Safetynet Fix (https://github.com/Displax/safetynet-fix/ https://github.com/Displax/safetynet-fix/) and you're passing safetynet / play integrity API. I haven't come across a single app that doesn't work due to root currently, but I limit my installed apps.
  - kevincox 3y ago
    You pass basic safety net. You do this by claiming that your device is an older device that doesn't support hardware attestation. I can only assume that in some small number of years hardware attestation is going to be required and will require software exploits to work around.
  - e4e5 3y ago
    Thank you, I rooted my phone a few days ago and have been putting off fixing safety net. But that worked and was absolutely painless.
  - rocho 3y ago
    Last time I tried this I wasted many hours but couldn't make Google Wallet work. SafetyNet was passing but Wallet was still disallowing any card operations.
    - jcul 3y ago
      I think you need to hide root for Google wallet and some other Google services app(s). And wipe their storage / cache too so they start from a clean slate.
  - Groxx 3y ago
    Last time I tried to use magisk on my pixel it was a complete fustercluck (about a year ago). I ended up having to patch together multiple fixes in multiple forum threads, and manually pick apart and patch the firmware package, because nothing worked at all for months on end, on a completely stock device. I have kinda lost faith in it. And it doesn't help that it tries to do everything internally, so you can't e.g. download your pre-patch blobs or upload them after it loses track of them, because it does everything exclusively in complicatedly-magically-named internal folders. There is some seriously bonkers decision-making going on in it.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- jcul 3y ago
  FWIW,I just installed GrapheneOS this week and banking apps have been working fine (though no Google pay). Also, as a sibling comment mentioned, I have used magisk + safety net fix in the past, and had no issues with banking apps or Google pay.
- jet_32951 3y ago
  GrapheneOS has implemented storage and contact scopes. Users can set a program's permitted storage environment. Similarly, contact scopes allows users to limit access to contacts that are tagged with a keyword. On my phone the 'special' contact group includes Djimn Hovnbg, with a number in Egypt, Blin Futtum'ch with a UK number, and so on.
anotherhue 3y ago
I used it in this way, and experiencing first hand how much the deck was stacked against me as a user let to me abandoning any belief that phones are computers. They are vendor content delivery devices and you are at their mercy.
sspiff 3y ago
This would never land in a factory image or upstream Android, but it has a reasonable chance to become part of projects like LineageOS, given enough user demand for it.
- kevin_thibedeau 3y ago
  LineageOS already had this feature in Cyanogen as the Privacy Guard. It was taken out because of pressure from Google.
  - scrps 3y ago
    You have a source on that? I used to be a lineageOS user and I always wondered why privacy guard disappeared.
    - jeroenhd 3y ago
      I found this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28096873 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28096873 Looks like Privacy Guard was dropped because the rewrite wasn't worth the effort.
      - scrps 3y ago
        Thanks for that. Indeed, doesn't sound worth the effort to pursue it if google was mostly going in the same direction anyway.
      - luca020400 3y ago
        Thanks for digging it up. Sometimes I can't comprehend how people come up with that stuff when it was already publicly explained how/why it happened :/
  - jeroenhd 3y ago
    Do you have any reference for that pressure from Google? I thought it was because during one of the major version merges the underlying code changed so much that the entire feature would've needed reimplementing from scratch, like many other Cyanogenmod era features. Edit: source here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28096873 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28096873 Privacy Guard also wasn't as complete as XPrivacy (and its evolutions) were. It's a shame that the feature disappeared, but I don't think it mattered much to begin with.
charcircuit 3y ago
>region-locked apps There is no such thing. The respective app stores allow you to distribute apps in select regions. This is an important feature for app stores because an app may not be a good experience in all countries. The app may not be localized to all languages, there may not be content moderators for those languages, those countries have a multitude of laws that you need to comply with, your app may include copyrighted content which is only licensed to be distributed it certain countries, etc.. >preventing screenshots from DRM content This is a feature requested app developers due to the legal requirements when licensing content such as movies. Movie studios don't want people streaming or recording their movies so app platforms need a way to surely show this content.
- aftbit 3y ago
  >This is a feature requested app developers due to the legal requirements when licensing content such as movies. Movie studios don't want people streaming or recording their movies so app platforms need a way to surely show this content. Of course, but if our industry had any chutzpah, we would have simply said "no, that's impossible" and continued to distribute operating systems where the user has ultimate control over the hardware and recordings. If movie studios want people to watch their content, they'll have to accept the risk of piracy. It's not like clipping and recording from your phone is how the pirate rips appear anyway. Even imagining that a movie was released only for one model of super-secure phone, someone somewhere will either break the security or simply stick their phone in a dark box and record it with a camera. Once they've done so, they can share the un-DRMed version online on pirate sites and everyone else can download it. As long as the analog hole exists, DRM is anti-consumer without reducing the likelihood that copyrighted content will be reshared freely online.
  - spockz 3y ago
    Don’t share this too hard. I’m afraid for a future where we are only able to watch content that is being streamed to our ocular implant directly. This has the nice benefit that it allows for hyper personalisation and always visible hyper relevant ads!
  - charcircuit 3y ago
LovinFossilFuel 3y ago
[dead]
fmx 3y ago
XPrivacy was great, but apps would regularly crash when I denied some permissions - so apparently it was not faking data well enough. It got so bad that I would never just click "deny", but always "temporarily deny" first. Then, if the app worked, I would deny permanently. If it crashed I'd have to figure out the minimum set of permissions I could get away with granting.

Nereuxofficial 3y ago

XPrivacy was incredibly cool. But on modern phones rooting and installing Xposed has either gotten massively more complicated or disabled ougright. GrapheneOS wasn't working with banking apps, Google broke rooting via Magisk multiple times on the Android Beta and at some point and i stopped bothering. Maybe GrapheneOS or similar Projects could do this

flutas 3y ago
FWIW: Rooting seems fairly easy at this point in time, at least for pixel devices. Flash with magisk, install Universal Safetynet Fix (https://github.com/Displax/safetynet-fix/ https://github.com/Displax/safetynet-fix/) and you're passing safetynet / play integrity API. I haven't come across a single app that doesn't work due to root currently, but I limit my installed apps.
- kevincox 3y ago
  You pass basic safety net. You do this by claiming that your device is an older device that doesn't support hardware attestation. I can only assume that in some small number of years hardware attestation is going to be required and will require software exploits to work around.
- e4e5 3y ago
  Thank you, I rooted my phone a few days ago and have been putting off fixing safety net. But that worked and was absolutely painless.
- rocho 3y ago
  Last time I tried this I wasted many hours but couldn't make Google Wallet work. SafetyNet was passing but Wallet was still disallowing any card operations.
  - jcul 3y ago
    I think you need to hide root for Google wallet and some other Google services app(s). And wipe their storage / cache too so they start from a clean slate.
- Groxx 3y ago
  Last time I tried to use magisk on my pixel it was a complete fustercluck (about a year ago). I ended up having to patch together multiple fixes in multiple forum threads, and manually pick apart and patch the firmware package, because nothing worked at all for months on end, on a completely stock device. I have kinda lost faith in it. And it doesn't help that it tries to do everything internally, so you can't e.g. download your pre-patch blobs or upload them after it loses track of them, because it does everything exclusively in complicatedly-magically-named internal folders. There is some seriously bonkers decision-making going on in it.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
jcul 3y ago
FWIW,I just installed GrapheneOS this week and banking apps have been working fine (though no Google pay). Also, as a sibling comment mentioned, I have used magisk + safety net fix in the past, and had no issues with banking apps or Google pay.
jet_32951 3y ago
GrapheneOS has implemented storage and contact scopes. Users can set a program's permitted storage environment. Similarly, contact scopes allows users to limit access to contacts that are tagged with a keyword. On my phone the 'special' contact group includes Djimn Hovnbg, with a number in Egypt, Blin Futtum'ch with a UK number, and so on.

anotherhue 3y ago

I used it in this way, and experiencing first hand how much the deck was stacked against me as a user let to me abandoning any belief that phones are computers. They are vendor content delivery devices and you are at their mercy.

sspiff 3y ago

This would never land in a factory image or upstream Android, but it has a reasonable chance to become part of projects like LineageOS, given enough user demand for it.

kevin_thibedeau 3y ago
LineageOS already had this feature in Cyanogen as the Privacy Guard. It was taken out because of pressure from Google.
- scrps 3y ago
  You have a source on that? I used to be a lineageOS user and I always wondered why privacy guard disappeared.
  - jeroenhd 3y ago
    I found this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28096873 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28096873 Looks like Privacy Guard was dropped because the rewrite wasn't worth the effort.
    - scrps 3y ago
      Thanks for that. Indeed, doesn't sound worth the effort to pursue it if google was mostly going in the same direction anyway.
    - luca020400 3y ago
      Thanks for digging it up. Sometimes I can't comprehend how people come up with that stuff when it was already publicly explained how/why it happened :/
- jeroenhd 3y ago
  Do you have any reference for that pressure from Google? I thought it was because during one of the major version merges the underlying code changed so much that the entire feature would've needed reimplementing from scratch, like many other Cyanogenmod era features. Edit: source here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28096873 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28096873 Privacy Guard also wasn't as complete as XPrivacy (and its evolutions) were. It's a shame that the feature disappeared, but I don't think it mattered much to begin with.

charcircuit 3y ago

>region-locked apps There is no such thing. The respective app stores allow you to distribute apps in select regions. This is an important feature for app stores because an app may not be a good experience in all countries. The app may not be localized to all languages, there may not be content moderators for those languages, those countries have a multitude of laws that you need to comply with, your app may include copyrighted content which is only licensed to be distributed it certain countries, etc.. >preventing screenshots from DRM content This is a feature requested app developers due to the legal requirements when licensing content such as movies. Movie studios don't want people streaming or recording their movies so app platforms need a way to surely show this content.

aftbit 3y ago
>This is a feature requested app developers due to the legal requirements when licensing content such as movies. Movie studios don't want people streaming or recording their movies so app platforms need a way to surely show this content. Of course, but if our industry had any chutzpah, we would have simply said "no, that's impossible" and continued to distribute operating systems where the user has ultimate control over the hardware and recordings. If movie studios want people to watch their content, they'll have to accept the risk of piracy. It's not like clipping and recording from your phone is how the pirate rips appear anyway. Even imagining that a movie was released only for one model of super-secure phone, someone somewhere will either break the security or simply stick their phone in a dark box and record it with a camera. Once they've done so, they can share the un-DRMed version online on pirate sites and everyone else can download it. As long as the analog hole exists, DRM is anti-consumer without reducing the likelihood that copyrighted content will be reshared freely online.
- spockz 3y ago
  Don’t share this too hard. I’m afraid for a future where we are only able to watch content that is being streamed to our ocular implant directly. This has the nice benefit that it allows for hyper personalisation and always visible hyper relevant ads!
- charcircuit 3y ago

LovinFossilFuel 3y ago

[dead]

fmx 3y ago

XPrivacy was great, but apps would regularly crash when I denied some permissions - so apparently it was not faking data well enough. It got so bad that I would never just click "deny", but always "temporarily deny" first. Then, if the app worked, I would deny permanently. If it crashed I'd have to figure out the minimum set of permissions I could get away with granting.