These are just a couple apps that I’ve found in the last year that I didn’t know about and wanted to share with the community. Be advised- Lumen asks you to install a root TLS Cert and says that it uses this to monitor the types of connections other apps are making. I’m not really qualified to say if that’s truly the case or not(but I installed it because I wanted to know if my other apps were making encrypted connections or not), I know that is probably a deal breaker for some which is why I’m telling you upfront. Also, only exodus privacy is open source and available through f droid. You can download Lumen directly from their site or the playstore. I hope this helps anyone who is curious about what sdks, advertising, analytics, and crash reporting is onboard the apps that you download and also what connections those apps are making in the background. I had a third one called addon detector I wanted to link to, but it only lets me post 2 links. You can search for it in the playstore.
You’re welcome. Paranoid for Android(if that’s the one you mean) just explains what permissions an app is requesting, you can see this natively by going to Settings>Apps&Notifications>App info>App name>Permissions>All Permissions(from the three dots in the upper right corner) but that could still be helpful for people who don’t understand the android permission system that well. Exodus privacy has scanned the APKs to detect any 3rd party code that is bundled with the app (such as Google Analytics, Firebase, Double Click, AppsFlyer, Facebook Ads, Flurry, etc). Lumen monitors all the connections made from each app and shows you if the apps are leaking any personal data such as Google Ad ID, IMEI, phone number, device model, etc. And it will also tell you if the apps are connecting over HTTPS/TLS or QUIC and where they are making connections to by giving you the IP address or site name and then giving you the option to block future connections.
Here is another one that is only a website but it does basically the same as exodus and then some. Just search an app by name and it will give you a report.
Nice idea for a thread.
I am guessing that the app census site is powered by the Lumen app as they are listed as a partner. @Jedimindtrickonyou As you couldn’t post your 3rd link, I’ll have it as my first.
Addonsdetector will show all the SDKs and addons used by your apps including system apps. https://public.addonsdetector.com
Appbrain Ad Detector will also show you all the SDKs and addons in all your apps including system apps.
The results of scans are combined with data from the google playstore for a nice overview of everything on the web site.
Both can be useful for tracking down push-ads from apps that are not open.
It would make sense if they are connected. Thanks for sharing Appbrain, I was unaware of that one. I want all the tools I can get to help give me visibility into what’s happening behind the scenes on my device. I used to not care at all about any of this stuff, but once I started to, now it’s definitely an important part of my digital life.
If you want to have a closer look at apps before installing, you may want to use the appbrain front end for the play store when searching for apps.
If you use their app instead of the google app, it will popup a colour coded warning when you access the playstore links. You can open the warning to see more detailed info.
If you side-load apps you may want to appraise them before you install.
APK Installer is a handy alternative for the built-in app manager.