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Ask Soylent: Where to Get Spyware-Free Apps

posted by takyon on Saturday June 06 2015, @04:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the verified-links dept.

penguinoid writes:

These days there are so many apps infested with spyware or adware, and it almost seems as if the stores themselves are promoting them in exchange for a cut. And some apps that start off clean get "updated" to include ads and spying. How do you find free apps that aren't infested?

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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by DarkMorph on Saturday June 06 2015, @04:13PM

    by DarkMorph (674) on Saturday June 06 2015, @04:13PM (#192929)
    And in the case of mobile, https://f-droid.org/ [f-droid.org] is worth a look. It's essentially an index of open-source Android applications with links to home pages and source code for all entries, as well as warnings for undesirable features any of these applications may have.

    On the off-chance you may be wondering why ChatSecure disappeared from F-Droid, you need to add the Guardian Project's repo to your F-Droid. It's listed there. See: https://guardianproject.info/fdroid/ [guardianproject.info]
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  • (Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Saturday June 06 2015, @04:19PM

    by Nerdfest (80) on Saturday June 06 2015, @04:19PM (#192932)

    I seem to remember some apps in F-Droid with ads, but I believe you are warned. I may also be remembering incorrectly and am too lazy to check.

    • (Score: 2) by Marand on Saturday June 06 2015, @11:23PM

      by Marand (1081) on Saturday June 06 2015, @11:23PM (#193037) Journal

      Usually (at least, I've never seen an exception so far) the f-droid versions of apps strip out the Google ads functionality because it's non-free, and the descriptions include warning in red text about things like "endorses non-free services" etc. If you browse the apps from the website you can go to a wiki entry for each app that usually gives some extra information, too.

      Theoretically you could still be getting spyware I suppose, because there's nothing preventing the source from being malicious and just unread (or thoroughly obfuscated), but it's a safer bet than picking a random app off the play store.

      The negative (because there's always one) is that the f-droid app can't do bulk updates, so for each app that has an update you have to tap it, tap the version you want, wait for download, then accept the new install. This isn't a UI failure on F-droid's part, though, it's a restriction Google imposes on everyone but themselves.

      • (Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Sunday June 07 2015, @02:59PM

        by Nerdfest (80) on Sunday June 07 2015, @02:59PM (#193266)

        nothing to do with Google, I was thinking of things like AdBlock that inject their own ads.

        • (Score: 2) by Marand on Sunday June 07 2015, @10:19PM

          by Marand (1081) on Sunday June 07 2015, @10:19PM (#193406) Journal

          Oh, no clue. Nothing I've installed had done anything like that. It seems to be rare, at least compared to stuff on the Play store, but that doesn't mean nobody does it.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 07 2015, @06:38PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 07 2015, @06:38PM (#193318)

      Because the apps in F-Droid are open source they strip out the advertising library and replace it with one that doesn't do anything. It does mention this in the package info, so maybe that is what you were thinking of. Perhaps they didn't used to do this, but have since I started using it, which I think is more than 2 years, perhaps 3.

  • (Score: 1) by penguinoid on Sunday June 07 2015, @12:17AM

    by penguinoid (5331) on Sunday June 07 2015, @12:17AM (#193047)

    Thanks! F-droid sounds exactly like what I was looking for.

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