this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2023
156 points (95.3% liked)

Privacy

32465 readers
396 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Related communities

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Hello, could someone recommended a keyboard for android that is a bit smart in predictive typing? I used to like swiftkeybefore it was bought by microsoft. Not that swiftkey itself was much better but I was not so privy conscious at that time.

I recall swiftkey would require access to your texts and emails to train itself to your predictions.

Is there some similar foss keyboard where all the data then remains local?

I know swiftkey has an incognito mode, but then it stops learning from your typing.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Not rooted for once in a long time, but I'll think about it. How do you restrict an app's access?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You don't need root for it, it's in the app info page

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I don't see the same thing on android 12.? Only restrict background data.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Same on android 13. There's not even a "Mobile data & Wi-Fi" category, just "Mobile data."

You could use an app like NetGuard to block internet access, but I've not found that to be a very practical solution, especially for VPN users.

Edit: Looks like it's a Samsung thing.

I really wish I didn't have a Samsung. What a horrible way to treat consumers, removing a basic function of the OS.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm on 13 and I have it. Your ROM probably disables it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

What can be done about that, besides rooting my phone?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm on Android 13 and I have it. Your ROM probably has it disabled.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Seems like it's not available in Samsung's OneUI.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Samsung doesn't want you blocking their ~~spyware~~ pointless apps.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Not there on 14 with pixel, but it shows only 1mb used with is likely even I search for gifs

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

It may depends on your rom/os brand. On my device (oxygen os 13.x), I can restrict access somewhere deep into mobile network settings (the translation may not be good as I have it in French) :

Settings > mobile network > data consumption > network access.

And here I see all apps. I can restrict mobile network, WiFi or both.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

If you do not have an LSposed framework or similar (formerly knows as Xposed Framework) you can either use Adaway for blocking the phone from reaching websites (keep in mind that this is globally, though) or e.g. AFWall+ for preventing single Apps to connect to the internet (Apps that don't try to get internet access are not shown is the list provided by AFWall+).

If you have LSposed or similar I believe it is possible to install XprivacyLua. This was/is(?) a very powerful tool to manage every single access an app is trying to get. Why would a sketchy chinese calculator app need access to the contacts and the internet even though this was never allowed in the system settings?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

OP can't use adaway or AFWall+ without root.

I'm in the same boat as OP (I have a device without root for the first time in a long time) and I miss both apps. I do use a pihole+VPN for what adaway does. But there's no real replacement for AFWall/iptables without root. As pointed out, though, you can block individual apps in some modern versions of android. Fortunately, I have that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yes but they asked anyway, so I posted a few options