If you use 20 apps and 19 of them do not show ads and only 1 shows ads. That 1 app itself is enough to give your device information to the ads network. The privacy thing is kind of hoax. However the data like photos etc which some app handles has its own privacy policy. If they keep little thumbs of the pics in their server they must tell the users. Lots of companies do not do that. This is hidden reality. An example https://www.upguard.com/blog/biggest-data-breaches.
Many times server getting hacked is an internal job and the data is sold on dark web etc places. This is old technique to sell user data and make cash. However the subject of this post is about how much privacy is there even if companies have strict policies. As example below tells why device info is shared due to just 1 app. Even if no app shares device info just browsing internet does it. The websites collect data and they do fingerprinting, cookies etc techniques to identify unique systems. The threat of data being shared for misused is not from small apps but big companies which make such apps.
Take example of apps like Truecaller. How did they collect so much information about phone numbers? Did they release the app without any beginning database?
Privacy is hoax and the best way to deal with this rampant user data misuse is providing false information. Sincere users provide their details to social media sites and sites breach the trust and sell the data.
Many users have myth of using VPN apps for privacy. VPN apps are the very first place to loose your private data. A VPN app opens a HTTPS site in proxy and can see what it is then sending it to end user. Where is privacy? Can you really trust VPN for sharing private data like password etc.
TIPs:
- Sometimes people share their login id and password at same place. Like sharing both in a chat. This is highly unsafe. Share ID by mail, share password by message. Split the information. Many think this level of security is too much or time waste until some loss occurs.
- Use personal encryption utilities. Share data in encrypted form and end person gets the data and decrypts it. Do not rely on the encryption of the service provider.
- Many users click banking related images in phone. Phones are highly sensitive than PCs regarding privacy. Having saved bank details in images, text files in storage. Its better to use sandboxed/encrypted folders, personally customized apps if possible etc.
- Keep extra accounts for not so important things like entertainment services etc. Do not use main/primary email, phone for registering to these types of services. use personal/primary accounts for banking only.
From 2012 i started Android development and no single year has passed i felt comfortable with APIs or its user interface. I was making innovative or rare hard to find apps like below.
- NGGallery (quit): which allowed slideshow of gallery images which speak their own information previously recorded by whoever clicked the pic.
- Binaural Sound Recorder (quit): Records stereo or binaural using 2 devices.
- BVH viewer (quit): bvh animated model viewer + BVH modifier (was WIP).
- Freeform Optics (quit): Makes complex lens and test how rays travel.
- Sacred Sound Visualizer (quit): Make cool flower like art from voice. Can also be used for various purposes.
- Image Size Reducer (nearly quit, just keeping updated to new Androids): Select a region of image and just tell the KB size for it and app will take it out for you in fraction of time. Or reduce the size of whole image to desired size without loosing noticeable image quality. Does not work for already low quality images.
- Various apps like Sound Effect makers using wave painting, Voice to instrument sound generation etc. I have built both these apps and are sleeping in my disk not uploaded anywhere. I am now keeping only very simple apps and the ones which are very useful. I don't even care for updating them or investing more time to them. Some of them are SoundFont-MIDI-Player which offers low latency playback and piano for SF2 samples, Image Size Reducer & image converter.
Back to the topic. Android has massive issues for developers and i have removed all tech details posted here previously. I am sharing only the most critical ones which non tech end users can understand.
Reason #1:
PlayStore itself has become the reason to not publish on playstore. If you publish an app and your cannot find that app by searching the exact name of it what do your think it means?
PlayStore just sells the top 3 ranks! Imagine a sports competition where top 3 are paid winners. Below is an example where 50% of screen from top is just ads.
I searched games and the result shows top 3 with Ad text. Most users don't know they are ads. They think they are top ranking apps. Why so shy clearly highlighting the apps as ads? Using a little "Ad" which most cannot see or notice.
Every fall in rank almost reduces the download by ~30-50%. Some of my apps come to top 3 ranks since 2016. Daily downloads were minimum 1500+. Now after 3 ads the actual rank become 5+ and download fell to 300-450. Similar times loss in earnings. Post covid life of many people has changed. Now it has become impossible to have any interest in working anymore. Google will kill many developers and ultimately itself.
Google is obviously feeling the heat of falling economy and earnings but that means you just keep increasing ads? There might be other ways to experiment.
These things will only become worse by time. Whether its YouTube or something else. Everyone will witness the fall of internet world. Crazy, nonsensical things rising and huge compromise in ethics. The compitition where money wins doesn't promote hard work but economic unethical practitioners. But ultimately Its the people themselves who are responsible for this.
Reason #2:
Google terminated my YouTube account for something i was not responsible. Google updated their policy and said an app on playstore which shows a demo video which comes from youtube account MUST not have ads enabled in that video. What i did was i unpublished 10+ of my apps due to lack of maintenance and time etc issues. Google bots are oversmart. They scan even the unpublished apps and found a YouTube video link with monetization enabled. They terminated the YouTube account. I just used that account to make few videos about app demos and it had nothing which violates youtube policies. YouTube deleted the account in spamming violation.
Google Play Store applied policy violation on dead/unpublished apps. This is beyond understandable...
This motivated me so much i deleted 2nd account of YouTube myself. Now i use YouTube without account and its more fun than before.
Technical reasons:
Android development is hell in itself. I will describe it using analogy. Suppose you are learning painting on a painting app. Everytime you learn a feature and UI layout it's removed next year. Most new things become obsolete and suddenly some features return after some time. Your spend 10yrs learning the app and its UI but learned nothing about painting itself.
The file management SAF (document API) in Android is most crappiest thing i have seen in years of development. Just trying to check if some files exists can takes seconds which even 90s era computer will not. In name of security and generics the core has been compromised. If you don't want to allow an app to read other app's data then just use an encryption filter. Every app has its own encryption. Use intents to allow decrypted reading. I am thinking what makes Android more secure than Linux? Even after so much security user data is still being theft. Because the data itself has got no security. Only Android infrastructure has become secure the user data remains in same fate.
Android has definitely become much better and the changes were critical in need and also had great intention. But if it makes experience of both end user and developers bad the result is bad.
I loved Android where i could listen to chiptunes, make awesome experimental apps, do innovation, playing with sensors etc.
Android has become IPhone. A well maintained jail with cool hardware that cannot be used for emulation, experimental apps etc like it was before. I cannot even enjoy using terminal shell.
Time has come for the innovative developers to say Android is dead or its not something to work for. Pure Linux must come to phone and it should not do what Android has done.
PlayStore requires Data safety form submission for all apps and violation of it can cause problem. Below is example of what to fill in the form when you use only Admob. This setting is because i use it in my apps and i only use AdMob SDK for ads.
All Apps -> Select an app -> Policy -> App Content -> Data Safety
Does your app collect or share any of the required user data types?
Yes
Is all of the user data collected by your app encrypted in transit?
Yes
Do you provide a way for users to request that their data is deleted?
Yes
Data Collected settings
- No, this collected data is not processed ephemerally
- Data collection is required (users can't turn off this data collection)
- Collected for Advertising or marketing
Data Sharing settings
Location -> Approximate location
Collected & Shared -> Advertising or marketing
App info and performance -> Crash logs, Diagnostics
Collected & Shared -> Advertising or marketing
App info and performance -> Diagnostics
Collected & Shared -> Advertising or marketing
App activity -> App interactions
Collected & Shared -> Advertising or marketing
Device or other IDs -> Device or other IDs
Shared -> Advertising or marketing
The user data can be deleted or prevented from targeted sharing from Android device system settings.
Got to system settings -> Google (Services & preferences) -> Ads -> Reset ad ID & opt out of Ads personalization.
