I am a Tasker enthusiast and when I can automate something simple on my phone I like to. I set a simple task to turn off WiFi when my home network is not detected so my phone doesn’t scan and report my location to businesses. However, this functionality is now nonexistent and the developer has to ask people not to one-star their app because it doesn’t work. My phone is my phone and killing my ability to use it as such for whatever security theater Google is playing at is why I root my device. Anyone else still rooting for similar reasons?

  • 𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒏@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    112·
    3 months ago

    I’m rooted to…

    • backup & restore my apps as I please (as well as scheduled backups to my SD card)
    • BMS control to keep my battery in good health
    • Automation app for automating stuff (like Tasker)
    • revoking typically unrevokable permissions from system and Google apps
    • To actually feel like I own my device.

    If I wanted a heavily curated (and somewhat locked down) experience, I’d be in the Apple ecosystem - don’t know why Google thinks it’s a great idea to force this ideology onto practically all Android users…

    Similar situation with that additional warning for sideloading apps - there’s already two warnings and Play Protect typically uninstalls these apps anyway, without the user’s consent - in one case deleting KDE Connect from users’ devices if installed with F-Droid

    Uhh I definitely went off on a tangent, oops.

    • Peffse@lemmy.world
      40·
      3 months ago

      I went into a near seething rage when I found out Android 12 let OEMs decide bloatware was completely immune to ADB disable commands. root’s the only method to get to the non-disable xml files and remove that “functionality”.

      • goferking0@lemmy.sdf.org
        28·
        3 months ago

        Then 12 or 13 also made it so there’s no way to access android/data.

        Ffs I want to be able to backup app data that doesn’t get backed up any other way

    • iturnedintoanewt@lemm.ee
      20·
      3 months ago

      Never… Pine kinda throws you the thing completely half assed for the people to build the whole stack. It’s a really slow process.

  • Valon_Blue@sh.itjust.works
    39·
    3 months ago

    And now, even when your WiFi is off they still turn it on to “help with location tracking.” And they’re talking about taking away the ability to turn Bluetooth off.

          • COASTER1921@lemmy.ml
            4·
            3 months ago

            It’s still a cat and mouse game between Google and playintegrityfix/next. If you need to rely on your phone at any time rooting isn’t really an option anymore. I don’t see Google changing to be less hostile toward device automation unfortunately.

            We really need a 3rd competitor or better workaround. It would be cool if you could have a virtual Android device inside a rooted device to run apps requiring safetynet. But that’s way way way easier said than done.

      • jabjoe@feddit.ukEnglish
        4·
        3 months ago

        Didn’t when I tried when on LineageOS. I needed that bank app for work, so got a Pixel and switched to GrapheneOS. The bank app works, and it is useful to be able to on and off Google Maps (because of traffic routing and search, when compared to Organic Maps). But LineageOS worked better. GrapheneOS has more bugs and a small community.

    • COASTER1921@lemmy.ml
      3·
      3 months ago

      It’s not even just banking apps anymore. Tons of libraries just check by default before allowing apps using them to run. I can’t use my local transit agency’s app with root, not can I order a fast food burger.

      • scarilog@lemmy.world
        2·
        3 months ago

        Yeah Micky D’s blocking root was enough reason for me to avoid installing it on my non-rooted phone for ages, because of the implication.

        Did eventually cave though, saves me a few bucks once in a blue moon when I do go.

    • toastal@lemmy.ml
      3·
      3 months ago

      Meanwhile my latest phone I haven’t yet rooted but am running a custom ROM & the banking app crashes

  • Ok_imagination@lemmy.world
    34·
    3 months ago

    I’ve considered it for similar reasons to your own. I like using Tasker for Bluetooth and it seems most of that compatibility is removed now as well.

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
    292·
    3 months ago

    Your phone isn’t your phone as long as you run either google or apple software…

    • Dasus@lemmy.world
      19·
      3 months ago

      Joke’s on them my phone’s a Huawei and reports directly to the CCCP.

      Oh, wait…

      • InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world
        7·
        3 months ago

        Sometimes I do wonder as a morbid curiosity if using their software could have a privacy benefit. Not to imply that they wouldn’t spy, just that they have less ability to act on the information. Like the report of a mother discussing an abortion with her teen daughter on messenger were Meta turned over the chats.

        Also as a snide comment the CCCP is the Soviet Union, which is defunct now. One less C and you might improve your standing and get a television.

        • Dasus@lemmy.world
          6·
          3 months ago

          Also as a snide comment the CCCP is the Soviet Union, which is defunct now. One less C and you might improve your standing and get a television.

          Not even snide I hate making mistakes like this, thanks man.

          Idk about privacy, I doubt it, but at least the weather system sucks. Fetches info from some system which clearly isn’t the same data as my local, more accurate forecasts.

  • booly@sh.itjust.works
    21·
    3 months ago

    I set a simple task to turn off WiFi when my home network is not detected so my phone doesn’t scan and report my location to businesses.

    I was under the impression that BSSID scanning was entirely passive, and that a phone that scans for beacons doesn’t actually reveal itself to anyone.

      • booly@sh.itjust.works
        12·
        3 months ago

        I get how it works with wifi connections, and Bluetooth scanning (since that’s a peer to peer protocol that needs to broadcast its availability), and obviously the OS-level location services, but I’m still not seeing how seeing wifi beacons would reveal anything. For one, pretty much every mobile device OS now uses MAC randomization so that your wifi activity on one network can’t be correlated with another. And for another, I think the BSSID scanning protocol is listen only for client devices.

        Happy to be proven wrong, and to learn more, but the article linked doesn’t seem to explain anything on this particular supposed threat.

  • plz1@lemmy.worldEnglish
    142·
    3 months ago

    How does it detect your home wifi if it has turned off wifi? I don’t know Android, but the logic there seems odd. Are you using location services to drive it?

    • Shepy@feddit.ukEnglish
      212·
      3 months ago

      You’ve misread that. When he leaves his home network, he has it switch off wifi to prevent it being picked up by other networks. Probably has it being switched back on by cell tower / similar location option

      • plz1@lemmy.worldEnglish
        83·
        3 months ago

        I don’t think I did. I just assumed it would be impossible to detect the home network automatically once WiFi was automatically switched off. Unless off isn’t actually off. Or the “auto on” part was location based.

        • Tja@programming.dev
          51·
          3 months ago

          You are right, that is impossible, but it isn’t what they are doing.

          They are turning it back on either manually or by some other method (cell tower for instance). This automation seems to be to just turn it off.

      • dumbass@leminal.spaceEnglish
        56·
        3 months ago

        Just have your WiFi turn back on when you get back to your home, you can do location based stuff with tasker, I used to have it on my old phone and made it turn my phone on silent and turn off the WiFi when I got to work, but as soon as I got home it put my phne back to normal.