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XPrivacy has not been updated in years, and the Git repo is archived by the owner. I wish there were a fork of this that was actively maintained. It used to be a must have because it would allow apps that had to slurp up info all the info they could ever want... fresh from /dev/urandom or /dev/zero.

Agreed, but my experience thus far has been that Xprivacy is "good enough"; vi isn't exactly receiving weekly updates, either.

As far an an actively maintained option, Protect My Privacy is a good option, but I'm not really a fan because of its "hieroglyphics interface" - unlabeled icons and unclear statuses, rather than the words "allow" and "deny", etc. I thought apps were denied access to things, but then weren't because I set them wrong and wasn't clear on it. Xprivacy might be unmaintained, but the UI is far more functional.

It seems like XPrivacy (http://repo.xposed.info/module/biz.bokhorst.xprivacy) would stop this crap.

For your phone:
1) Use an android phone. If you have an iPhone, forget it. There is no way to help you* on the iphone, except installing no apps at all.
2) Root your phone. I hope you thought about buying a rootable phone in step 1).
3) Install XPosed http://repo.xposed.info/
4) Install XPrivacy https://github.com/M66B/XPriva...
5) Consider donating for XPrivacy to get a Pro-Key and to help them develop this awesome project.
6) Think about installing AFWall+ as well, to cut internet access for some apps. XPrivacy can do this, but using AFWall is an easy way.

* Maybe with a jailbreak, i do not know the ecosystem of free apps for jailbroken iPhones. On the other hand, who wants to fight with apple all the time, who tries to lock you out again with each update? Just upgrade to an Android Phone. Nexus phones are a good choice.

You may want some, or all, of these:

• -Xprivacy, a module in the Xposed framework, can be used to deny location access to any application, including Facebook. Your phone must be rooted to install Xposed modules.
• -Cyanogenmod PrivacyGuard has a similar feature. You must erase your OEM operating system to install Cyanogenmod.
• -3rd-party Facebook clients:
• • -Face Slim is very current, with patches in the last few days to deal with Facebook's messenger "night of the long knives."
  • -Tinfoil is the best-known skeleton client, but has been recently silent on the messenger issue. The app currently crashes if you try to use messenger functions.
  • -Several closed-source Facebook clients can be found in the Play store, who MIGHT respect your privacy.

If you're on Android, you can use Greenify to prevent apps like Facebook from daemonizing. That way, you can access it when you want it, but prevent it from draining your battery and siphoning your data when you're not using it. As for preventing unwanted data sharing, XPrivacy is quite good; it let's you feed certain apps fake GPS data, blank camera data, silent microphone data, etc. to prevent them from accessing unwanted data without the app itself knowing. Note that both Greenify and XPrivacy require root though.

As an alternative to khellendros1984's answer, if you're rooted, xhangouts has this option:

http://repo.xposed.info/module...

Change the enter key on your keyboard to add a new line or send your message (as opposed to opening the emoji keyboard).

Some of those apps are probably really profitable. If you're somebody who likes to listen to lectures and you're not one of the 0.00001% of nerds who use xposed, to turn your screen off while YouTube plays costs $120/yr for a subscription (the feature is non-technically tied to Google Play Music).

There might some apps that have in-app purchase fees higher than $10/mo to keep going, but I haven't run across them. I realize you can't give everything away forever, but Google's got a lock on that market and boy do they monetize it.

Wow. So confident and yet so wrong.

You need to do some googling my friend.

Some of those apps are probably really profitable. If you're somebody who likes to listen to lectures and you're not one of the 0.00001% of nerds who use xposed, to turn your screen off while YouTube plays costs $120/yr for a subscription (the feature is non-technically tied to Google Play Music).

There might some apps that have in-app purchase fees higher than $10/mo to keep going, but I haven't run across them. I realize you can't give everything away forever, but Google's got a lock on that market and boy do they monetize it.

There is a third category in the form of an Xposed module that eradicates Youtube ads on Android.

About 1/4 of my apps (the ones I can't uninstall) require me to grant them the right to record voice without notifying me. It's really shitty. On the iPhone I'm in control of privacy, on Android, google is.

XPrivacy

See also: AppOpsXposed

HTH, HAND

But you need to "Root" your phone.

See: http://repo.xposed.info/ for info on installing the Xposed framework which basically places a hook into the main event loop of Android where Xposed modules like XPrivacy can watch, block or "lie" to most of the rest of the Apps running within Android.

XPrivacy is available here:

http://repo.xposed.info/module...

And BTW, iPhone Apps are not any better about this stuff like phoning home and spying on you unless they are rooted and modified. It is just that the greater openness of Android platform ersus iOS makes it easier to spot. But that also means that there are more and better countermeasures.

If you want to be shocked take your phone place it in WiFi only mode and then use network packet sniffer on all the data flying by like tcpdump or wireshark while using apps on it. You will then realize that you the purchaser of the device does not "truly own" that device as it is delivered.

You can also replace the stock Android OS with Cyanogenmod:

http://www.cyanogenmod.org/

to gain better control of your device.

But you need to "Root" your phone.

See: http://repo.xposed.info/ for info on installing the Xposed framework which basically places a hook into the main event loop of Android where Xposed modules like XPrivacy can watch, block or "lie" to most of the rest of the Apps running within Android.

XPrivacy is available here:

http://repo.xposed.info/module...

And BTW, iPhone Apps are not any better about this stuff like phoning home and spying on you unless they are rooted and modified. It is just that the greater openness of Android platform ersus iOS makes it easier to spot. But that also means that there are more and better countermeasures.

If you want to be shocked take your phone place it in WiFi only mode and then use network packet sniffer on all the data flying by like tcpdump or wireshark while using apps on it. You will then realize that you the purchaser of the device does not "truly own" that device as it is delivered.

You can also replace the stock Android OS with Cyanogenmod:

http://www.cyanogenmod.org/

to gain better control of your device.

You can thwart this if your phone is rooted. At first I used an app which blocked apps from accessing certain features and data I didn't want them to see, like my location. But then they started to make apps crash when they were blocked this way.

I'm currently using xprivacy. It generates fake data for things like location, networks, and sensors. If the app insists on getting my location and I don't give it that permission, it still gets a location. But that location is a random place in the world. Same for networks and sensor data - it'll get fake SSIDs if I don't give it network access, fake gyroscope readings if I don't give it permission to access the gyros.

Be forewarned, xprivacy is a PITA to install (uses the xposed framework) and set up (newer versions query you when an app makes a request, so you don't have to set everything blind). But after a few weeks of pain getting everything in place, it's been smooth sailing.

I currently run Xubuntu on my 10" laptop. But I use Intel for two reasons. One is that operating systems that ship on popular ARM devices tend to have window management policies that are all maximized all the time. The Android CDD explicitly has no provision for resizable windows

The great thing about Android is not Android itself - but the hacker community around it. The Xposed framework has utter disregard for the Android CDD - and supports 2 applications side by side. You might have to make sure it works for the specific device. Or rather, you might have to find a way to make it work for the specific device.

The other is that three applications that I use regularly are not ported to GNU/Linux (FamiTracker, Modplug Tracker, and FCEUX debugger version), and I run them through Wine. Or have I just painted myself into a "too niche for hardware makers to bother" corner?

This is a bigger problem. Using software in wine is not really looking beyond Microsoft.

How would one go about returning something that one finds unsuitable?

One wouldn't. Research, buy, take responsibility. The idiot mentality US has encouraged where sue-happy buyer has zero responsibility for even understanding the idea of the device he is buying is the reason for companies to not offer interesting things in the US - epecially in electronics.

Actually, somebody posted it below: http://repo.xposed.info/module...

Then load the XPrivacy module. The thread is here: http://forum.xda-developers.co...

Install XposedFramework:
http://repo.xposed.info/module... ...then the Xprivacy module.

This isn't a great option for many, however, as you need root access. It does give you extremely fine-grained control over permissions, and includes options like randomizing (on each boot) the garbage data returned to apps to keep them happy.

Xposed is great; the GravityBox module, for example, has a ton of interesting and useful functions, like setting your cellular radio to 2G when connected to wifi, a mode to have an increasing ring, a network speed indicator, etc.

While I'm plugging Android software I use: the F-Droid open source repository is full of nice stuff (like AdAway.)

https://f-droid.org/

I've been doing this on my Galaxy S3 for over 9 months now using an NFC tag glued to my watch band. All you need is a rooted phone running Android 4.0.3 and above and a willingness to install an XPosed plugin or two. This link has all the details:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/xposed/modules/mod-nfc-unlocking-based-t2478163

TL;DR Steps:

• ROOT YOUR PHONE (You'll have to Google this one yourself)
• Install XPosed Framework
• Install NFC Lock Screen Off Enabler module (you can find it in the Modules section of the XPosed Installer app)
• Turn on NFC in lockscreen or screen off modes as desired
• Register your NFC Tags to unlock your phone

Much easier (and safer, IMO) than installing a modified system apk, and this method can also survive system upgrades provided that you maintain root. It will launch whatever action is set for that NFC tag (link, text, app, whatever), but you can use another XPosed module to supress the "Empty Tag" message on empty tags, if you so desire.

The Adafruit link from TFA has some interesting ideas on how to squeeze your NFC tag into some interesting places, and you can also buy some pretty small NFC tags on your own. I bought 20 Midas nTag NFC tags on Amazon for $13 with Prime shipping, and they measure 19mm x 12mm. You can shave another 2mm off of either dimension if you're very careful with the trimming. That was more than small enough to fit on the clasp of my watch, or on the back of a plastic watch band.

I've been doing this on my Galaxy S3 for over 9 months now using an NFC tag glued to my watch band. All you need is a rooted phone running Android 4.0.3 and above and a willingness to install an XPosed plugin or two. This link has all the details:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/xposed/modules/mod-nfc-unlocking-based-t2478163

TL;DR Steps:

• ROOT YOUR PHONE (You'll have to Google this one yourself)
• Install XPosed Framework
• Install NFC Lock Screen Off Enabler module (you can find it in the Modules section of the XPosed Installer app)
• Turn on NFC in lockscreen or screen off modes as desired
• Register your NFC Tags to unlock your phone

Much easier (and safer, IMO) than installing a modified system apk, and this method can also survive system upgrades provided that you maintain root. It will launch whatever action is set for that NFC tag (link, text, app, whatever), but you can use another XPosed module to supress the "Empty Tag" message on empty tags, if you so desire.

The Adafruit link from TFA has some interesting ideas on how to squeeze your NFC tag into some interesting places, and you can also buy some pretty small NFC tags on your own. I bought 20 Midas nTag NFC tags on Amazon for $13 with Prime shipping, and they measure 19mm x 12mm. You can shave another 2mm off of either dimension if you're very careful with the trimming. That was more than small enough to fit on the clasp of my watch, or on the back of a plastic watch band.