Mon 10 February 2025

This morning, I enjoyed a blog post by James Ashford about whether or not it's good to use a bible app.

I commented on a tangential issue: the fact that bible apps have so many trackers!

I mentioned that I do use YouVersion, even though it has many trackers (including Facebook Analytics), but with several mitigations in place.

Disclaimer: I am not an application developer, and my knowledge of the inner workings of mobile OSes is very limited. The explanations and advice here may be wholly inaccurate.

So, I'd like to take a moment to explain how I mitigate horrible apps (and yes, I am calling The Bible App horrible, because it includes Facebook Analytics. It is wonderful in many ways, but the inclusion of Meta trackers is inexcusable — "Do not let your good be evil spoken of"):

The Operating System

The main choices in the mobile space are iOS and Android, with Android having hundreds of options beneath it. While Apple has waged a "privacywashing" campaign for the past several years via advertisements, they are not a company to be trusted, and they provide very little in the way of useful compensating controls for badly-behaving apps, except for a rather weak "please don't track me" system. If I decided to use an iPhone, I would not be using many apps at all.

Of course, Android is far worse in most cases, as is Google/Alphabet a far worse company, ethically, than Apple. I wouldn't run a manufacturer's build of Android (including "stock" Android from Google). Fortunately, Android is still mostly kinda/sorta an Open Source project, and while the AOSP (Android Open Source Project) has been languishing long under Google's neglect, it's still being held together with the efforts of dedicated Open Source developers. There are several good FOSS Android builds to choose from (particularly on Pixel phones), but the ones that get the most attention are CalyxOS and GrapheneOS. I have used both, but currently prefer CalyxOS.

The rest of the mitigations I describe will assume you're running a security/privacy-emphasized OS like Calyx or Graphene, but some will be available on stock Android, and possibly iOS (I haven't daily-driven an iPhone since 2020, so I don't know what the latest options are — a fact I want to be up-front with, unlike some tech writers).

Work Profile(s)

On many Android OSes, you can place an app in a work profile (some might even have multiple work profiles) in order to isolate it from the rest of the system. This doesn't necessarily do much to restrict its activity, but can help to prevent it accessing sensitive data on your system, as it will have a limited view of the filesystem. Also, the Work Profile can be shut off, terminating the applications running within it.

Battery Optimizations

Many mobile operating systems (almost all Android builds, I don't know about iOS) let you restrict an app's background execution as a battery optimization. This means, for example, that your video would play as long as the app is in the foreground, but then will get terminated a few seconds after it goes into the background. This can help prevent an app from snooping around and tracking you, as it does not have the ability to run in the background (much). I don't think this helps while your phone is charging, though.

Firewall

Both CalyxOS and GrapheneOS (and several other FOSS Android flavors) allow you to firewall off an app from the internet. On both of the above, you can specify that an app cannot contact the internet while in the background (but foreground internet access is permitted). This can also help curb an app's snooping.

App Tracking Protection

Both the DuckDuckGo browser and TrackerControl (as well as some other apps) provide control over trackers by using Android's VPN feature. It doesn't provide an actual VPN, but uses that feature to siphon all traffic through the app in order to monitor and block trackers. TrackerControl can also be useful as a kind of basic firewall to deny internet access to apps that you don't want it, such as on a Kindle tablet, or any non-privacy-enhanced Android OS.

I use the DDG app on the Work Profile of my phone to limit the snooping activities of programs like YouVersion and MarcoPolo (a video chat app).

I can't guarantee that all or even any of these mitigations will actually keep you safe/private, but that's what I do for some peace of mind.

Addendum

A Fedifriend, TheDoctor just informed me that Android 15 has a new feature called "Private Space" that provides additional protections beyond the normal Work Profile.

100 Days to Offload 2025 - Day 10

Category: Tech Tagged: 100DaysToOffload Bible Computing Ethics FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) Productivity