Smart Phone security firewalls and premission details
August 9th, 2016
I got my 1st smart phone recently. A Sony with Android OS and Google Play.
The problem is this: many of the free games ask for permission to have access too and modify Photos/Media/Files on my phone. So far i have not allowed any games to be installed that ask for this, or contacts lists or anything i wouldn’t share with the public. I have installed Comodo mobile but is very hard to use. Is there anything free that get that would basically put a firewall up and prevent un wanted eyes from viewing my phone info?
So i can play these cool games and not have to worry about what i am sharing with the game developers or whoever ?
Thank You
You should use something that limit permission but for this you need root. Android has a somewhat similar sandbox to Apple. Application can’t interfere at a low level with the system so you need root permission to do this. Check pdroid. If you are willing to gain root access, I will post a detailed list of privacy enhancement and you can post a separate topic or PM me and I will help you through the process.
Thanks for the quick response.
I spent the last 2 hours studying this problem, and it really irks me that something so insidious exists and is allowed. Scary and intrusive stuff. I hadn’t but should have made security priority no.1 . I figured Comodo protects my windows PC, so it will do the same with android…wrong i had no idea what all these apps and games permissions meant.
As for rooting the phone, thanks for the offer but its not the answer i needed at this time. I did find this very helpfull page http://www.fixedbyvonnie.com/2014/06/afraid-changes-google-made-play-store/
Since than been busy un-checking all the auto updates on every app/game.
I guess the next question is…can i find free of intrusive permissions apps and games outside of google play and install them myself?
Update…
The more i explored the system, pre-installed apps the more i noticed a pattern. That being endless crap that is next to impossible to alter without rooting the device.
I think i have found the solution…a firewall app.
Update 2 : I believe i have secured my android cell, i am going to un install Comodo and try another anti virus.
next question is… where do i to find hacked android games? I have tried blogs, forums and torrents and cant find any that don’t have non-sense attached to them. ie surveys and other crazy stuff.
There are not releases of permission free apps sadly. You can edit the app yourself decompressing the .apk and editing the Android manifest file. In this way the app won’t be able to access your data(but almost surely will crash too).
If you want serious app that do their job without using you as data, you can check Fdroid. It’s a market of open source apps.
Remember that the firewall in Android can’t go to a low level zone. It can’t stop app to grant permission to grab your data. It can block all the outgoing app’s traffic, but as far as I know it can’t stop specific request. The only way to block selective permissions is through root…
You can use Aptoide for cracked apps. There is the possibility that you can find a rogue app, check the feedback to be sure before downloading it.
This F-Droid site you mentioned is very interesting and i will explore it fully. I noticed a few of the listed items are for rooted phones. https://f-droid.org/
Aptoide i heard before, added it to bookmarks and checked it out yesterday. It does have lots cool stuff but no hacked games. Based on my experience so far i think i ought to forget about finding hacked versions of games and just buy them if liked.
The NoRoot firewall seems to be working decently. Being able to disapprove of out going info is a step in the right direction. The Malwarebytes also working still working on a new anti virus.
Thanks