[dualpassport]

I will no doubt have to swtich to a blackberry Android Phone in the next year or so.

On BB10 my contacts are synched with Link to outlook my PC. The contacts account is not the default one on phone, and I can control which Apps have access to my contacts (very few).

Can I have a similar set up with Android, so that Google does not have access to my contacts database on my phone?

On a similar theme, if I were to download an Andoid App that were to ask for access to contacts - and I then voluntarily switch off that permission after installation - would my contacts have potentially been uploaded to the App developer in the interim?

Posted via CB10

[erose75]

All my contacts are sync'd to my msn account. Some google apps will need to access your contacts such as messenger (texting) and phone apps. Really no way around this. I've just been sticking with major app developers when I download apps. I turn off access where I can but some apps require those permissions to work unfortunately. Seems impossible to lock down your info these days with really only 2 phone OS's to choose from. Not that BlackBerry was any better. There have been stories of them sharing info with the feds.

[dualpassport]

Erose

Thanks - that's disappointing to learn

Posted via CB10

[Thud Hardsmack]

I will no doubt have to swtich to a blackberry Android Phone in the next year or so.

On BB10 my contacts are synched with Link to outlook my PC. The contacts account is not the default one on phone, and I can control which Apps have access to my contacts (very few).

Can I have a similar set up with Android, so that Google does not have access to my contacts database on my phone?

On a similar theme, if I were to download an Andoid App that were to ask for access to contacts - and I then voluntarily switch off that permission after installation - would my contacts have potentially been uploaded to the App developer in the interim?

Posted via CB10

You can set up an Android phone with a generic account with nothing but an email address, which would be necessary to use the Google Play Store. You can then shut off all access to that account in Settings -> Accounts -> Google. Furthermore, if you purchase an Android device manufactured at least from 2016 on, it will have at least Android 6 which has an identical permission system to BB10, and apps that are properly updated will not have access to anything until you grant it the appropriate permission(s). Some devs are lazy though, and haven't updated their apps to use Android 6 properly. Avoid these unless you absolutely need those particular apps.

[Thud Hardsmack]

By way of example: even though I have contacts checked in my Google account, there's actually no contacts I'm allowing to be synced. They're all under the phone account which is separate.

[dualpassport]

Fret

Thanks - so Google only uploads contacts in a Google account?

Other accounts (eg those on an exchange server or my personal webDav) are 'private' and not seen by Google

Posted via CB10

[Thud Hardsmack]

Fret

Thanks - so Google only uploads contacts in a Google account?

Other accounts (eg those on an exchange server or my personal webDav) are 'private' and not seen by Google

Posted via CB10

Correct, they only sync if you choose to merge other accounts. I use Nine email for my Exchange/Outlook accounts, those contacts are kept separate.

[Thud Hardsmack]

Nine - Outlook for Android by 9folders.

From their privacy policy:

No cloud server:

Several mail apps are cloud based.
They run their own servers, which connect to the actual mail servers, collect your messages on their own servers (for some duration of time), and then push messages from there to the device.
So your messages are stored somewhere else (for some duration of time). It’s one more place that stores your messages and possibly your accounts’ passwords.
Nine is not cloud based. It only stores your accounts’ passwords on the actual device. It only connects to the actual mail servers. It only stores your messages on the device.

Nine never passes user logins to 9Folders and 9Folders has no access to that information.

[joeldf]

Nine - Outlook for Android by 9folders.

From their privacy policy:

That's all fine and dandy, but the email servers that app connects to ARE cloud based. That's what those Exchange accounts are. Emails sit there and are synced to your phone and PC and any other device you may use to connect to your email account.

The only way around that is to keep your own personal email server in your house.

BTW, app access to your contacts doesn't always mean they are being shared out on the net. If an app sends messages - and that's why you got it in the first place, it may needs access to your contacts to know who to look up and where to go. If an app can save contact info on something you might look up, it needs access to the contacts to create a new one for you. Most of these kinds of access all stay within the phone.

It's like a program needing write access to your hard drive. Word can't save a document you're typing if it doesn't have access.

Access doesn't necessarily mean uploading.

Can it mean that if you sync to Google or even Outlook? Maybe. Honestly, I actually trust MS just a little more than Google.

Joel

[Thud Hardsmack]

That's all fine and dandy, but the email servers that app connects to ARE cloud based. That's what those Exchange accounts are. Emails sit there and are synced to your phone and PC and any other device you may use to connect to your email account.

The only way around that is to keep your own personal email server in your house.

BTW, app access to your contacts doesn't always mean they are being shared out on the net. If an app sends messages - and that's why you got it in the first place, it may needs access to your contacts to know who to look up and where to go. If an app can save contact info on something you might look up, it needs access to the contacts to create a new one for you. Most of these kinds of access all stay within the phone.

It's like a program needing write access to your hard drive. Word can't save a document you're typing if it doesn't have access.

Access doesn't necessarily mean uploading.

Can it mean that if you sync to Google or even Outlook? Maybe. Honestly, I actually trust MS just a little more than Google.

Joel

Or work based. The point is the OP wants to avoid apps that might have some shady or lazy devs with a server of their own and have control over contacts (and data), I'm merely providing one of many with Android that's trusted as an example.