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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...o=rcreplyemail
Remember what John Chen said in December 2018 about the security of the BlackBerry Passport and the BlackBerry Classic ? Go to the 23 minute mark in the video.
https://forums.crackberry.com/e?link...token=LrKYtBD8
From my BlackBerry Passport Silver Edition
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https://forums.crackberry.com/e?link...token=BiLwUSq6
John Chen video.
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Android apps and likely even native BB10 apps have these trackers too. With native BB10 apps at least you can revoke permissions like "Device Identifying Information" and "My Contact Info" which I assume could help.
But with a lack of many native apps and BB World closing in a few months it'll be a short lived advantage. I don't believe there's a way to revoke these permissions from Android apps on BB10 so you'd have to avoid those as well.
Even with an unrooted Android device, you can stop all trackers by using an app like Blokada.
Last time I checked with Exodus app the number of CB app trackers I jumped out of my chair....19 trackers. How many can you block with Blokada? Are y9u using this app? What do you think about it?
I use it, and it's awesome. It removes most ads from apps and browsers as well.
I've been using Blokada for nearly 2 years now. Recommend it wholeheartedly.
Privacy Pro on iOS is what the Washington Post used for the story, I assume similar can be done via BB10's VPN if someone wanted to.
The only downside to VPN based solutions over permission toggles is they'll add to battery drain and you'll have to put a lot of trust in them.
Blokada doesn't even register for battery use during the day (<1%). Don't forget, it's not a real VPN, it just uses the phone's ability to redirect traffic (internally) in order to filter it.
It's also 100% open-source.
Arguably, it was worse on BB10 because you couldn't see the trackers actively being used easily. No native apps, that I'm aware of, were ever even produced to be able to view the connections and developers integrated all sorts of trackers and analytics in those apps.
If I recall correctly, there was also a few cases of developer(s) running ads in the background of their apps that end-users couldn't see, which of course created income for those developer(s) w/o end-users knowledge.
Then there's also the security analysis which was done on a few apps, which Nemory had to defend the security used. Not trying to dig that discussion up again, but the post does highlight the things that can / did go on in the background of BB10 apps - https://nemorystudios.blogspot.com/2...sis-of-12.html
But whatever, that was BB10 and we know how that tale goes.
To be fair, hidden ads and click fraud are also a problem on iOS and Android. BlackBerry did at least provide a way for users to combat that with the Internet permission on BBOS and Tablet OS. I still don't understand why it was dropped for BB10.
That was part of the point. On Android and iOS, the trackers, ads, and schemes can often be blocked and caught rather easily through some pretty basic on-device tools. On BB10, there weren't even any tools available without being a rather advanced user outside of permissions.
Android and iOS has tools to block this stuff but I wouldn't qualify them as 'basic on-device' tools.
I am very paranoid about this stuff and it is surprising how many apps, even from 'reputable' vendors have so many trackers. Once you stop everything you can, or use apps with no trackers, honestly there isn't much of an "app gap"
On BB10, I would guess that since the major data leeches never produced SDK's for BB10, it's less likely for them to contain the big trackers. Nothing can stop an app from doing something bad if you allow it on your phone. If it isn't open source, there's no way to verify.
At least on BB10, it's always been pretty easy to deny an app access to Internet or run in background when it is not supposed to. (Though the other 2 have caught up). You can also use the Device Monitor to check for unexpected network traffic from each app.
Regardless, privacy or security concerns, the world has shown that people are more than willing to give all that up for a free app. 'Nobody' cares about security over other things.
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The vast majority (99% or more) of trackers are for ads and analytics.
They are not scraping your device for private information.
Pretty much why I don't bother getting deep into security and app convos. No one cares until it's too late and something has already happened. Ironically enough, the same folks who regard security highly often times are the same ones installing random infected APK's from all over the place lol.
Not so ironic, but as expected since they're ones most affected - you might even say they're experienced at it lol so I'd expect those users to be the most conscientious about security.
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Has anyone tried to use Blokada on a BB10 device?
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It wouldn't work within the Android Runtime.
Blokada v 2, I believe, will work with Android 4.2, but who knows if it would work under BB10. Why bother?
It's not a matter of API level, it's a matter of accessing the VPN settings from within the Runtime - which you can't.
Ahhh yes - makes sense.