search

OpenPurpleMango / blokada-background-hosts

This is a repository where people can add hosts that report information in the background on Android devices to a hosts file. The hosts file can be used with Blokada.
GNU General Public License v3.0
1 stars 0 forks source link

Repository Objective #1

Open OpenPurpleMango opened 6 years ago

OpenPurpleMango commented 6 years ago

Hi everyone,

The Problem

Android devices are constantly tracking and reporting many things that we do to Google, Facebook, Verizon, etc. They can only report this information if they can communicate with the hosts that receive the reported information. Therefore, if the hosts that they communicate with are blocked, then they cannot report our information. (I am aware that this does not block all forms of tracking, but it blocks a good chunk of it.)

My Solution

I am interested in helping with creating a hosts file that will prevent android devices from 'phoning home' to Google and other companies. I would also like this hosts file to be an included hosts file under the Blacklist section of the app.

It is relatively easy to figure out which hosts our android devices connect to in the background. I use a FOSS app from F-Droid called "Net Monitor". After running a network scan for a long time, it shows that my phone connected to .myvzw.com, .computer-1.amazonaws.com, and *.1e100.net many times. I only use FOSS apps without Gapps, but I imagine that people who use non FOSS apps with Gapps will have many more connections to many more hosts.

Steps to Complete

  1. Enable blocking hosts using wildcards and IPv4/IPv6 addresses.
  2. Have multiple people with different phone carriers, app configurations, and Gapps statuses run "Net Monitor" and post their most commonly connected to hosts to GitHub.
  3. Confirm that all of the user contributed hosts are valid.
  4. Add contributed hosts to a hosts file.
  5. Add hosts file to Blokada.

How to Find the Hosts Your Phone Connects To:

  1. Download the app called "Net Monitor" from F-Droid (Maybe Google Play)
  2. Open app and run it in the background in the following circumstances:
    • For a few hours/overnight while your phone is connected to the internet and sleeping
    • For a few hours while you are using your phone normally (playing games, browsing the internet, etc.)
      • While making or receiving a phone call, SMS, MMS.
      • While using Facebook
      • Any other configurations that you thing are worthwhile.
  3. Post your results (you can select which ones you want to post) to GitHub. If possible, please categorize them by the circumstances in which they occurred.
DJJosephJumper commented 6 years ago

I think this should be posted in the README. Users may find it more easily there.