What's the point?

of having sailfish os if the installed android apps are spying on you ?
the russian version eliminated android app support completely.

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I’m here because it is a better OS, and a calmer experience.
It is virtually ad-free if you haven’t noticed.
You also get to choose what Android apps you install (including choosing not to) - the runtime itself won’t do much, and if you are so inclined you can turn it off.
Sometimes you want or need an Android app, then the support is very nice to have. And no, not all apps “spy”.

What is the point of your question?

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I do have Android support installed but use it maybe once or twice a week with some specific apps. Most of the time it stays off. That’s for me the point.

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The point is, you have a choice. In a number of cases, there’s a native Sailfish OS app, so you simply don’t have to use a (spying) Android app and - as mentioned before - you can choose not to have Android app support running at all.

Sure, there aren’t as many Sailfish OS-native alternatives as many of us wish to be there, but their number is growing and at least you’re not completely dependent on a company like Google.

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Why is an Android app always a spying app?

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Because, sadly, most of them are.

Take any .APK file, open it in e.g. “APK Editor Studio” and analyze its AndroidManifest.xml file… I’ve just picked random APK from my disk (some Geotracking tool, allegedly free and ad-free) and I’ve found in there: crashlytics (bug/crash reporting), various analytics and telemetry references, “app measurement” (app usage analytics), links to Google and Facebook advertising servers, Google Play “campaign tracking”, various API’s and SDK’s (Firebase, Google Maps, etc.) own tracking and reporting connections, Everynote, Yandex and Facebook “connectivity services” (doing God knows what), and more. And all that automatically starting upon boot and various events (e.g. connecting charger) and working silently in the background.

A horrifying view.

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I hardly believe this is the case for apps from fdroid as well…

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Android Apps aren’t spying per se. As @unmaintained already mentioned, you will hardly find if any app spying on you from https://fdroid.org

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don’t tell me you don’t know. the whole point of using sailfish is too avoid the surveillance of ios and android isn’t it? especially now with Apple’s Client side scanning project, it’s more worrying than ever…

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yes, my whole point. the Russians didn’t drop Android support completely for nothing in Aurora Mobile Rus Os ! where is the world heading to?

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did you mean Evernote in you initial post? next to Facebook.

They probably “didn’t drop Android support” as much as haven’t licensed it in the first place.
It costs money.
This is one of the commercial parts of SFOS which not every Sailfish user wants nor needs.
You have to consciously install it yourself and before that you have to hand over some € for it.
Means someone must have put at least minimal thought into the process.

Well, for me it’s more of tradition (came from Maemo) and better UI. If it was just privacy alone one could happily go with AOSP and f-droid but Android is such a pain to use, I don’t know who would want to do that :grin:

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Well, as other ppl already stated, Android app support has a VERY useful switch, ON and OFF!

If you feel the need of using an android app, you turn it ON, use it, and then turn it OFF again. When OFF, it is like the android part is dead, no app is running in the background (which, in SFOS, is already kinda sandboxed anyway), so no android app can collect data. It is like the time has stopped for android apps.

Besides that, the amount of data that the Android part has access to on your SFOS data (call logs, SMS, web browser history etc) is very limited.

That is why we use SailfishOS, and will continue to do so as long as it is alive! :slight_smile:

Sailfish actually loses its meaning in case you continuously have Android App Support turned ON, and do many tasks using the android part (e.g., browsing and using lots of Android apps). It gets even “worse” if you install PlayStore and log in with your credentials! :laughing:

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you are saying it is because of money? the Russians have the money, it wasn’t a matter of money. don’t be naive. it was a matter of spying on Russian state institutions, Russian citizens and so on. this is my opinion.

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Plus the Russians don’t really have the money, but are not able to buy android support in the current situation due to sanctions in the first place.

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I wouldn’t even consider android (e.g. /e/OS) more insecure as sfos per se…

Nobody has an endless supply of money, not even Russian state owned companies.
If a part is not needed why would they license it?

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The point? Use Sailfish on its own, or with Android apps. Or don’t use Sailfish - its up to you. Nothing is obligatory. Choose according to your needs.

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why would the Russians pay money to be spied on and transfer power to a foreign power ? if AOSP was secure they would’ve chose it, no doubt. they chose Sailfish however. but what’s the point of using sailfish OS if I would constantly need some Android apps ?countless IT articles detailed how Android is spying even on what you touched on the touchscreen, talking about private details being sold to third parties is pocket change.

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this is the real issue. would like it to be like this but it’s not… it’s a constraint not a choice … what could someone do without using Android or Ios software ? at my job i have some meal tickets delivered electronically. they recently switched, through government laws, to only electronic meal tickets, before they were issued on papers. how can i know the balance of electronic meal tickets ? only by using the ios or android software, obviously…welcome to global dictatorship…

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