There's Safe Dot that also notify if an app is using location and camera, besides microphone. It's available on F-droid and Play Store.
this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2025
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Privacy
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Have u tried "Privacy Indicators" ? It's free and open source. I don't know much about, but found it on alternativeto.net
that is exactly what i was looking for, thank you.
Though now i dont feel comfortable giving it so much control over my phone. Though since code is open source I hope someone has looked it through. I tried taking a look myself but i wouldnt know what to look for.
It also seems to be also unmaintained or it just doesnt need updates, as last change to github was 4 years ago. Too bad there doesnt seem to be almost any other programs like that, only other i found was something called safe-dot which is equally old. Based on issues listed in github page it might not work 100% reliably. It seemed to work when i tested it, but according to the issues it might not work if system itself is using something which kind of defeats the purpose.
I also noticed that for some reason it didnt appear on rethink's application list so i couldnt see what it was doing with network. According to system it used 8kb worth data in backround even though it doesnt seem to have anything that should require internet, unless pushnotifications do that, but still that seemed a bit odd for program that shouldnt use internet.
In combination with tracker control, you can see who they connect to and block piecemeal, or simply block their connection completely (you don't need an app for that, though).
unfortunately tracker control cant be on while rethink is on or vice versa. I have also noticed that you shouldnt trust the system to block anything. Even if you forbid datausage for something, its not trruly blocked. Also google cant be blocked by system at all, but rethink can do that too, though then you need to manage the settings every time you want to use google's services but it doesnt seem to cause any awful problems in general. That program is one of the best things i have found for a while.
Going to check out rethink now, Thx for the name drop!
I see you already got an answer, but one thing I do is disable the microphone and camera on my pixel.
I keep them in the notification drawer because I just don't trust keeping them on, but obviously I have to trust the OS is don't that properly.
i might do that too, but turning them on and off constantly would be such a bother. Also it would be annoying to forget microphone when someone calls or you call to someone. I wish i could just install grapheneos or something, but fairphone doesnt seem to be supported for it and at this point i wouldnt want to risk losing my data if something breaks.
Maybe check out CalyxOS? It’s pitched as being Fairphone compatible.
thanks, i'll keep that in mind
The pixel is a secondary device I got for a job but they let me keep, so it's not a bother for me.
It does prompt you to unmute but it's very easy to forget to turn it back on.
It's not a good solution, but I like that it's an option