Some serious privacy concerns

Discussion of EssentialPIM for Android and synchronization
lk
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Some serious privacy concerns

Post by lk »

Why is EssentialPIM for Android (v4.52) is trying to connect to an IP address outside my home network although I don't want to have my contacts/calendar synchronized with any Google server (in fact I don't even have a Google account)?

At least my firewall tells me this...
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Re: Some serious privacy concerns

Post by admin »

Most likely that's Google Analytics trying to send out some generic data to better help us understand how users use the app. No personally identifying data is included in this type of reporting, of course.
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lk
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Re: Some serious privacy concerns

Post by lk »

What if I do NOT want this? A personal organizer contains some very private data, so I expect that if I decide to synchonize it only between my Android phone and my PC, not a single bit will leave my home network. Do you remember your "anti-prism" page (now removed, but still visible via http://web.archive.org/web/201603241949 ... anti-prism)?

There should be at least a possibility to opt-out of this behaviour!
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Re: Some serious privacy concerns

Post by admin »

Thank you for the suggestion, will consider it.
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Nurgotora
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Re: Some serious privacy concerns

Post by Nurgotora »

lk wrote:There should be at least a possibility to opt-out of this behaviour!
I second that motion.
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Re: Some serious privacy concerns

Post by lk »

Any news on this? The firewall on my Android device still shows blocked connections to some IPs outside of my private network (EPIM for Android 5.6.2)!

lk
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Re: Some serious privacy concerns

Post by admin »

Should be addressed in the upcoming 5.7 version.
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Yak_Forger
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Re: Some serious privacy concerns

Post by Yak_Forger »

Yeah, that's a thing that bothered me a lot and made me think about uninstalling the app on my phone, so it'd be great if this was solved.
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Re: Some serious privacy concerns

Post by admin »

Will be taken care of in the upcoming 5.7 version.
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lk
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Re: Some serious privacy concerns

Post by lk »

Now v5.7 is out and I just upgraded to this version. It still tries to connect to Google IPs :(

lk
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Re: Some serious privacy concerns

Post by admin »

You can disable this in the app settings.
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lk
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Re: Some serious privacy concerns

Post by lk »

Okay, found it, disabled it, and will watch it. Perhaps you should consider pointing out towards this more prominently - at least it's not mentioned in the release notes (https://www.essentialpim.com/blog-and-n ... 7-released). Even better, make this as the default value. Please keep in mind that privacy is getting more and more important in these days, especially for sensitive data like calendar entries or contacts!

lk
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Re: Some serious privacy concerns

Post by lk »

Just updated EPIM for Android from v5.7.5078 to v5.7.5079 and immediately afterwards it wanted to connect to Google's IP 216.58.207.163...

lk
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Re: Some serious privacy concerns

Post by admin »

The share analytics option is still disabled?
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lk
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Re: Some serious privacy concerns

Post by lk »

Yes, it is. (I hope that there is no code in the app which resets this option to its privacy-unfriendly default value...)

lk
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