Those little popups may reveal location, device details, IP address, and more

“App developers can encrypt these messages when they’re stored (in transit they’re protected by TLS) but the associated metadata – the app receiving the notification, the time stamp, and network details – is not encrypted.”

  • GolfNovemberUniform
    3·
    9 months ago

    Tbh I absolutely do not understand why they decided to collect any data for push notifications in the first place. But yea now nobody will fix it. Though I’m wondering if it’s only the proprietary part (Firebase or whatever the name is) or the system itself that collects data. I mean if I use a degoogled phone that doesn’t even have that proprietary part (means notifications from IMSes don’t work either), am I safe from this or not? And does the collected data go to Google or to the app’s developers?

    • Fisch
      1·
      9 months ago

      I already explained how the whole push notification thing works in this comment. If you’re using a degoogled phone, you’ll be fine. MicroG has the option to use Firebase but you need to be logged in with a Google account, enable device registration and enable cloud messaging for it to use it. Google has the data about when you got a push notification from what app since it goes through their server and the app developer can obviously log the notification data from their app.

      • GolfNovemberUniform
        11·
        9 months ago

        BRUH push notifications with Firebase require everything going through a Google server? What in the deleted is that design?

        • Fisch
          1·
          9 months ago

          I don’t like Google either but this design makes perfect sense. There’s a reason UnifiedPush works the same way. It sucks that you can’t choose a different server but that’s just how Google does things.

          • GolfNovemberUniform
            11·
            9 months ago

            In my opinion there’s absolutely no point in sending notifications through Google. It can be done differently and in a much less overengineered way. Unification doesn’t make sense here. The additional features don’t work in half of the apps now anyways

            • Fisch
              1·
              9 months ago

              If you have a better way to do this, I’d really like to hear it. Also, what additional features are you talking about?

              • GolfNovemberUniform
                1·
                9 months ago
                1. I’m not a very advanced Android programmer but I know it’s possible to make something like universal instructions and dependency lists (if you want unification which I personally don’t support). Linux has push notifications for years and on Android they work too if the app is running in the background. In my opinion the app should control the contact with its servers. Just make a daemon or something like that so the whole app doesn’t have to stay in memory. Yes it’s messy and battery life will be worse but monopolizing is always bad. Federating Firebase is a good idea too but I personally prefer the other method because it gives more flexibility
                2. Video/music progress bar on Firefox for example
                • Fisch
                  2·
                  9 months ago

                  Apps running in the background was how it was done before but it drained a lot of battery, which is why it’s done this way now. Even KDE is implementing UnifiedPush. Things like the Firefox progress bar notification also don’t use this system at all.

                  • GolfNovemberUniform
                    1·
                    9 months ago

                    Well here it’s a matter of personal preference. For me privacy is more important than battery life and I consider Firebase extremely immoral. It can be different for other people. And thank you for telling about Firefox