AdvancedPrivacy

An app to let you control and protect your privacy.

Forked to https://github.com/LedgerProject/e_privacycentralapp, embending all /e/ submodules.

Features

The following features are currently part of AdvancedPrivacy app.

1. Centralized overview dashboard.
2. Fake location.
3. Hiding IP address.
4. Control trackers across apps.

Technologies

• Kotlin as main language
• Kotlin coroutines and flow for asynchronous code
• AndroidX (core-ktx, fragment-ktx, and lifecycle etc.)
• Google Material Design component for UI elements
• Timber for logging
• MapLibre for map support
• LeakCanary for keeping an eye on memory leaks.

Flavours

This app comes in two flavours, one for /e/OS and second one for other android (where app doesn't have system access)

Testing

Need to write test and add code coverage.

Development

Setup

You can use any latest stable version of android studio to be able to build this app.

Supported Versions

• Minimum SDK: 26 (Android O)
• Compile SDK: 34 (Android U)
• Target SDK: 33 (Android T)

API Keys

This project uses Sentry for telemetry and crash reports, Mapbox sdk as maps tiles provider. To compile the project, you need to set keys for them:

For local build

You can set them in local.properties

MAPBOX_KEY=<insert mapbox public key>
SENTRY_DSN=<insert sentry dsn>

IMP: Never add this file to version control.

For CI build

When building in CI environment, we don't have local.properties file. So the following environment variables must be set:

export MAPBOX_KEY=<insert mapbox public key>
export SENTRY_DSN=<insert sentry dsn>

Code Style and Quality

This project uses ktlint, provided via the spotless gradle plugin. To maintain the same code style, all the codestyle configuration has been bundled into the project.

To check for any codestyle related error, ./gradlew spotlessCheck. Use ./gradlew spotlessApply to autoformat in order to fix any code quality related issues.

Setting up pre-commit hooks

To strictly enforce the code quality, this project has a pre-commit hook which is triggered everytime before you commit any changes (only applies to *.kt, *.gradle, *.md and *.gitignore). You must setup the pre-commit hook before doing any changes to the project. For that, this project has a script which can executed as follows:

./hooks/pre-commit

Build dependencies

Trackers filter and Fake location won't work unless your ROM was built with this specific netd project, android framework base and microG.

Custom netd project communicates to AdvancedPrivacy through a Unix socket, to log and block name resolution.

Custom android framework base and microG will consult the foundation.e.advancedprivacy.fakelocations ContentProvider for fake location instruction.

Build

If you'd like to build AdvancedPrivacy locally, you should be able to just clone and build with no issues.

For building from CLI, you can execute use ./gradlew assemble<Flavor><Debug|Release> command:

Example for eOs debug version

./gradlew assembleEosDebug

How to use AdvancedPrivacy apk

You can build the apk locally by using above instructions or you can download the latest stable apk from master branch pipeline.

To run apk on /e/OS devices

If you are running your tests on a /test build, the debug buildtype already sign it with the appropriate key, and without the persistant flag, to allow further updates. But the first time, to replace the AdvancedPrivacy app, embeded in the test build, you have to use the following commands:

```shell
adb root && adb remount
adb push your_advanced_privacy_debug_build.apk /system/priv-app/AdvancedPrivacy/AdvancedPrivacy.apk
adb shell kill -9 $(adb shell pidof -s foundation.e.advancedprivacy)
```

AdvancedPrivacy requirement against the system

AdvancedPrivacy needs to be installed as system app and whitelisting in order to grant some system specific permissions. Follow these steps to make it work properly on /e/OS

1. From Developer options, enable Android debugging and Rooted debugging

2. Sign the apk with platform certificate. You can use this command to do that

   apksigner sign --key platform.pk8 --cert platform.x509.pem AdvancedPrivacy.apk app-e-release-unsigned.apk
   

   If you are running your tests on an /test build, you can find keys at https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/os/android_build/-/tree/v1-q/target/product/security

3. Install apk as system app and push permissions whitelist with following commands:

   adb root && adb remount
   adb shell mkdir system/priv-app/AdvancedPrivacy
   adb push AdvancedPrivacy.apk system/priv-app/AdvancedPrivacy
   

4. Push permissions whitelist.

   • it requires the whitelisting privapp-permissions-foundation.e.advancedprivacy.xml file that can be found in the project repository.
   • then use the following command

     adb push privapp-permissions-foundation.e.advancedprivacy.xml /system/etc/permissions/
     

5. Allow the fake location service to run in background. Add in the file /system/etc/permissions/platform.xml .

6. Reboot the device

   adb reboot
   

To run apk on stock android devices

You can simply install the apk. Keep in that mind all features won't be available on stock android devices.

Voila !!!, AdvancedPrivacy is installed successfully in your device.

Distribution

This project can be distributed as prebuilt apk with /e/OS or it can be published on other app stores for non /e/OS devices.

For developers and contributers

Please refer to Development Guide for detailed instructions about project structure, architecture, design patterns and testing guide.

License

Copyright (C) 2024 E FOUNDATION
Copyright (C) 2023 MURENA SAS
Copyright (C) 2021 ECORP

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program.  If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.