I get apps aren’t free but I would have gladly paid for the app to not have to deal with this type of thing.
Edit: Ok reinstalled the github version v0.2.1+12 and not seeing any trackers. Thanks yamapikariya, very good suggestion with the difference being the github vs playstore.
Hey! Thunder should not be collecting any user data. There is no tracking of any sort within the source code. Previously, Sentry was used for error logging, but even that has been completely removed from the most recent release.
There are definitely some permissions that are needed in order for Thunder to work.
- Vibration is needed for Haptic Feedback
- Storage is needed for media downloads although we are looking into ways to even restrict that to just photos
- Network access is needed for internet connection in general
The Play Store release may be different as Google themselves may collect the data that you are seeing, but in general, there is nothing directly within Thunder’s source code to track any user information!
Looks like “Functional Software” from the screenshot is sentry so that makes sense then. Is the version up on the play store an older release than v0.2.1+12?
Also those permissions are fine and totally make sense.
The Play Store release should be the same version as the GitHub one (v0.2.1+12) but I’ll double check!
That’s what my scan reveals. No trackers.
Thank you for your answer! Quick, unrelated question, is there anything we can do to activate haptic feedback? I do not think the feature is enabled on my phone, although I do not think I can find any option to enable it either.
Haptic feedback should me on most actions and swipe gestures. If you find that its not working, double check your system preferences and make sure that haptic feedback is on! Thunder uses your system preferences to determine whether or not to allow haptic feedback
I don’t have any haptic feedback in Thunder, but I don’t believe I ever had any kind of haptic feedback on anything outside of the launcher and some system actions, so it might be more of a phone problem than a Thunder problem.
Thank you anyway!
I havent looked at thunders source code, but does it even call home to the app devs? Also having a built in browser automatically means lots of tracking but that comes from the websites and not the app.
I haven’t either, so not sure if it does or not. However see my edit. The apk doesn’t have any trackers on it as far as I can tell so far.
Is this the play store version or the GitHub release version. Might make a difference. I have no detected trackers in the app itself in the GitHub version. The only tracking stuff are in the SentryPerformanceProvider service.
Oh you know what its in the google play store version. I switched over when it became available. Welp going back to the apk lol.
You can use it from fdroid
These are the permissions in the Play Store version:
"Storage read the contents of your shared storage, modify or delete the contents of your shared storage
Other read video files from shared storage, have full network access, read image files from shared storage, control vibration"
I believe this is due to the inapp web browser
what app is this op?
Thunder but it was the version off the google play store. Darklightxi was going to check to make sure the version up there was the version without Sentry which was a debugging tool for error logging.
ah I meant the app u used to find out all those privacy concerns, the screenshot.
Oh sorry its duckduckgo https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.duckduckgo.mobile.android/ Its mostly a search engine app and browser. But if you go into settings under "More from DuckDuckGo there is a “App Tracking Protection” option. While this is on it will block and list out any trackers and what they were trying to do.
tx bud 👍
