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The popular automation app Macrodroid is now filled to the brim with trackers. (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by DaddleDew@lemmy.world to c/privacy@lemmy.ca

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Macrodroid has been a favourite of mine for automating things on my phone. This is no longer the case.

It has been silently updated at some point to become a data mining and leaking nightmare. At the time of writing these lines, this app contains 30 trackers from various third party telemetry services according to the latest Exodus report. This is an extremely high number of trackers and there definitely weren’t that many a few years back. Even most junk free mobile games can’t manage to contain this many. It appears that the owner of the app has sold out and turned it into spyware to sell your data to as many companies as possible.

This is particularly worrying considering the level of access and permissions the app requires to function. If you are using the app still, I’m urging you to reconsider.

Spread the word.

Exodus report

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[–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Sonofabitch.

I've used it for proba ly 10 years. Wtf.

[–] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

It wasn't always this bad. It never was perfect. It used to have a few crash reporting, analytics and ad trackers from the beginning. They snuck in more profiling trackers in 2023. Then back in June they added a fuckton of trackers in the version 5.55.9 update. I just noticed it now. This app is dead to me now.

[–] modular950@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 weeks ago

would something like rethinkDNS or some other firewall and / or DNS blocking tool be sufficient to cutting out all of this and still benefitting from the app locally?

[–] lurch@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

deleted my play store review.

an alternative would be Automate. How about that?

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I've been using Llamalab Automate a lot over the last few years. It' proper amazing.

The free version only allows flows with a total of 30 blocks running at the same time, which was enough for me for a very long time. I mostly got the full version because I wanted to support the developer. But now I do use bigger flows too.

It's very useful for all these little automation tasks that don't warrant a dedicated app for it.

The only downside of the app is the stupid name that makes it really hard to google anyting in regards to it unless you add "Llamalab" before it.

[–] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

I gave the F-droid app Automation a try. It definitely lacks the functionality and refinement that Macrodroid has but it can work in a pinch.

Key Mapper on F-Droid fills in a few gaps as well for anything that uses button presses as a trigger.

[–] lurch@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 weeks ago

I had some F-Droid apps that couldn't be uninstalled, because they crashed the installer. After the factory reset of that phone, I stopped using F-Droid to avoid that.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 3 points 3 weeks ago

using apps on a phone is like having unprotected sex... just too much risk