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[Q] "Best" Tor/Privacy App?

I'm pretty new to the world of Android and was wondering what are some "best"/"good" apps to hide your identity online? I've looked at the Google Play Store for Tor related apps but unsure if they're actually secure and reliable? What do you guys use for security/anonymity?

I use Spotflux and Hotspot Shield and I find that both are pretty good.

Have you ever tried disconnect me? Or just activate private mode in Firefox

There are two main Tor apps on the play store: Orbot and Orxy. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages. I've used both, and both work well.
Rebekka_Sun said:
... activate private mode in Firefox
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Click to collapse
Private mode in Firefox does not make you anonymous.
Using normal VPNs doesn't make you anonymous either. The VPN provider has all your details.
Remember, just using Tor will not make you fully anonymous. The torproject.org website has details, and the Orxy app store page has some tips.

7101
IS it really that easy to steal ID from your phone?

The OP wants to browse the web anonymously and such services are helpful for that.
Its not to prevent your ID from getting 'stolen' but more to make sure you are not being tracked, access sites that may be blocked on your corporate network or country, etc. Ofcourse there are countless other uses as well.
Ill give you one small example - if you want to access a job portal from your work computer without being worried your company can see you are looking for a new job, you can use a VPN to sort of 'mask' the internet traffic.
Or if you live in a country where YouTube is blocked and you want to access it...

Can I make an app think I'm using a japan vpn without actually using it?

Hi, I'm a Samsung galaxy note 3 user, android version 4.4.2, I have it rooted, and xposed installed. I never installed xposed before but I installed it a couple of days ago and now I'm seeing that I can do a lot of things with it, and because of this I started wondering something.
Well, I have an app called Abematv which is a free japanese tv app that I can't use unless I connect through a japanese vpn. I do this by using an app called "japan vpn" and "openvpn connect for android". The problem with this is that sometimes is too slow and the video quality is very low. So I was wondering how could I make this app think I'm using a japanese vpn when I'm really connected to my home wifi without any vpn.
I don't know if this can be done but it sounds like it's the kind of thing that you do through a xposed module. If there's a module that can do this, I don't know how to search for it. So if anyone knows how to do this via xposed or via whatever it makes it possible, please leave a comment
Thanks

azigta said:
Hi, I'm a Samsung galaxy note 3 user, android version 4.4.2, I have it rooted, and xposed installed. I never installed xposed before but I installed it a couple of days ago and now I'm seeing that I can do a lot of things with it, and because of this I started wondering something.
Well, I have an app called Abematv which is a free japanese tv app that I can't use unless I connect through a japanese vpn. I do this by using an app called "japan vpn" and "openvpn connect for android". The problem with this is that sometimes is too slow and the video quality is very low. So I was wondering how could I make this app think I'm using a japanese vpn when I'm really connected to my home wifi without any vpn.
I don't know if this can be done but it sounds like it's the kind of thing that you do through a xposed module. If there's a module that can do this, I don't know how to search for it. So if anyone knows how to do this via xposed or via whatever it makes it possible, please leave a comment
Thanks
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Click to collapse
Ok well first things first. Don't mention lucky patcher here. It is banned as a Warez app and app developers will add code to that purposely causes issues if it is detected.
Depending in how it is getting your location you could make the device think it is in Japan. Something like mocking the Gps.

zelendel said:
Ok well first things first. Don't mention lucky patcher here. It is banned as a Warez app and app developers will add code to that purposely causes issues if it is detected.
Depending in how it is getting your location you could make the device think it is in Japan. Something like mocking the Gps.
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Hi, I eddited the message so the words don't appear. (would be good if you edit your message so the words don't appear there too, I don't want troubles xD) Thanks.
About the gps thing, I think it doesn't use the gps since I have it disabled and the app doesn't have the permission to get the location, so I think it gets the location based on the ip.

Not all VPN services are the same. Your current VPN service may be slow because it has you connecting through Japan. Nice VPN services allow you to connect to a VPN server in your country while they route your country VPN server to the final destination VPN server. This allows you to sometimes benefit with improved connection speeds. You can do free trials with most VPN services and I recommend maybe moving to another.
Example: Normal VPN> your-device->VPN server in japan->your-device
(upload/download limits determined by home network and ISP max connections)
Higher end VPN> your-device->local VPN->VPN server in japan->local VPN->your-device
(upload/download limit between VPNs determined by VPN servers which maximize limits before passing the information to your local device)
Other info relevant to the topic:
There are many options available to a developer to verify your location in today's internet.
Even your browser for your device has a unique "fingerprint" and if your gps or IP location changes they can still verify it's coming from the same device.
There are ways around browser fingerprinting.
With most programs, there is an order or hierarchy of testing your location. Spoofing your GPS may overrule an IP check. To overcome issues it's important to try and test and try even when met with failures. It's important to not be dismissive of possible solutions when troubleshooting an issue or searching for a work-around.

TehZig said:
Not all VPN services are the same. Your current VPN service may be slow because it has you connecting through Japan. Nice VPN services allow you to connect to a VPN server in your country while they route your country VPN server to the final destination VPN server. This allows you to sometimes benefit with improved connection speeds. You can do free trials with most VPN services and I recommend maybe moving to another.
Example: Normal VPN> your-device->VPN server in japan->your-device
(upload/download limits determined by home network and ISP max connections)
Higher end VPN> your-device->local VPN->VPN server in japan->local VPN->your-device
(upload/download limit between VPNs determined by VPN servers which maximize limits before passing the information to your local device)
Other info relevant to the topic:
There are many options available to a developer to verify your location in today's internet.
Even your browser for your device has a unique "fingerprint" and if your gps or IP location changes they can still verify it's coming from the same device.
There are ways around browser fingerprinting.
With most programs, there is an order or hierarchy of testing your location. Spoofing your GPS may overrule an IP check. To overcome issues it's important to try and test and try even when met with failures. It's important to not be dismissive of possible solutions when troubleshooting an issue or searching for a work-around.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok thanks, I will try to spoof the gps and will comment how it worked .

Best Adblocking solutions for rooted phone, no VPN?

I know the title is rather generic and not strictly related to OP7, but I didn't know where else to post, and as this applies to my OP7, I thought to post here.
OP7
OOS 10.0.7
Rooted, Magisk+TWRP
So far I have been using Blokada to stop ads and it's been a bliss, but the limitation of Android to only run one VPN at a time makes using another VPN a compromise.
Recently I decided to use NordVPN, but as the situation stays now, I must choose between really no ads (Blokada), or NordVPN, but rely on Nord's as filtering which isn't really doing much.
Can you recommend me some reliable Adblocking solutions for rooted phone that can work in parallel with NordVPN and do equally good job as Blokada is doing? I need to block apps across the whole system (apps, websites).
P.S. using YouTube Vanced, so that one is sorted.

Energized magisk module, energized.pro for info on which version best suits you

Adguard dns without any app

Isn't DNS ad-blocking problematic? I've been reading that apps and websites can detect ad- locking DNS and act strangely.
Also, some ISP may not like some DNS... What has been your experience with DNS Adblocking so far?

Hi
I'm using OP7T OOS Beta 7 at the moment. I've been using Blokada for a short time and liked it a lot. But a minor was indeed not being able to combine it with a VPN from another provider. So I tried Blokada VPN. I had the feeling that it was working smoother than the VPN I'm always using. And I like the way they handle accounts. So you could use Blokada and VPN together if you pay for the VPN from Blokada.
So what stopped me using it? Having a long time subscription at NordVPN. I'm not using a vpn much lately. My setup is as follows:
- setup private dns under settings-networks-private dns: dns.adguard.com
- setup Adaway from FDroid (you need root)
- setup NordVPN. Beware to use the apk from the website and not from the Play Store. Only the apk from the website has working cybersec functionality. It can be used together with Adaway.
I've no problems using a dns server that blocks ads and malware. Neither do I have problems using hosts file based blocking like Adaway. Besides that I'm using browsers like Privacy Browser, Firefox nightly, Bromite and ungoogled chromium. And I try not to use apps with ads.

SvenC said:
- setup private dns under settings-networks-private dns: dns.adguard.com
- setup Adaway from FDroid (you need root)
- setup NordVPN. Beware to use the apk from the website and not from the Play Store. Only the apk from the website has working cybersec functionality. It can be used together with Adaway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I made the same setup... Seems less strict compared to Blokada, but this I am sure is just a matter of hosts list in adaway.
Do you recommend any hosts in particular besides the ones already in Adaway?
Also, what kind of apps do you split tunnel in NordVPN? Or no need? Everything working as it should?

derei said:
Thanks, I made the same setup... Seems less strict compared to Blokada, but this I am sure is just a matter of hosts list in adaway.
Do you recommend any hosts in particular besides the ones already in Adaway?
Also, what kind of apps do you split tunnel in NordVPN? Or no need? Everything working as it should?
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Click to collapse
Be sure to update hosts file in Adaway regularly. I haven't changed any sources in Adaway. Just the standard setup. It blocks system wide and I don't want it to be too strict. Maybe I want to reach a domain sometimes on some site without hassle. You can start up "dns log"in Adaway and then just use your phone like you always do. It then monitors every request. After a while you can go back to Adaway to view which requests occurred. From there you can block domains that were allowed. Or allow domains that were blocked.
I'm not using vpn a lot lately as I'm in my home country. I use it especially when I'm abroad in less privacy conscious countries. That's why I haven't split anything. But I would just it more, I would split apps like Signal private messenger which are end to end encrypted, and apps that don't seem to work well going through the vpn tunnel.
If you are really concerned about your privacy/ISP, then you should setup VPN always on, or force apps to use vpn tunnel by using a firewall. Although opinions differ on this. To me that's overkill anyway. Do you have apps still showing ads? Or do you mean ads while browsing websites?

SvenC said:
Do you have apps still showing ads? Or do you mean ads while browsing websites?
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Click to collapse
Yes, some apps are still showing placeholders. Didn't check all apps...but with Blokada I didn't even have the placeholders. Isn't a big nuisance, but if I can find a solution for it, for the better.
As for vpn usage... i just made some network speed tests... what do you see... it was better over the vpn. For some reason my isp was throttling my mobile (weird). So, I decided to allow NordVPN to always connect to the fastest server.
About tunneling, I was interested if any app misbehaves when on vpn (for example Netflix, or banking apps, if you personally encountered some issue).

derei said:
Yes, some apps are still showing placeholders. Didn't check all apps...but with Blokada I didn't even have the placeholders. Isn't a big nuisance, but if I can find a solution for it, for the better.
As for vpn usage... i just made some network speed tests... what do you see... it was better over the vpn. For some reason my isp was throttling my mobile (weird). So, I decided to allow NordVPN to always connect to the fastest server.
About tunneling, I was interested if any app misbehaves when on vpn (for example Netflix, or banking apps, if you personally encountered some issue).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I keep apps with ads at a minimum, so probably that's why I haven't any problems like that. I remember having problems setting up Payconiq and Transferwise while on vpn. After finishing the setup, only Transferwise still gives problems while on vpn. I don't have streaming or social apps besides Telegram and Keybase.
That said, if I didn't have a subscription from NordVPN, I would use Blokada and pay for its vpn. Everything in one app. But in case speed is important, probably Nord is a better option.

derei said:
Isn't DNS ad-blocking problematic? I've been reading that apps and websites can detect ad- locking DNS and act strangely.
Also, some ISP may not like some DNS... What has been your experience with DNS Adblocking so far?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may have the same problems you have with VPN apps, I have not had any problems for the moment and I have been using dns adguard for some time ... once there was a problem in the server and they crashed but just set '' automatic dns' 'until the problem is solved. In any case, if you don't have root the only way is vpn or dns

I tried the Magisk module Energized but couldn't make it work. I got an error that it was not compatible although I had systemless hosts installed. Otherwise it seemed promising.
I'm testing another app now: Nebulo. At first sight I like it very much. But don't download it from Google Play cause that's a very limited version. Downloading it from Aurora Droid seems the easiest way. It's like Blokada, but I like it more. You can add packages to block ads. And the choice is large. You have a lot of dns servers to choose from. You can test the speed of the servers. Not just a ping test, but a revolution test. You can use cache to avoid sending the same dns requests over and over to the server; to speed up browsing. And a lot of other settings. Worth taking a look at.

Tried Magisk module energized.pro module on another ROM with success now. Using private DNS settings in android combined with that module. My favorite setup at the moment.

Help security/privacy question GrapheneOS (noob, beginner)

Hello everybody, i am using Graphene OS and only FOSS apps and i have a question. Recently i see some Foss apps also have "trackers" like Duckduckgo browser for example. I want to choose which apps i can block the internet connection for + the communication wich each other + VPN. I tried to use a "firewall" like netguard to block internet connection from the apps whoem don't need it + trackercontrol to block the trackers from all the apps and OpenVPN to hide my IP adress. But i can't use these 3 apps at once because the phone recognize them all as an VPN. Does anyone have the solution for this for me?

Use Brave browser.

jwoegerbauer said:
Use Brave browser.
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That is only for tracking on web browsing. I am searching to block unwanted trackers on the background from the apps also

When you are on the Internet, data such as IIP address, browser type, operating system, etc.pp, are inevitably transported with. Even a VPN service - what is superior to a Proxy - get this data transmitted. And you never will really know what the VPN service is doing with these data - at least VPN services that are free-of-charge - and whether they themselves run Man in the Middle Attacks or not.
BTW: A Firewall protects a network’s resources from intrusion by users on another network such as the Internet. All networked and online Android users should implement a Firewall solution, IMO. If you have a rooted Android smartphone, you can use AFWall+ to control your device’s Internet activities. AFWall+ also allows users to control Internet access on a per-app basis.

jwoegerbauer said:
When you are on the Internet, data such as IIP address, browser type, operating system, etc.pp, are inevitably transported with. Even a VPN service - what is superior to a Proxy - get this data transmitted. And you never will really know what the VPN service is doing with these data - at least VPN services that are free-of-charge - and whether they themselves run Man in the Middle Attacks or not.
BTW: A Firewall protects a network’s resources from intrusion by users on another network such as the Internet. All networked and online Android users should implement a Firewall solution, IMO. If you have a rooted Android smartphone, you can use AFWall+ to control your device’s Internet activities. AFWall+ also allows users to control Internet access on a per-app basis.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thabk you very much for youre great advice. So if i understand it good it is VPN connection is not a top priority right? Is it also true that GrapheneOs creates every day another imei number? Is the firewall solution of AFWall+ not the same as Netguard? If no can you please tell me what the difference is. AFWall+ gives in Fdroid that it has antifunctions, also for a lot of other apps. Does that have also influence on privacy and security?

I don't
1. make use of VPNs
2. know anything about GraphenOS. Changing IMEI and/or Wi-Fi Mac Address on a per daily basis makes no sense for me
3. use NetGuard, never tried it

Question Any mod/way to enable geo-change on the free VPN?

Hi, as you know, the P7 series comes with free VPN by Google One for 5 years.
And like most VPNs by big brands (Apple, Microsoft, Google), it doesn't allow manually switching the geolocation of the end server.
Is there a known way to do this for G1 VPN?
Ideal: modded G1 APK that doesn't require root.
Though I suspect rooting will be required , and isn't a problem for me.

How were you able to find the VPN settings? Couldn't find it in my P7pro settings

It says 'coming soon'. When it does arrive, I suspect it'll be via the Google One app, not Settings.