this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2025
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You Should Know

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According to the tracking scanner Exodus (can be found on F-Droid), which keeps an updated database on trackers and runs your installed app against its register, you can track what apps are tracking you and clues of how. Saw that Boost is tracking me and uninstalled it and went straight to Jerboa. Jerboa is pretty similar to good ole' RedditIsFun-app and easy to use, so I am personally recommending it.

From F-Droid:

Exodus (Exodus show you trackers and permissions in apps installed on your device.) https://f-droid.org/packages/org.eu.exodus_privacy.exodusprivacy/

(page 3) 50 comments
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[–] K1nsey6 29 points 2 days ago

There is a reason so many Lemmy apps are abandoned, they were free and free of advertising. Devs need to eat. I prefer the paid app model to support the devs as opposed to ads. The dev of boost has always been open about how ads work.

[–] A_Random_Idiot -5 points 21 hours ago (6 children)

Or just use a browser, ffs.

everything doesnt need to be an app.

especially when its nothing but a goddamn webbrowser, wrapped in an app, with less protection.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 days ago

On join-lemmy there is small warning for every closed source app

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

My favorite app is Firefox 😉

(or alternatively: Tor - its also great, many Lemmy instances are Tor friendly)

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I guess I'm just legitimately confused about how to feel about it all. Lemmy is free, signing up on an instance is free, people are posting/creating content for free, moderators are taking care of the space for free. No one's locking in to get "fed" through the entire chain. The arguments about abandoned apps doesn't really compute since plenty paid and advertising friendly apps go under/stop developing further as well (and the entire Lemmy eco-system is free so silly points of "capitalism better"). There's also the crux of "Apps just replace a webpage", they're really not reinventing the wheel here.

But, if people prefer paid apps, if the developers want to construct the apps in that manner, have at it. I do think spreading awareness of what apps are out there is important, and how they operate (this is YSK after all). I also wouldn't spend time in my day coming into defend organizations that want to monetize on open source community projects either.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

I guess I'm just legitimately confused about how to feel about it all.

The freedom of Lemmy and the fediverse let's people choose how to interact with it.

If a user is looking for a free to use , open source, ad-free experience then that's their choice.

If others are happy to pay for an app because they prefer the experience that app provides them they can choose to do so.

I also wouldn't spend time in my day coming into defend organizations that want to monetize on open source community projects either.

OP read that Boost may contain code used for tracking, then started spewing some conspiracy that "Boost is tracking your data for profiling and more!" without any proof or any actual research.

This isn't a case of defending some giant corporation, it's just stopping tedious drama before it spreads.

If you check OPs profile they've been spreading this for over a week. When I first saw this thread the masses were heavily upvoting the conspiracy and downvoting anyone disagreeing.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

You're missing the part where the lemmy and instance staff needs to get fed too. Donate to your instance the same as you would buy this app. If you use a free service for many hours, and you can spare a couple bucks, then spare it.

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[–] grue 17 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

YSK that, in general, you should only ever use Android apps from F-Droid unless you've got a very good justification for doing otherwise. That's especially true for generic/basic utility apps like calculators, calendars, and file managers, classic games like solitaire or tetris, and Lemmy clients.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago

This is completely natural common sense for you and me, but to other people its alien to live with the "guilty until proven innocent" mindset that needs to be applied to software.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 days ago (9 children)

Good work bringing this to the attention of others.

I agree that Jerboa is good. If anyone wants another option, then Connect For Lemmy is clean, simple, and updated frequently. I'm nothing to do with Connect, just someone that has tried loads of Lemmy apps on Android, and has settled on Connect.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Aside from what everyone else has said regarding the ads: Boost is an amazing app and I don't browse Lemmy without it!

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