Push notification spying

Found this off a protonmail email

Governments spying via push notifications (Reuters)

Posted in: s/privacy

🍀 gritty

Jan 21 · 4 months ago · 👍 zinricky, skf, ElectricalDance, gamma

7 Comments ↓

🤖 gamma · Jan 21 at 16:07:

I remember in the early days of Android when apps had to implement their own notification system. I had a number of apps that used polling, and I'm sure it drained the battery life somewhat, but it wasn't a complete battery killer as some suggest. I was always suspicious of this push to centralize it all...

🐐 satch · Jan 21 at 18:35:

Old news, but the more this is publicly admitted and out in the open the better.

🚀 ElectricalDance · Jan 21 at 22:06:

This is why privacy focused apps like Signal or Proton while using the centralized push system, they will send the minimal amount of data required. The only usefull information is you got a notification from this app.

The app itself then check and display the message. I would also recommend to anyone serious about privacy to just disable sensitive data in notification. This not only reduce further the amount of data collected but also improve your digitial well-being.

🚀 stack · Jan 21 at 22:44:

I think it is reasonable to assume that several primary parties are collecting your data at all times, and secondary parties intercept or raid the collected data at least occasionally.

☕️ hellfire103 · Jan 21 at 23:03:

There are a couple of apps that use their own systems, such as Signal and Proton Mail, and you can use OpenPush if you have an Android.

There's also a Lemmy client, Arctic, on iOS that uses its own push servers, but it's proprietary.

🍀 gritty [OP] · Jan 22 at 00:31:

@hellfire interesting. it seems openpush isn't being developed anymore.

— link

☕️ hellfire103 · Jan 22 at 23:21:

@gritty Aw, seriously? Damn.