I am a Tasker enthusiast and when I can automate something simple on my phone I like to. I set a simple task to turn off WiFi when my home network is not detected so my phone doesn’t scan and report my location to businesses. However, this functionality is now nonexistent and the developer has to ask people not to one-star their app because it doesn’t work. My phone is my phone and killing my ability to use it as such for whatever security theater Google is playing at is why I root my device. Anyone else still rooting for similar reasons?
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn’t great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don’t promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
- 0 users online
- 57 users / day
- 383 users / week
- 1.5K users / month
- 5.7K users / 6 months
- 1 subscriber
- 3.12K Posts
- 78K Comments
- Modlog
deleted by creator
I just want to enable adb over tcpip 5555 at boot.It is simply impossible on my device and I cannot disable bootloader lock.
Your phone isn’t your phone as long as you run either google or apple software…
Joke’s on them my phone’s a Huawei and reports directly to the CCCP.
Oh, wait…
Sometimes I do wonder as a morbid curiosity if using their software could have a privacy benefit. Not to imply that they wouldn’t spy, just that they have less ability to act on the information. Like the report of a mother discussing an abortion with her teen daughter on messenger were Meta turned over the chats.
Also as a snide comment the CCCP is the Soviet Union, which is defunct now. One less C and you might improve your standing and get a television.
Not even snide I hate making mistakes like this, thanks man.
Idk about privacy, I doubt it, but at least the weather system sucks. Fetches info from some system which clearly isn’t the same data as my local, more accurate forecasts.
TIL Tasker even worked without root lol.
Also, why do we even need tasker to do that? iOS allows you to do that with its Shortcuts app lol, this is a weird moment when Android is becoming more closed and iOS open (in system wide features).
Well, that is why I chuckle when people say there is no reason to root nowadays… Heck, not even banking apps will prevent me from rooting my phone, and my next android purchases are gonna be based in whether it can be rooted or not.
So open that you need an app to send a file over Bluetooth…
Come on, you know what I meant, compare pre iOS 7 with whichever Android was at that time… You can see nowadays the release updates are switching and iOS is implementing more features (or features that it should have had since the beginning lol) and Android is closing down more (Google’s fault and no root ofc).
It barely works for Android 14+ without root. Macrodroid has much better compatibility for whatever reason.
Unfortunately rooting while passing safetynet verification is very hard or impossible lately depending on the device. If apps didn’t unnecessarily check safetynet status this wouldn’t be a problem, but since so many now the rooted phone effectively becomes a brick. I really miss the days of custom ROMs and full device automation without stupid workarounds. Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s any going back without app developers getting on board with an alternative to Google-verified security on Android.
MD has a companion app, and you have to grant it special rights via adb (read/write secure settings) first. might also work for tasker
Tasker has a similar companion app, it just doesn’t work with as many things on my Pixel 8 Pro as Macrodroid. The only phone automation I rely on anymore is Wifi hotspot toggling based on connected Bluetooth devices, which Tasker is incapable of now even with the companion app. I really don’t know how Macrodroid does it.
Of the automation apps my preferred UI Automate with its flows. It allows the complexity of Tasker without becoming unreadable as the automations become big. It’s harder to edit and even worse without root than Tasker.
Well, you need Tasker because that’s one of the Android equivalents of the Shortcuts app.
Sure, but I meant, how is it that we don’t have a native tool for this (like Automator) or at least a system app from Google (like Shortcuts app).
Samsung has Routines. Might be worth to check out of its possible to run it outside OneUI.
Fair, I was being cheeky. I don’t know if I trust Google anymore to make and maintain a good app or service.
deleted by creator
you can root Samsung really easily tho?
you lose some features if you decide ti go back tho
If it’s a modern US Samsung model originally provided by a carrier, you can’t. A long time ago, people used to find/use security exploits for Samsung phones, but I think they just don’t care much anymore since you can buy international versions or other bootloader unlockable phones.
deleted by creator
i mean unless your phone is locked to a carrier there’s nothing stopping you?
deleted by creator
Same. Here. I have a s21, but it is frustrating how little control I have over the device. Garbage apps like chrome are taking up a huge chunk of my storage space, but my phone won’t let me uninstall them.
As the other coment said, there are ways: https://github.com/Universal-Debloater-Alliance/universal-android-debloater-next-generation Or https://github.com/samolego/Canta
You can try to uninstall those apps with adb shell.
I use macrodroid instead, though I have also paid for Tasker.
I just find macrodroid much easier to use. I learned to use Tasker, then was not using it for a few months, went back to it to implement something and god damm, what a horrible UI. I had forgotten how to use it. Decided to try macrodroid and it is just so beautiful and easy…
I was under the impression that BSSID scanning was entirely passive, and that a phone that scans for beacons doesn’t actually reveal itself to anyone.
It was in response to the Naomi Brockwell post she did on Twitter about businesses using WiFi, Bluetooth and Location Services to track you in public locations. You can Google it directly “NBTV Advice from Defcon” or this link: https://nbtv.substack.com/p/advice-from-defcon-turn-off-bluetooth
I get how it works with wifi connections, and Bluetooth scanning (since that’s a peer to peer protocol that needs to broadcast its availability), and obviously the OS-level location services, but I’m still not seeing how seeing wifi beacons would reveal anything. For one, pretty much every mobile device OS now uses MAC randomization so that your wifi activity on one network can’t be correlated with another. And for another, I think the BSSID scanning protocol is listen only for client devices.
Happy to be proven wrong, and to learn more, but the article linked doesn’t seem to explain anything on this particular supposed threat.
This is my understanding as well, but also not an expert.
deleted by creator
Tasker is the reason Android is so much better than iOS
It requires Google play
Tasker? It’s provided an alternative for several years, it is literally the only paid app I know which does this.
I know of FairEmail, Niagara Launcher, FolderSync and Symfonium (if you DM the dev) which offer alternate payment methods.
Oh wow
Yeah Google can play a little game of hide-and-go-fuck-themselves.
blocking ads. fuck ads.
And now, even when your WiFi is off they still turn it on to “help with location tracking.” And they’re talking about taking away the ability to turn Bluetooth off.
Tasker is anti-libre software. We do not control it. It fails to include a libre software license text file, like AGPL.
Serious question, what would be a recommended alternative?
Not as powerful as Tasker, but for some basic automation tasks PhoneProfilesPlus is a good alternative.
Appreciate the response / information. I’ll check it out!!
Wow that’s actually a great app. Thanks.
My computer has root. My phone must too.
ELI5 how can i root my device?
Rooting a device is a process that depends on the phone and manufacturer. On some devices it is flat out impossible, on other it is trivial (those tend to be increasingly rare). The steps usually go something like this
Keep in mind that you can 100% brick your phone doing this and that it’ll most likely void your warranty. Do not root your device following this post alone. I tried to answer an ELI5, not a Teach Me How To Do It Like I’m 5.
More information:
Does this disable any OEM updates?
It will disable incremental updates but as long as there is a flashable zip file of the full image you can update using that
You can also quickly unroot then do an incremental update and then use magisk to create a flashable boot image afterwards to re-root
Steps 2-3 are sadly impossible on most devices. If you have one of the bad ones, I’d recommend making some searches before you choose your next device.
Depends on your device