Outdated WiGLE app on F-Droid

Suggestions for WiGLE/JiGLE/DiGLE

8 posts • Page 1 of 1

Postby wiglemap » Fri Feb 26, 2016 1:09 am

https://f-droid.org/forums/topic/wigle-outdated/

Please remove the proprietary play-services dependency or make available an alternate version without it. The app has been downloaded thousands of times on F-Droid, surely other users would like to continue using the updated app.

People who use F-Droid would never dream of using apps not available on F-Droid (for the same reasons why apps are available on F-Droid).

Postby bobzilla » Fri Feb 26, 2016 2:06 am

Google Play Services are available to non-official android devices, you don't need the Google Play Store to install them. We realize Google Play Services is not open source, but we are not zealots about such things. It would be a maintenance headache to have versions with and without mapping, there are a lot of integration points and Google Maps just works better than alternatives (we used to use OSMDroid).

As you know, Wigle Wifi Wardriving is open source, I suppose you could start a fork project to maintain a non-mapping version if you are up to the task. Since you've asked to have your account deleted, I'm guessing not.
-bobzilla - WiGLE.net just a little bit
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Postby addck » Fri Feb 26, 2016 4:55 pm

First of all, let me acknowledge the fact that his is *your software*, *your forum* and *your show* in general. I can only provide input based on my own views, knowledge and values and hope to invoke reflection on part of those who might read this.

I'll have to agree with "wiglemap" on this. What we have seen over the last eight years is the rise of "smart phones" in the hands of "dumb users". I retain enough esteem for humanity in general that I hold the view that if people really knew what is going on inside their phones and how their privacy is infringed upon on a massive scale, they will reconsider their choices and activities. Unfortunately, the vast majority of humanity will never know how the sausages are made and for all they know their phones operate by small gnomes turning wheels, etc, etc.

The Google Play store is full of malware-laden software, Android is handing Google vast swaths of information on its users, apps include tracking APIs and phone home with all kind of information which is then sold to whomever will pay. The aggregate of all this might end up as what I can only describe as a scary future.

What F-Droid is trying to do is provide an alternative to the Play Store, containing only reproducible builds of "FOSSoftware". That way we know how the sausages are made, as it were. Now, sticking to F-Droid on stock Android would be pointless, fortunately there are lots of AOSP-based custom ROMs/"shizzle", I'll namedrop CyanogenMod, being the most widely used.

Smart/sufficiently cynical/skeptical-minded users would never use stock/"skinned" Android (nor iOS, being a closed system). They will use an open, custom ROM (firmware blobs, I know) and a firewall which will limit any system component and/or app from phoning home as well as restrict what information any given app has access to. They will also stick to F-Droid for apps, being the standard-bearer and all. Being called a "zealot" will be taken as a badge of honor by such users, often the same people who use Debian for the very same reasons. We will never let the WiGLE app phone home, we will export to CSV, perform a manual upload and for private use run the KML through our favorite OpenStreetMap viewer/app. These are users contributing to your software, your show, mind you.

If the current mapping features of WiGLE.apk require "Play Services" then that is simply how it is and not up to me. I humbly propose that you make available a "WiGLE Lite.apk" and just cut the "live map"-feature entirely. "OpenWLANMap" did exactly this with their "Mini" version:
https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/? ... .vwp.owmap
https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/? ... vwp.owmini

The WiGLE app has been downloaded thousands of times from F-Droid, I for one hope to be able to continue using it.

Postby bobzilla » Sun Feb 28, 2016 2:20 am

We've made a branch which strips out Google Maps, including a generated apk. No promises on how often we'll update it though:
https://github.com/wiglenet/wigle-wifi- ... oss-master
-bobzilla - WiGLE.net just a little bit
Image

Postby ithink314 » Sat Feb 10, 2018 9:27 pm

We've made a branch which strips out Google Maps, including a generated apk. No promises on how often we'll update it though:
https://github.com/wiglenet/wigle-wifi- ... oss-master
Oh how things change... LineageOS, successor of CyanogenMod celebrated a year this last December, and I've recently been testing the microG fork. Ironically, even Lineage phones home to provide statistics and notify of updates, etc. :shock:

In the process of installing related Location services, I've learned about some other Cell and Wifi scanning and local location database options, and have been using F-droid much more, and almost no Gapps (from Yalp). I'd also been having battery issues on a phone. For these and a few other reasons, I've taken a time-out from Wigle, and would appreciate hearing some answers to the following questions.

I know the newer Wigle apk is available for download, but why is F-droid giving only version 2.10, when 2.25 is available in github foss-master? ( https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/net.wigle.wigleandroid )

Could you comment on the Wigle "DisabledAlgorithm" and the "KnownVuln" Antifeatures, and if these are fixed in the 2.25 version? Is the "NonFreeNet" Antifeature because of Google services, or is there more to it?
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Postby arkasha » Sun Feb 11, 2018 7:39 pm

It looks to me like the "vulns" are probably a result of how out-of-date the version of the app on f-droid is. I don't see an easy way to get them to update their version, but would love to see them pull the latest foss-master. If there's something we can do to prompt them to sync and build, I'm happy to do it.

Postby duszeks » Wed Jan 15, 2020 10:19 am

I'll have to agree with "wiglemap" on this. What we have seen over the last eight years is the rise of "smart phones" in the hands of "dumb users". I retain enough esteem for humanity in general that I hold the view that if people really knew what is going on inside their phones and how their privacy is infringed upon on a massive scale, they will reconsider their choices and activities. Unfortunately, the vast majority of humanity will never know how the sausages are made and for all they know their phones operate by small gnomes turning wheels, etc, etc.

The Google Play store is full of malware-laden software, Android is handing Google vast swaths of information on its users, apps include tracking APIs and phone home with all kind of information which is then sold to whomever will pay. The aggregate of all this might end up as what I can only describe as a scary future.
You are very right. That's why I did choose to DeGoogle. I wonder why no one before have explained privacy breaches in such a way.
Smart/sufficiently cynical/skeptical-minded users would never use stock/"skinned" Android (nor iOS, being a closed system). They will use an open, custom ROM (firmware blobs, I know) and a firewall which will limit any system component and/or app from phoning home as well as restrict what information any given app has access to. They will also stick to F-Droid for apps, being the standard-bearer and all. Being called a "zealot" will be taken as a badge of honor by such users, often the same people who use Debian for the very same reasons. We will never let the WiGLE app phone home, we will export to CSV, perform a manual upload and for private use run the KML through our favorite OpenStreetMap viewer/app. These are users contributing to your software, your show, mind you.
Your attitude on computing is very good. Congratulations!
If the current mapping features of WiGLE.apk require "Play Services" then that is simply how it is and not up to me. I humbly propose that you make available a "WiGLE Lite.apk" and just cut the "live map"-feature entirely. "OpenWLANMap" did exactly this with their "Mini" version:
https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/? ... .vwp.owmap
https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/? ... vwp.owmini
Better for you, because every Google app likely has got some tracking code. You will not win using Google apps/these who have Google components.
Last edited by duszeks on Tue Nov 10, 2020 11:08 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby OliVDB » Fri Jan 31, 2020 8:02 pm

Yeah, it looks like you can't really do anything privacy wise as long as Google has a word to say... But regarding the addiction to smartphones and the plasticity of the brain, I noticed that pattern before the smartphone, when I was in high school in the 90s. I was learning German back then (and now, I couldn't fight my way out of a paper bag if it offered to let me through in that language... but that's another story), and noticed over the course of my scolarity that if I knew I had a dictionary at hand, I'd forget - or at least, fail to remember - some words and had to use the dictionary to find them, while I could handle the situation by myself and do without it if I knew it wasn't available! So, I stopped to use the thing altogether except when translating difficult stuff, and managed to become quite fluent. And even then, I had to use the dictionary if it was there... And it wasn't just me, everyone was in that situation, except for the teacher.

But there's an issue regarding the use of Google based stuff: I've got my own phone, for which I'm trying to do without the big corp, but my job has me using an Android phone for professional matters (calling clients, posting stuff on their site, finding my way on google maps when going to a conference or "touring" stuff like these houses in Alicante to insure them) and, because of that, I've always got a Google item tracking my moves and many of my activities.

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