In light of this, it could be an idea to check if you have any of those apps installed and consider replacing them with an alternative. I was using Simple Contacts until now (only listed as "Contacts" in my apps), so I guess it's time to make some changes.
Simple Gallery got removed when people found it had non-FOSS Google libraries linked in while checking the Fossify rebrand/rework, just export your preferences and import them on Fossify Gallery (BE AWARE: There’s a bug in some launchers when an app uses custom icons like Simple Gallery and Fossify do, which breaks them, you’ll notice it if you import the preferences and you can no longer launch the app and have to uninstall/reinstall it to be able to even launch it again, in that case edit the exported Simple Gallery preferences and remove the icon line)
I have several of the apps installed. I went through and checked the permissions, and they’re still pretty sparse. The play store didn’t mention anything about updates, but a few of them, like Notes, seemed to be disabled.
If they're from F-Droid you're good; if you're on Google Play I doubt they'll update anything to get more permissions without your consent.
However, if the developer has taken a turn for the worse (which this post seems to indicate), you might not receive any more updates for your F-Droid software, and you might get to a point where you don't want to install updates from Google Play. Software that cannot be updated is generally not a good thing.
Furthermore, these apps deal with somewhat sensitive information by default, and I wouldn't want to use apps developed by a company I don't trust if I don't absolutely have to. :)
Tibor betrayed us and sold the Simple Apps suite to a sleazy adtech company a while ago, there were multiple posts on this suggesting replacements, then one of the most active devs forked it into Fossify, removing all the branding and references to the original, work is still ongoing on this, already some of the apps have been rereleased, here’s a handy matrix of the progress on the rerelease from somebody on Github
I mean it makes sense for error reporting. Lots of apps automatically report errors so that they can be detected easily, which would require internet access.
i mean google would have it anyway; and the app developer would be collecting the logs any way so the cost would be there already. this would just make it so they wouldn’t need to request full network access; just enough to get the logs.
I’m really curious about the amount of money exchanged. It must have been an enormous amount in order to do a “I’d even sell my mom for that” and don’t feel dirty
There were multiple reports about sleazy companies reaching out to developers of popular apps and Chrome addons and offering them money for their accounts. The money is really good but there’s still a lot of devs that can say ‘no’. They will just use to track some people, it’s not a completely new business that will grow and earn them money like Instagram or something.
the developer, and this isnt exaggeration, does not understand gpl v3. he literally got confused when people told him he had no right to sell contributed code. you can see for yourself in the github discussions
I’m pretty sure what he sold was not the code but access to this play store account so that the new owner can push updated version to his current users.
You perfectly can sell GPL code. And you can double-license yourself (provided that you are the copyright holder) as GPL and a privative license. A lot of companies do that, legally and correctly.
I hope the money was worth tanking the good will of the brand. I wish I could code successful apps and the undermine my principles for meager amounts of money and fuck off into the woods
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