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by lurtbancaster 241 days ago
> ad tap (just clicking an ad, potentially a misclick aiming for a tiny X button, with no Install button even visible on screen)

> AppLovin’s X’s are unusually tiny, so mis-taps are especially likely

This is why I use Intent Intercept - https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.k3b.android.intentinterce...

It tells me exactly what's about to happen from my tap(accidental or intentional), and gives me the option to undo my tap.

Every privacy/security conscious Android user should have Intent Intercept installed on their devices already.
1 comments
cudgy 241 days ago
Makes sense. Pretty sad to have to install a tool like that to get security on a platform that is used by billions of users. Even more shocking that apps get installed just from clicking a small close button on a silly ad without even prompting for the install?

Installing random tools to hopefully get more security, though is risky also. Hopefully that tool doesn’t get compromised as it is privy to all intent activity.

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lurtbancaster 240 days ago
> Pretty sad to have to install a tool like that to get security on a platform that is used by billions of users.

You click on a banner ad inside an app, and if you have Intent Intercept installed, it won't immediately register as an "impression" and take you to wherever the banner has been programmed to take you to by default. Since Intent Intercept also affects the ad industry(of which Google is a big part), I don't expect Google to build a similar less-nerdy tool into Android by default.

> Installing random tools to hopefully get more security, though is risky also. Hopefully that tool doesn’t get compromised as it is privy to all intent activity.

Intent Intercept is open source(Apache License 2.0 https://github.com/k3b/intent-intercept) and its release binaries are hosted on F-Droid, arguably the most trusted Android "store" for Free and Open Source apps. So I'm not too worried.

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cudgy 240 days ago
I think we should always be worried when installing even open source tools that are injected within operating system functions, especially tools that pull in many external libraries. It adds to the threat surface area.

However, in this case, this tool will hopefully mitigate that risk and, as you said, the creator of the OS is actually a threat too (by leaving their OS vulnerable in order to facilitate their ad business).

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