Privacy Blocker app for Android spoofs your personal data

Cory Doctorow 11:46 pm Fri Mar 25, 2011

Brook Jordan sends word of a fascinating Android app called Privacy Blocker:

Basically what the app does is scans all the applications you have installed. It identifies what data the apps are requesting about your phone and sending. It then will "fix" the privacy issue by replacing that data inside the app with hard coded (bogus) data.

So if an app is sending your phone number back to a server, Privacy Blocker will hard code your number as "55544433333". You also have the option to override the default values and make it anything you want.

What it's doing is pretty damn impressive to be honest. The app is very processor intensive when it's "fixing" an app because it's having to decompile, parse the source and then recompile the app on the phone. It's especially processor intensive on large apps like games.

The author is a custom ROM developer and a regular on droidforums.net. I'm not a member of droidforums.net and don't know him. However I tracked this thread down when I was trying to validate the app and author for myself.

All in all a pretty damn cool app. As a user who is sensitive to privacy this app has me extremely excited, damn near giddy.

Privacy Blocker

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