Unidentified governments are surveilling smartphone users by tracking push notifications that move through Google's and Apple's servers, a US...
  • 𝕽𝖔𝖔𝖙𝖎𝖊𝖘𝖙@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    I think unless they use netfy or a similar alternative then yes.

    The vast majority of apps will be using GCM or FCM for notifications.

    Now whether or not those push messages are encrypted/don’t contain private data is up to the app developer so how much is exposed can certainly vary.

    • MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      I get it. Indeed, it’s obvious now that even these apps would need to use Google’s API I stand corrected. Nope, apps from F-droid usually do not use GCM.

      I hadn’t heard of netfy before this, I’ll have to take a look. I’m assuming that’s an alternative FOSS framework for notifications? Can it be used as a drop-in replacement for most applications?

      • 𝕽𝖔𝖔𝖙𝖎𝖊𝖘𝖙@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        11 months ago

        You’re right, for some reason I thought Firebase was allowed.

        Yeah netfy is a FOSS notification service.

        As to drop-in replacements, I don’t think such a thing really exists on the user side, this is fully up to the app developer in how they want to implement notifications.

        To use netfy instead of FCM your app would need to be designed to do so or support it as an alternative option.