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From: Andrew <andrew@spam.net>
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Subject: Re: Android keyboard: your choice.
Date: Sat, 22 Jun 2024 00:25:46 -0000 (UTC)
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R.Wieser wrote on Fri, 21 Jun 2024 22:37:35 +0200 :

>> So I think there are MULTIPLE things that Google calls "Firebase".
> 
> Too bad you only name one ...  Or is it that the one you described is the 
> only one related to android ?

One thing we have to remember is anyone who talks only about "Google
Firebase" (cloud services) without also talking about "Google Services
Firebase App Indexing (decidedly NOT cloud related), probably doesn't
understand either - which is - I think - the biggest problem here.

I too don't understand the difference.
But at least I'm aware that there is a difference.

Which is a good start but not good enough to explain it fully to anyone.

To your query about which apps have "Google Services Firebase App Indexing"
inside of them, there are many apps that link in "Google Services Firebase
App Indexing" but long ago I deleted every non-essential app that made use
of "Google Services Google Firebase App Indexing". 

So they're not on my system.
They are certainly on your system though.

But not mine.
So they're going to show up in a screenshot of your device.

But not in a screenshot of mine.

Notice in the previous screenshot, for example, that the "Windy" weather
app used Google Services Firebase App Indexing - which is why I deleted it.
 <https://i.postimg.cc/qR8zr72r/appindex01.jpg>

Notice in this screenshot from long ago on my phone, plenty more apps used
it, such as Google's quicksearchbox (which I then deleted) and Google TV
(which I then deleted) and T-Mobile (which I then deleted) and YouTube
(which I then deleted). I deleted every non-essential app that used Google
Services Google Firebase App Indexing - which I recommend others do too.
 <https://i.postimg.cc/Fs8GDLfX/firebase01.jpg>

Notice even the venerable VLC video player app uses Google Services Google
Firebase App Indexing; so while I love VLC, I had to remove that app too
(and you'll notice the less-known Maderski Charging Indicator used it too).
 <https://i.postimg.cc/QtfJ59LP/firebase02.jpg>

>> Google Services "Firebase App Indexing" that is on my phone and which
>> gathers extremely private data which is uploaded periodically to somewhere
>> by an unknown-to-me process.
> 
> Thanks for that.

Long ago, when I first heard of it, I had uninstalled every non-essential
app that used Google Services Google Firebase App Indexing but some
packages are essential, such as Google Play Services, which, when I removed
it, it screwed things up so I had to add it back for the basic working of
the Android phone.
 <https://i.postimg.cc/KvCkLccr/firebase03.jpg>

I agree we should have some way of telling if an app is going to use Google
Services Firebase App Indexing but I don't know how to tell that.

However, ANY app can add "Google Services Google Firebase App Indexing".
 <https://medium.com/android-news/firebase-app-indexing-for-personal-content-getting-personal-content-into-search-c52bfe45b3ac>
 <https://traversoft.com/2017/05/02/firebase-app-indexing/>

So we should be able to install any app (such as Facebook) that is known to
use Google Services Google Firebase App Indexing to look at the manifest.

> It means (to me) that if I see an apk mentioning "Firebase" in its manifest 
> I should drop it (as the spyware it is) and walk away.

While I freely admit I don't know the difference between "Google Firebase"
and "Google Services Firebase App Indexing", I think they are different.

The reason I think that is when you dig into "Google Firebase", the cloud
inevitably shows up while with "Google Services Google Firebase App
Indexing", the cloud is explicitly not involved at all.

But there is too little data on the net for me to be able to truly
distinguish between those two (different?) firebases from Google.
 <https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Google+Services%22+%22Firebase+App+Indexing>

The "Google Services Google Firebase App Indexing" seems to be a
data-collection that Google takes advantage up by uploading "statistics" to
Google Servers, as it says in these links that came up from that search.
 <https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/213149/what-is-firebase-app-indexing-under-google-services-settings>
 <https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2014/04/app-indexing-updates>
 <https://www.lido.app/firebase/what-is-firebase-app-indexing>

Notice developers can collect your data between different platforms.

In summary, what we need is a definitive way to tell if an app has included
Google Services Google Firebase App Indexing in it, and, we need to figure
out the difference between Google Firebase cloud stuff and the very
different (it seems) Google Firebase App Indexing (which appears to be
cloud free but Google uploads "statistics" so it's still privacy invasive).