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From: Andrew <andrew@spam.net>
Newsgroups: comp.mobile.android
Subject: Re: Why do so many people confuse Google's Firebase (cloud API) with Google Services Google Firebase App Indexing (search results)?
Date: Sun, 30 Jun 2024 08:17:37 -0000 (UTC)
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Arno Welzel wrote on Sat, 29 Jun 2024 11:19:00 +0200 :

> Well - let's say, Firebase is like Android itself - a collection of
> things running on your smartphone.

Yup. I apologize for not understanding that Firebase is a collection of
unrelated "things" when I had originally opened this thread topic (only
some of which are cloud based and only some of which are search related).

There's no indication anyone knew how extensive Firebase is, in terms of
the collection of "stuff" it does so it's natural that this thread started
with a bit of confusion - but in the end - we all agree now what it is.

Suffice to say there are (at least) three 'beasts' from Google which impact
your privacy and which many developers appear to link into their APKs:
1. Google Mobile Services (mostly seems to be links to Google package APIs)
2. Google Services Framework (mostly seems to be links to Google spyware)
3. Firebase APIs (only some of which are clearly links to Google spyware)

The good news is the FOSS Google Play Store client can filter out apps
which incorporate GSF spyware into them - and my personal contacts with the
developers on XDA indicate they're working on adding a filter for GMS too.

As far as I know, there's no easy way to tell whether or not an app is
linking to the Firebase App Indexing search-related spyware (the index of
which is uploaded periodically to Google servers) though.

The only way I know to tell is to look in the Android settings under
"Google Services" for "Firebase App Indexing" (which is where I found it).

> It makes no sense at all to refer to "Firebase" when talking about
> security relevant features. Always specify what component you are
> talking about like "Firebase Cloud Messaging" or "Firebase App Indexing".

Now that I know what I know about Firebase, I heartily agree with you.

There's essentially no such thing as "Firebase" unless we lump these in it.
 Google Services Firebase A/B Testing
 Google Services Firebase AdMob
 Google Services Firebase Analytics
 Google Services Firebase App Indexing
 Google Services Firebase Authentication
 Google Services Firebase Cloud Firestore
 Google Services Firebase Cloud Functions
 Google Services Firebase Cloud Messaging
 Google Services Firebase Cloud Storage
 Google Services Firebase Crashlytics
 Google Services Firebase Dynamic Links
 Google Services Firebase Performance Monitoring
 Google Services Firebase Realtime Database
 Google Services Firebase Remote Config

> However I don't believe that Google wants to hide things or confuse
> users - it's just many services where the guys at Google themself got
> confused at some points how to name the things and how to organize
> everything in a common library for developers.

Oh, I worked in Silicon Valley R&D & Marketing for decades. 
I know how it goes. 

The engineers don't care what it's called - they each code each
functionality based on almost no common rules while the marketing loves to
lump things together into 'brand name recognition' categories.

That's why, for example, we saw "Google Project Mainline" change names so
many times, where I think it's now "Google Play Services updates" or
something like that (because "Google Play Store" has brand recognition
(which is why there are a LOT of "Google Play Services".

Me? I still call it Project Mainline (which is another lump of "stuff" that
most people don't have a clue what it is but let's not go there today).

In summary, thanks for helping me understand that anyone using just the
word "Firebase" probably doesn't know what they're talking about - as it's
a meaningless name for a plethora of completely unrelated capabilities.

Moving forward, what would be nice is to find a surefire way to tell if an
app has linked in the Firebase code - where the way I do it is to turn on
Developer options - which adds the Firebase App Indexing to the Google
Services part of the Android menu.

But App Indexing is only one component of Firebase (as you know).

So we still need a surefire way to tell if any of the rest of the various
and sundry components of Firebase are included in an APK.