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submitted 9 months ago by King@lemy.lol to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

For anyone using any Simple Mobile Tools app be aware that they were sold few days ago (4 dec 2023) to a very privacy unfriendly company:

https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/General-Discussion/issues/241

Is suggested to remove them or stop updating them.

BTW the company is an israeli publisher that buys apps and fills them with ads asking weekly fees to avoid them...

Someone has made an alternatives list: https://libreddit.nullnet.services/r/SimpleMobileTools/comments/18929pq/simplemobiletools_was_sold_alternatives/

One of the dev of SMT has forked them: https://github.com/FossifyX

And another group of dev announced a fork too: https://github.com/goastian

News Source on Telegram: https://t.me/Libreware/1210

top 18 comments
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[-] LWD@lemm.ee 29 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)
[-] dsemy@lemm.ee 14 points 9 months ago

They did not ditch WebKit for Blink, they ditched it for Gecko (Firefox), which is a good thing IMO.

[-] LWD@lemm.ee 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)
[-] shortwavesurfer@monero.town 20 points 9 months ago

Once the fossify apps are on fdroid i will be moving to them

[-] Longmactoppedup@aussie.zone 7 points 9 months ago

Same.

I use simple calendar widget's agenda and monthly planner. Glad to hear they are being forked.

[-] niisyth@lemmy.ca 14 points 9 months ago

FFS, I moved from Quickpic for the same reason and now Simple Gallery Pro.

Ugh

[-] ragica@lemmy.ml 6 points 9 months ago

Aves is really good. Used Simple Gallery Pro for years and it was great. But switching to Aves is painless for me.

[-] e_mc2@feddit.nl 4 points 9 months ago

Yeah, exactly the same here. Oh well, time to switch again.

[-] Predator@feddit.uk -1 points 9 months ago

FWIW, QuickPic Pro ad-free is available by Cheetah Mobile the company who bought it. Also a modded fork of the last verion before it was bundled with ads is available from github.

[-] niisyth@lemmy.ca 1 points 9 months ago

Cheetah Mobile aren't exactly well known for their business ethics. Partly why a lot of folks bailed.

[-] kpw@kbin.social 13 points 9 months ago

Anyone knows what F-Droid will do? Will they switch over to a fork? Maybe the people who installed it via F-Droid don't have to switch at all. @fdroid

[-] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 3 points 9 months ago

I don't think they need to do anything. As long as an app meets the F-droid rules it should be fine. Only time will tell of the F-droid version becomes unmaintained

[-] inson1@lemm.ee 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

They stoped the updates That is enough for now

[-] inson1@lemm.ee 3 points 9 months ago
this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2023
125 points (97.7% liked)

Privacy

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