Pricefield | Lemmy
  • Communities
  • Create Post
  • Create Community
  • heart
    Support Lemmy
  • search
    Search
  • Login
  • Sign Up
davel [he/him] to [email protected]English • 15 days ago

The Best-Selling Apps Made By Israeli Spies

www.donotpanic.news

external-link
message-square
24
fedilink
121
external-link

The Best-Selling Apps Made By Israeli Spies

www.donotpanic.news

davel [he/him] to [email protected]English • 15 days ago
message-square
24
fedilink
A new frontier for the BDS movement
alert-triangle
You must log in or register to comment.
  • ZebraGoose
    link
    fedilink
    56•15 days ago

    The article lists the following apps associated with Israeli developers or companies:

    1. ZipoApps (also known as Rounds.com):

      • Collage Maker Photo Editor
      • Instasquare Photo Editor: Neon
      • Simple Gallery
      • Various baby photo editing and retouching tools
    2. Bazaart (AI-powered photo editing app)

    3. Facetune (by Lightricks)

    4. Supersonic from Unity:

      • Build a Queen
      • Going Balls
      • Bridge Race
      • Trash Tycoon
      • Conquer Countries
    5. Playtika (gambling apps, specific titles not listed in the article)

    6. Crazy Labs:

      • Phone Case DIY
      • Miraculous Ladybug & Cat Noir
      • Sculpt People
    7. Moovit (urban transport app)

    8. Call App (call screening app)

    9. Gett (ride-hailing app)

    10. Waze (GPS navigation app)

    11. Fooducate (nutrition app)

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      35•15 days ago

      Simple* apps were great before they got bought by Israeli spies. The development continues in Fossify: https://www.fossify.org/

      • ses hat
        link
        fedilink
        5•14 days ago

        So this fossy apps are safe? I have all apps from simple, but now i saw that israel owen them.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          4•14 days ago

          Yeah, the fossify apps are at least guaranteed to be safer than the simple ones from zipo. if you’re using simple apps, you ought to switch to the fossify forks.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      17•15 days ago

      Who else besides Waze can warn me if the police are nearby?!!!

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        16•
        edit-2
        15 days ago

        Google Maps in Android Auto does it, but I think they use Waze data.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          35•15 days ago

          Google bought Waze, so at this point you’re probably not making any Israeli spies money if you make use of it. On the other hand, you’re making Google money, which is almost as bad.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            5•14 days ago

            google (along with most of tech) is lousy with isreali interests.

            • Maeve
              link
              fedilink
              4•14 days ago

              https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/google-fires-workers-protest-israel-contract-project-nimbus-rcna148333, this wasn’t the first or worst

              Eta: https://brusselsmorning.com/does-google-support-israel-what-you-should-know/72332/

              • @[email protected]
                link
                fedilink
                English
                3•14 days ago

                i suspect it’ll be a forever thing

                • Maeve
                  link
                  fedilink
                  1•14 days ago

                  Yup.

          • Maeve
            link
            fedilink
            5•15 days ago

            🤣

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      15•15 days ago

      Except for Waze, I haven’t ever heard of any of these apps.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        7•15 days ago

        And yet, if you look them up you’ll find many of them have tens of millions of downloads. It’s crazy the types of random shit people thoughtlessly download from the Play Store. The North Korean spy agency also had spyware apps on there until recently, targeting South Korean users.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          1•14 days ago

          What are these North Korean spy apps. For research…

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        1•14 days ago

        Had to use gett when I visited Tel Aviv a few years back. That’s about it

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    17•
    edit-2
    15 days ago

    I’m pretty sure I’ve been using the Simple Gallery app they mention for years.

    It looks like it is still open source. However I do see on the Play Store page that their contact details are in Israel.

    Play store page for Simple Gallery

    The Pro version, the one I use, claims to collect no data at all. Not sure how much I trust that.

    Maybe it’s time to look for a new gallery app…

    EDIT:

    The open source code has not been updated since 2023, and neither has the Pro app. However the non-pro app has been updated in 2024.

    GitHub page for Simple Gallery, showing a October 2023 release

    Play Store page for Simple Gallery, showing an October 2023 release

    Therefore, it might be safe to use the open source code version on GitHub, but I wouldn’t touch the free one on the play store.

    I wouldn’t use the Pro version on the play store as you would be funding these companies and they could push an update in the future.

    EDIT 2:

    As mentioned here, a popular fork of many of these now abandoned Simple apps is the Fossify project. If you liked the app I’d recommend looking at that if you want to keep getting security updates at the very least.

    • /home/pineapplelover
      link
      fedilink
      4•14 days ago

      Simple Mobile Sold out to some company. Move over to the Fossify equivalent apps

      https://f-droid.org/packages/org.fossify.gallery

    • zqps
      link
      fedilink
      7•14 days ago

      I moved to com.kaii.photos on F-Droid. Works quite well.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        8•14 days ago

        Aves Libre Is also a great alternative

  • ☂️-
    link
    fedilink
    7•
    edit-2
    14 days ago

    deleted by creator

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    6•14 days ago

    Given how many “former” spies from the Israeli Unit 8200 are now in high level positions at Facebook, I’d say any Meta app is a concern for Israeli spying.

  • Drunk & Root
    link
    fedilink
    4•14 days ago

    everything on play and app store is spyware and not safe if you cant audit the source you need to assume its spying

  • mapumbaa
    link
    fedilink
    English
    6•14 days ago

    What do you guys think about AnySoftKeyboard? Could it be a “sleeping agent”?

    Country of origin is Israel according to: https://alternativeto.net/software/anysoftkeyboard/about/

    (I know this doesn’t mean anything, but still…)

    The main developer seems to live in New York: https://evendanan.net/

    He’s probably a good guy. Just got a little suspicious (or curious) when I saw the Israeli flag on AlternativeTo.

    • Autonomous User
      link
      fedilink
      English
      2•14 days ago

      Does it include a libre software license text file?

[email protected]

[email protected]
Create a post
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: [email protected]

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

  • Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn’t great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
  • Don’t promote proprietary software
  • Try to keep things on topic
  • If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
  • Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
  • Be nice :)

Related communities

  • Lemmy.ml libre_culture
  • Lemmy.ml privatelife
  • Lemmy.ml DeGoogle
  • Lemmy.ca privacy

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

  • 26 users / day
  • 290 users / week
  • 1.09K users / month
  • 4.61K users / 6 months
  • 5 subscribers
  • 3.91K Posts
  • 102K Comments
  • Modlog
  • mods:
  • @[email protected]
  • tmpod
  • @[email protected]
  • @[email protected]
  • UI: 0.18.4
  • BE: 0.18.2
  • Modlog
  • Instances
  • Docs
  • Code
  • join-lemmy.org