Wi-Fi Privacy Police prevents your smartphone or tablet from leaking privacy sensitive information via Wi-Fi networks

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App privacypolice
Overview

Wi-Fi PrivacyPolice

Wi-Fi Privacy Police prevents your smartphone or tablet from leaking privacy sensitive information via Wi-Fi networks. It does this in two ways:

  • It prevents your smartphone from sending out the names of Wi-Fi networks it wants to connect to over the air. This makes sure that other people in your surroundings can not see the networks you've connected to, and the places you've visited.
  • If your smartphone encounters an unknown access point with a known name (for example, a malicious access point pretending to be your home network), it asks whether you trust this access point before connecting. This makes sure that other people are not able to steal your data.

Wi-Fi Privacy Police does not have any negative impact on your battery. In fact, you may see your battery life increase by using this app.

View our short paper or our slightly longer paper for more technical information.

Wi-Fi Privacy Police is an app developed at the Expertise Center for Digital Media, a research institute of UHasselt. Its code was written by Bram Bonné. The application is available on Google Play and F-Droid.

PrivacyPolice now requires the location permission to run. This is because Android 6.0 does not allow access to the list of Wi-Fi networks without this location. PrivacyPolice will never collect your information. Please consult the source code at https://github.com/BramBonne/privacypolice if you have any doubts.

Note to those using CyanogenMod: make sure that Privacy Guard is not blocking access to Wi-Fi Privacy Police, as it will then not be able to see the available networks. This will cause Wi-Fi Privacy Police to disable access to all of them.

A lot of effort went into making this app work flawlessly. If you, however, run into any problems when using this app, nor the app developers, nor the UHasselt take responsibility. You are encouraged to report any issues at [email protected] or via GitHub; we will try to fix them as soon as possible.

Should you have any other questions about the app, feel free to drop by on reddit (either at /r/Android or at /r/androidapps) to see our FAQ and/or pose your own question.

Comments
  • Erratic behaviour on Android Marshmallow (6.0.1)

    Erratic behaviour on Android Marshmallow (6.0.1)

    Hello.

    First, thanks to the developer(s) for such great app. It makes our devices a little safer.

    Here is the problem: I have been using the Google Play version of the app for several months without problem (under Android Lollipop).

    Today, I updated my Nexus 6 to Mashmallow, and when I have any of the two main switches of the app enabled and the app is not in the foreground, my device disconnects from WiFi. In Android WiFi settings, it says "Authentication error". When I disable the two switches or the app is in the foreground, the device correctly connects to my WiFi network. I am using my home WiFi network, which is on the list of allowed hotspots.

    Do you have any reports of the app failing on Marshmallow?

    Please, tell me if you want more info.

    opened by alvarogzp 22
  • Cut down on needed permissions

    Cut down on needed permissions

    Good evening @BramBonne, I've been a long-term user of your wonderfull app and now wonder why it suddenly needs limited location access after the latest release. I would like to keep my GPS turned off and not be nagged all the time that the app may not function correctly without having revealed my location.

    opened by SecUpwN 17
  • Device does not reconnect to Wi-Fi

    Device does not reconnect to Wi-Fi

    Since upgrading to Android 5.1 (from 4.4, via CyanogenMod 12.1), I have found that my Nexus 5 will not reconnect to the known Wi-Fi when returning into range. The status is, "Wi-Fi connection failure". I must turn Wi-Fi off and then on again to successfully connect. This was working on Android 4.4. I have tested with and without the app installed several times to confirm that the app is causing it.

    opened by pushbit 16
  • Feature Request: Granular

    Feature Request: Granular "Data protection" Management Capabilities

    Hi Bram, First of all, congrats for your Wi-Fi Privacy Police Android app!

    I think it would be very interesting to add granular management capabilities for the access points (APs) registered by the "Data protection" feature. Instead of just having a single "Clear allowed and blocked hotspots" option, I would provide an advanced option (replacing the current one, or simply complementing it for advanced users) to be able to manage each trusted (or untrusted) entry individually.

    The suggested new option should allow the user to get access (view) the current list of trusted/untrusted APs (including at least the network name (SSID) and all the associated MAC addresses (BSSIDs: 1-N)), and also provide edit capabilities, at least to be able to simply delete one of the entries individually (instead of them all, as it works currently). By entry I mean a single association between a SSID and a BSSID, as there can be multiple BSSIDs pointing to the same SSID.

    This would allow users to have visibility on the current list of trusted/untrusted APs, and also allow them to clean it up easily, for example, when an single AP is replaced at home or at the office.

    Cheers, Raul

    enhancement 
    opened by raulsiles 8
  • This doesn't work

    This doesn't work

    Hello. I have tried your app, but I still see probe requests in monitor mode. You need to change wpa_supplicant settings, to do it you need to modify a component which is used to connect to hotspots which creates settings file and starts wpa_supplicant. This probably can be done using xposed. Also could you add mac addr randomisation and displaying into it?

    opened by KOLANICH 6
  • Preferred networks are remembered even after they are removed from the PNL

    Preferred networks are remembered even after they are removed from the PNL

    As per mail from Denilson Sá:

    • There is a free WiFi called "X". This is the Wi-Fi that I've saved and that I want to connect.
    • There is also "Y", which is provided by a phone operator here. I don't want to connect to it. But I admit that someday in the past I had connected to it.
    • I've already selected "forget" at the Android settings, I've also cleared known hot spots (for that Wi-Fi name) in your app; still I get the question "Are you sure network 'Y' should be available right now?"
    invalid 
    opened by BramBonne 6
  • [NFR] Multi-user support

    [NFR] Multi-user support

    As of today, this app blocks traffic from additional android users, which might not have installed the app. The rules should only apply to the current user, since this behavior causes network failures for all other users on the device.

    bug help wanted 
    opened by scento 6
  • Add indication whether a known hotspot is trusted or blocked

    Add indication whether a known hotspot is trusted or blocked

    "Known hotspots" only shows hotspots it knows about, or has seen. It doesn't show which ones are blocked and which are trusted though.

    Suggested: green blob next to name of trusted MAC address, red next to blocked. And then some combination of the colours on the SSID level.

    opened by ThomasHabets 5
  • [Question] Behavior when leaving a trusted network WiFi

    [Question] Behavior when leaving a trusted network WiFi

    Currently when I leave my home and so a trusted hotspot, WiFi stays enabled this is the correct behavior? WiFi should be disabled automatically IMO.

    I'm on Samsung Galaxy S2, running on CyanogenMod 12.1.

    opened by ghost 5
  • Provide an option that allows to 'add all access points for network x as trusted for the following y minutes''

    Provide an option that allows to 'add all access points for network x as trusted for the following y minutes''

    As proposed in an e-mail by Denilson Sá:

    An airport is a large location, thus it is covered by several access points with the same name. It is also a place where people walk around a lot. This means that I walk 10m and I get a question from your app and the Wi-Fi disconnects.

    A solution for this could be an option/button/whatever that let's the user say "auto-add all hot spots with the same name for the next hour". Since the user will be around for quite some time, and for sure it will hop from one access point to another (but with the same name), it makes sense to let the app consider all of them as valid ones. The same UX can be applied whenever there is a large area, such as in a Mall.

    (of course, the time of "1 hour" could be selected by the user, but I know making the time adjustable makes the interface harder to design)

    enhancement 
    opened by BramBonne 5
  • Protection against new networks dont work with LineageOS 15.1 (Android 8.1)

    Protection against new networks dont work with LineageOS 15.1 (Android 8.1)

    If i connect to a new network, i got the popup if i want allow it, but the connection isnt blocked. Yes, i allow and enable GPS.

    How can i verify that the other features still work?

    opened by beerisgood 4
  • solve issue of low contrast

    solve issue of low contrast

    The original text color of the component is '#656D5C', and the contrast between the text color ('#656D5C') and the background color ('#DCEDC8') does not meet the standard of WCAG 2.1. In other words, this color cannot be easily seen by everyone. So, to solve this problem, our team designed a tool that can automatically detect and repair such problems. The test report and recommended replacement colors ('#646464') are as follows: image

    The figure on the left is the original page, the figure on the right is the repaired page, and the figure below is the problem detection report. If you think it is useful, please give me feedback. Your feedback is very important to me. We sincerely hope to receive your suggestions and opinions as an app developer.

    opened by iris-mobile-accessibility-repair 0
  • getting a banner 'wifi police requires location access' while it already has full location access

    getting a banner 'wifi police requires location access' while it already has full location access

    I suspect this happens because in my Android settings > location > advanced > I disabled 'locationnaccuracy by Google'. This is a setting which directly relates to access point scanning.

    I can't tell if wifi privacy policy is working or not or if I even benefit from this app while I have my phone configured not to use wifi based location accuracy. Either way the request for the location permission is confusing, since it is already granted.

    I am using Android 10 on a Motorola Moto G7 Plus

    opened by Meteor0id 0
  • Do recent versions of Android still leak SSID's?

    Do recent versions of Android still leak SSID's?

    The README lists as one of the reasons to use this app:

    It prevents your smartphone from sending out the names of Wi-Fi networks it wants to connect to over the air. This makes sure that other people in your surroundings can not see the networks you've connected to, and the places you've visited

    However, AFAICS this no longer appears to be the case even without this app installed: I haven't been able to reproduce this issue with my Android 9 device. Do we know until what Android version this was a problem?

    opened by raboof 0
  • High battery drain on OnePlus 5 (after OxygenOS v5.0.1 update)

    High battery drain on OnePlus 5 (after OxygenOS v5.0.1 update)

    I've used your app for quite some time now, and I'm sure I've used it on my Pixel with Android 8.0 in the past without issues, though this would have been up to ~mid September 2017

    Unfortunately the recent OTA update for the OnePlus 5 has a significant battery drain issue when this app is installed.

    Model: ONEPLUS A5000 OxygenOS: v5.0.1 Android: v8.0.0 App: v2.2.4 (from Play)

    The screenshot below covers an 8-hour period where I installed and removed the app every so often. As you can see the "Awake" bar is solid when the app is installed, and significantly more empty when the app is not installed, additionally the battery discharge curve is significantly steeper with the app installed... which is what drew my attention to the problem in the first place (significantly shorter battery life).

    I would be happy to collect more data if you like, though I'm afraid I'll need guiding.

    2018-01-20 21 11 22

    opened by attie 3
  • PrivacyPolice breaks reconnecting to known wifi networks on Android Oreo

    PrivacyPolice breaks reconnecting to known wifi networks on Android Oreo

    Connceting to an AP the first time works fine. but reconnecting or connecting to other network is broken. You can see android trying to rescan for network very agressively. The only workaround is to forget existing networks and restart android before it is possible to reconnect.

    If you need any logcat dumps I can make one.

    opened by Tasqa 2
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