My router has a built in web monitor that shows what each device on the network connects to online. Although I have keyword filters, I will occasionally skim through it as I have kids and want to make sure they're not accessing anything they shouldn't be. I noticed the other day that my 14yo's device had "connected" to an adult related website which is predominantly forum based. Due to the router's web monitor limitations, it really only shows domain names and not every path within a URL that the device will access. I've noticed this connection a few times and it doesn't seem like they're on there for long as there's other activity recorded within a very short time. I think that it's potentially an app on the device, such as FB or TikTok, that is making the connection through an ad of sorts, but I'm not able to confirm that. Is there a way that I can find out whether this connection is being made by an apps own "means" such as an ad, or if it's being done intentionally via a browser or similar? I don't really want to install anything on their device but rather seeing if I can capture said connection somehow on my PC or similar. The device is an Android phone and the PC is Windows.

Technology users are faced with a challenge: Allowing our tech devices to work without them invading our privacy. Obviously choosing products carefully is a critical step. Unfortunately, the two main players in the smartphone space, **Google and Apple**, are well known for their questionable data collection and harvesting practices. [LineageOS](https://lineageos.org/) and [/e/OS](https://e.foundation/products/) are *up-and-coming* providers of privacy-friendly smartphone operating systems. Until they become more commonplace, I thought it would be worthwhile to create a compendium of internet hosts to which Android connects by default. To do this, I let an Android device run for 5 hours and captured all packets trying to leave the device. The Android device was configured *never* to share contact data, calendar data, task data, map data, location data, or any history of any kind. It also was configured to not transmit or receive email *at all*. The internet search function of the launcher was removed. Furthermore, Google Chrome and the Google's Android Assistant were both disabled, as were all the various "Google Play" apps (such as Google Play Books, Google Play Games, Google Play Movies & TV, Google Play Music / YouTube, Google Play Newsstand) except for the Play store. Within the Google Play store, automatically checking for new app versions was disabled. Finally, a non-Google keyboard was installed and set as the default. Even after doing all this, within just 5 hours of the phone sitting without being used, the Android device attempted to connect to all the following Google-owned hosts: history.google.com mtalk.google.com alt1-mtalk.google.com alt2-mtalk.google.com alt3-mtalk.google.com alt4-mtalk.google.com alt5-mtalk.google.com alt6-mtalk.google.com alt7-mtalk.google.com alt8-mtalk.google.com android.clients.google.com www.google.com android.googleapis.com play.googleapis.com cloudconfig.googleapis.com connectivitycheck.gstatic.com footprints-pa.googleapis.com mobilemaps.googleapis.com people-pa.googleapis.com www.googleapis.com www.googletagmanager.com play-lh.googleusercontent.com smtp.gmail.com What is the purpose of each of these hosts, and why are so many connections still being attempted given that almost everything Google-related is supposed to be disabled on the device? Note that I don't expect a single answerer to know the purpose of every host listed, but hopefully we can work together to use this QA to create a quality reference resource.

I'm using Android KitKat. I'm not able the clear the data usage of mobile data (Mobile) as well as Wi-Fi. Is there any option to clear the data usage in rooted and non-rooted Android devices? (Click image to enlarge) " class="img-fluid rounded" style="max-width: 100%; height: auto; margin: 10px 0;" loading="lazy"> Somebody Please do help. Am using Non-rooted Android Device.

The mobile data cycle (*Settings* -> *Data usage*) looks quite arbitrary. Since I have changed my data plan, now the new cycle *should* start at the first day of the month instead of the 6th. How can I change the begin of a data cycle? I cannot seem to find some edit button, though I vaguely remember seeing it at the *Data usage cycle* menu. Affected versions: Android 4.0, 4.2.2, 4.3.1.

I input the command adb shell dumpsys netstats detail and found "-253". The "-253" doesn't have any package name, and this is the only mention of "-253" I could find in the ADB. It's been using data which is annoying because I have a very limited plan, and I can't figure out what it is (Aside from "f2fs gc-253" which shares the "-253" but I believe it to be unrelated) If anyone has an android of any model, with the latest updates + security patches, could you see whether it appears on your mobile? I'm trying to work out if this is a localized issue or if others have the same (If you don't want to bother with ADB, you can just use a specific data monitoring application, this is the only one able to capture the Unknown) "https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.roysolberg.android.datacounter&hl=en_US " it should be "Unknown (uid-253)" under yearly usage but it's not essential Thanks

I use Internet on my S23 Ultra phone via Bluetooth tethering. How can I see the current upload and download speed (i.e., monitoring the current use) when using Internet via Bluetooth tethering? [Network Speed - Internet Speed Meter - Indicator](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evozi.network&hl=en_US&gl=US) doesn't see traffic from Bluetooth tethering .

I want to sniff SSL/TLS encrypted traffic of my installed apps using BURP. After installing the burp certificate on my One Plus 5T and moving certificates through the Magisk tweak "Move Certificates" there are still applications like mcdonalds that I can't sniff because tell me there isn't Internet connections. I'm sure that Internet connections there is because another app like deliveroo work perfectly with burp. I was wondering if there was a solution to this problem.

I am using CalyxOS on a Pixel 4a 5G. My phone did not track mobile data usage during the last three weeks. In the screenshot below, we can see that it counted 8 MB. But I used my entire monthly allotment of 5 GB between Sep 3 and Sep 26. According to my math, that means it counted .15 percent of the actual data used. The results of a preliminary web inquiry tell me that there is no user option for disabling the data usage counting feature. It is supposed to just work. Does that sound correct? Any thoughts about how this could happen? Any ideas will be appreciated.

I'm running Android 6.0 on an HTC M9. In the last 13 days, my News & Weather app has used 1.37GB of data. In that same period, Google Play Store used 1.22GB. For a few weeks now I have had severe battery issues (from around 36 hours of light use down to 4 hours - 5 if I leave it on my desk and do nothing), and I'm now assuming that this is the cause. I don't know why a news app would use so much data, and it's all background data which makes it even more shady. Has anybody experience their News & Weather app going out of control like this, and does anybody know how to stop it?

A mysterious app named "10102" shows up in my data usage. It bears only the standard Android app icon (the Bugdroid logo with a cube on its torso). From what the graph tells me, it has used 36 megabytes of data in the background and zero on the foreground. I think I haven't uninstalled anything for months. Is it malware? I haven't sideloaded anything and only authorized my laptop as a USB debugger. If it's malware, how do I remove it? I have no idea how to find its package name and 10102 isn't in the list of downloaded apps in settings. I'm running stock & never-been-rooted Android 4.4.4 on Nexus 4.

Multiple old questions (here , here , here , and here ) document that even when mobile data is switched off, mobile data still gets used as part of 4G voice service. I'm looking for up to date information (e.g. possibly relating to 5G, eSIMs, latest Android version, retirement of 3G, etc.) to see if the following scenario is possible without rooting my phone: - Home SIM active for SMS (but not MMS) - Home SIM active for voice calls (this is not essential to me) - eSIM for ALL mobile data used while travelling Why am I so keen on this? The ability to receive SMS codes is sometimes needed to verify oneself to a service. (Yes, I know it is not as good as other alternatives.) As of 2023 eSIMs provide very cost effective data service almost anywhere in the world, while international data roaming charges from one's home carrier can be exorbitant (e.g. $10/MB for me). At those rates, tiny amounts of unexpected data use can add up fast. Doing all of the following is NOT sufficient to avoid use of mobile data: - Turn off mobile data AND turn off data roaming for the home SIM - Send zero text messages and make/receive zero voice calls - Turn off MMS for the home SIM - Turn off "Data during calls" Questions: - Are any new strategies/settings available or in development? - Does 5G have the same problem as 4G - using data to establish itself on the roaming voice network? - Would setting preferred SMS to my home SIM, but voice calls to a data-only eSIM be possible? - I would consider moving to iPhone: Is this an Android-specific issue?

I want to make a data science workshop. I know that some apps in smartphones in general have the ability to get tracking data, for ad, tracking and surveillance purposes. I want to make people more conscious of this, by letting the user get this data and work with it him/herself. Are there any more direct ways for accessing data of sensors in a given android phone (in a transparent, non-invasive way), export it to a file in the phone so that it is possible to be read by a script for data science purposes? Thanks in advance.

I'm using Rethink DNS to monitor traffic. I'm curious as to why the 'Phone and Messaging Storage' group would be reaching out to google domains in addition to app.hubspot.com. Attached are the firewall logs along with the apps included within the 'Phone and Messaging Storage' group.

My phone seems to be suddenly uploading GBs of data at speed of 8+Mbps. I cannot identify which direction app is doing this. But systems network indicator seems to show that is uploading data. Just not which app. I even tried force stopping my frequently used apps while this happens to see if data upload stops. But i haven't been able to identify which app is the culprit. Sometime the speed of upload reaches 20mbps and makes my phone stutter. What i can do find out enough app/process is transferring so much data. I also tried installing https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.drnoob.datamonitor It also shows high speed of data transfer being happening. But it cannot identify which app is doing it. App specific usage stays low. I have access to adb tools, root, as well as termux if that matters. I tried using nethogs in termux but it didn't detect the process causing high speed data transfer.

Did a factory reset on my phone late last month and noticed a strange app/process in data usage the last few days titled "com.sec.mimage.uid.retouching:10076", low filesize but enough to weird me out. Did another factory reset and had this come up which seems to have similar if not the same data usage size. Potential malware or normal?

I have a rooted Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra and I have been trying to clear the "Wifi Data Usage" statistics in the setting menu. It seems like there was someone that asked the same thing 7 years ago. https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/120874/how-to-clear-the-data-usage However, this method seems outdated. I was not able to find any files to delete in the /data/system/netstats directory. I've tried different file manager applications, including termux, to see if there were any files, but It was empty. I'm in a situation where I have to frequently clear the statistics, so doing a factory reset every time is not a viable option.

I'm trying to disable unnecessary apps and their background data usage on an Android 10 device, using the following commands: adb shell appops set package_name RUN_IN_BACKGROUND ignore adb shell appops set package_name RUN_ANY_IN_BACKGROUND ignore adb shell appops write-settings adb shell pm disable-user package_name **Question:** How to disable background data usage for the package with ADB without root access?

I'm using the Blokada adblocker on my phone, which acts as a vpn and can show me all the domains that apps request to connect to and let me switch them between an accept list and a deny list. Whenever I install an app with known trackers, I try to block as many of those domains as possible while keeping the base functionality of the app. I noticed that my log has about a hundred of domains with localhost in the name, many of them not even looking like a url. For example, among some that my phone tried to contact hundreds on times: localhost_name localhost0#3} localhostfo localhostz\012({ localhostsys localhost_code localhostdn.com localhostgs localhostsysu localhostms localhostal.org localhostp.net localhostde localhostt.com localhost.com localhostx.com localhostahn.de localhoste.com localhost=tun0 Some look like actual domain urls accessible on the internet, some not. Some have those weird special characters in them. What are they? Actual domains? Or are they pointing to a webserver running on my phone like normal localhost would? Why are there so many of them? My instinct was to block them on sight because I don't want apps to keep track of my phone connecting to their servers from different IPs, effectively mapping out everywhere I'm going. And I have a hard time trusting a domain name looking like "localhostz\012({". Is there a reason I shouldn't block them?

When I was playing with settings on my Nokia 6.1 Plus running a stock ROM Android 10 with bootloader unlocked and rooted with Magisk v21+, I noticed that **Firebase App Indexing** that comes under **Google Account Preferences** was collecting all of my *personal* data. Of course, **GMS** was the culprit. Here's the proof: This was the message that I received from the bank for the transaction that I made yesterday. Every message that I sent and received had been collected in this given format. Also, many apps that use Firebase API sent these kinds of information. I'm a guy who thinks about user privacy all-day, so I've used: - [Nuked_Script](https://forum.xda-developers.com/apps/magisk/module-tool-atteryerformancerivacy-t4131715) Magisk script that is used to disable trackers and ad services. - AFWall+ for Firewall (root). - Bouncer - Temporary App Permissions. - AdAway for nullifying ads (root) - ads on Gmail, Twitter, Instagram still exist though - Bromite webview and browser (Webview Switcher module). When I turned the developer options off, Firebase App Indexing options also turned off (_I mean **hidden**_). So, does it mean that it stopped collecting my data? I still doubt that. How can I stop this from happening? P.S: I'm used to using Google Apps. But I don't want to give them such personal data.

I have a problem: my house wifi goes down a lot for some unknown reason, and so I turn on data to continue whatever conversation I was having on my laptop on my phone. Then I forget to turn on wifi when the internet comes back on, and I watch YouTube videos on my phone. This, in turn, eats up 500mb of my 1gb data plan. This has happened three data cycles in a row. When I select the YouTube app in the data section of my settings, even when I select the "restrict background data" option, and even when I go into YouTube's settings and select "only stream HD video on wifi", it still uses data. It seems like there is absolutely no hope for preventing this app (or any general app for that matter) from using any data at all. I couldn't even find a good third-party data management app that has this functionality. Every app I've found only allows me to read and analyze my data usage and set 'timers', but no way to completely prevent specific apps from using any data. I decided I would just completely eliminate YouTube, which was annoying in and of itself because it seems there's no way to uninstall a factory-installed app. I ended up just disabling it in my settings, and then blocking it entirely with a third-party app called Boomerang. Please, is there any simple way to completely block all data usage of only a specific app? Why is this such an unheard-of request?