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Re: PSA: Fossify Simple Mobile Tools FOSS replacement apps

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Arno Welzel wrote:
>> Some people don't realize that on a standard smartphone, their contacts are
>> stored in a centralized, unprotected database. If they give a social media
> 
> Only, if you use a Google contacts/calendar account. 

Hi Arno,

It's excellent to discuss where our smartphone stores our contacts and
calendar data and what a centralized unprotected database¡ really means.

It's fundamentally about data sovereignty, which is the idea of who
actually owns and has access to our personal information.

> If you use only a
> local addressbook or calendar, then the data stays on the device even
> when using the official Google apps. 

Yes. But. No. Sort of...

I don't have a Google Account set up on my phone, as you're well aware.
But the contacts-privacy problem doesn't change since there are many
apps with full-read-access to the default sqlite contacts database.

We have a thread on that where almost nobody knows that list, mostly
because you cant' get the full list anyway, without adb queries, and even
then, you have to realize that the list is ephemeral even to adb lookups.

So you are correct you can avoid syncing to Google, but it doesn't change
the app-permission issue that most people have no clue exists (likely
because they believe the GUI but the GUI does not tell the whole truth).

This is why apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, TikTok, etc. ask for contacts.
It's a gold mine in terms of their ability to sell your social graph.

> Of course your data is then not
> backed up as well and you need to take care oft this - for example by
> using your own Nextcloud server and DAVx5 to synchronize
> contacts/calendar.

I saw your post about <https://www.davx5.com> and I agree with it.
My problem is that Windows just does not do servers all that well.
But for Linux owners, it's a wonderful way to sync things up nicely.

Besides, good contacts apps (like OpenContacts) can be set to automatically
back up your contacts to a vcf file on your phone, which is potentially
copied via rsync-like mechanisms to our PC (although I have yet to set that
up). 

I should probably set up a Raspberry Pi as my linux server, huh?

> If you don't want to setup and maintain Nextcloud on
> your own and trust companies like Hetzner, you can also get Nextcloud as
> a paid service:
> 
> <https://www.hetzner.com/storage/storage-share/>

Nextcloud = a self-hosted cloud platform
DAVx5 = syncs contacts/calendar via open standards (CardDAV/CalDAV

NextCloud supports basically everything.
 a. webdav
 b. caldav
 c. carddav

You're right about those above, as long as they can work on our PC.
With respect to Hetzner, it's a nice option to give people.

Me? 
I never pay for anything for the obvious reason that paying even one cent
destroys privacy; but I do understand for most people it's a good deal.

An advantage of Hetzner is European privacy laws (GDPR) apply!
So thanks for adding useful value to the flow of contact management.
-- 
You build privacy into everything you do from the moment you start.

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Thread

PSA: Fossify Simple Mobile Tools FOSS replacement apps Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-04-30 21:07 -0600
  Re: PSA: Fossify Simple Mobile Tools FOSS replacement apps Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-05-02 00:04 -0600
    Re: PSA: Fossify Simple Mobile Tools FOSS replacement apps Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-05-02 17:49 -0600
      Re: PSA: Fossify Simple Mobile Tools FOSS replacement apps Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-05-03 23:56 -0600
    Re: PSA: Fossify Simple Mobile Tools FOSS replacement apps Arno Welzel <usenet@arnowelzel.de> - 2026-05-03 14:40 +0200
      Re: PSA: Fossify Simple Mobile Tools FOSS replacement apps Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-05-03 14:16 -0600
        Re: PSA: Fossify Simple Mobile Tools FOSS replacement apps Arno Welzel <usenet@arnowelzel.de> - 2026-05-04 09:12 +0200
          Re: PSA: Fossify Simple Mobile Tools FOSS replacement apps Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2026-05-04 11:56 +0100
            Re: PSA: Fossify Simple Mobile Tools FOSS replacement apps Arno Welzel <usenet@arnowelzel.de> - 2026-05-04 17:02 +0200
            Re: PSA: Fossify Simple Mobile Tools FOSS replacement apps Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-05-04 11:08 -0600
  Re: PSA: Fossify Simple Mobile Tools FOSS replacement apps Arno Welzel <usenet@arnowelzel.de> - 2026-05-03 14:37 +0200
    Re: PSA: Fossify Simple Mobile Tools FOSS replacement apps Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-05-03 13:57 -0600

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