Basically I’ve acquired a burner Android 8 phone and am running the target.com app which is the only way they let you get parking lot delivery at the store. I assume the Target app is spyware. I keep the phone powered off almost all the time which should limit the spying. The thing is, if I power up the phone and order something, then close the app, I still get an alert when the status of the order changes (e.g. it’s ready for pickup). So the app is still listening for network traffic from Target.
Can anyone explain what is happening in Android and whether there is a way to make an app really stop? Does the app stay in a running state even after I’ve closed the UI part of it? Is there somethng like an inetd in Android that listens for network alerts and re-launches the destination app? Are there Android app permissions associated with this, that I can revoke?
I don’t want to run this type of app on my main phone, but I had at first liked the idea of using a burner for such things. Now, though, I wonder if I need a separate burner for each suspicious app. Thanks.
There is a setting in the app permissions that is typically enabled by default to allow the app to run in the background. You can disable it, but I believe it is a per app setting.
Alternatively, if you turn on battery saver, I believe that turns off background app usage.
That’s not how notifications work though. Most apps on Android use Firebase Cloud Messaging for notifications. Your phone has a constant connection to a Google server, and all notifications come in via that connection. The phone receives the notification and tells the relevant app.
Some apps have their own connection (for example, email apps will often connect directly to an email server and use IMAP IDLE) but it’s not very common.