Considering purchasing

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Hello,

I've recently found this project and I need to admit that it looks fantastic. :)

I'm going to buy those devices for my family but I have a couple of questions before.

- wifi – what is this module for?

- gps – is there a button to disable this module? Is it possible to discover position of all nodes not only in specific group? Can it be exploited by bad actors?

- google play – if this project is open source why isn't accessible by F-droid store?

Have a nice day!
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Not sure of the FDroid answer, but you can download the APK here

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The reason/s for it not being released on F-droid were briefly discussed here: Android beta version APK - #7 by geeksville

EDIT: also Welcome!!

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yep - I love the idea of fdroid, but their TOS say ‘you can’t distributed your apps here if they include analytic (even if there is a checkbox to disable it)’.

As the primary developer who needs to find and fix bugs, that is unacceptable to me (because analytics are needed to fix 95% of bug report). So I also post raw apks to github.

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I think this could be a barrier for some users. Could you consider a privacy oriented version without analytics and upload it to FDroid?

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I’ve noticed that <pre> </pre> cut my post.
I asked about GPS in context of possibility to obtain the position of the nodes by bad actors or developers etc.

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:thinking: Im not sure I follow. The app has the ability to disable Analytic’s. Which if I am security concious, I run the apps for the first time in Airplane mode. This gives me the ability to explore without leaking anything to the internet.

And usually if Im looking to avoid the Google Play store, Im looking to avoid all APP stores. First I go to the website to see if I can get the APK directly. ie Duckduckgo

Scroll to the bottom of the page and you will find they offer to Download it from FDroid, but they also have a link to the APK.

In the case of Meshtastic, I see a big benefit to coming here to learn about it and understand the project before purchasing equipment and just downloading the app. I feel security minded individuals looking to skirt the prying eyes of Big Brother aren’t randomly installing apps out of any App store.

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I think it’s obvious. You should have an option to enable “analytics” - it’s an euphemism of tracking ;), not to disable.:wink: