Improve your privacy on Android with Bouncer

Martin Brinkmann
Sep 17, 2018
Google Android
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Bouncer is a new paid application for Google's Android operating system designed to give users more control over application permissions.

Permissions give applications extra things that they may access or do and while that is required sometimes for an application to function properly, it is not needed or even abused at other times.

While you could go ahead and only install apps that don't require extra permissions or toggle permissions manually each time you use an application, it is not really that comfortable of a solution.

Note: Bouncer is not free but available for a one-time price of $0.99 or  €0.89. The app requests no extra permissions but two accessibility features that it relies on for its functionality.

Tip: Check out reviews of other Android privacy apps such as Lumen Privacy Monitor, Haven, Privacy Hawk, or Privacy Grade.

Bouncer for Android

bouncer android permissions

Bouncer takes care of extra permissions that applications request on Android for the user; it does so to improve privacy, battery life and sometimes even security.

What is great about Bouncer is that it is a fully automated solution that revokes permissions that you may have granted an application if you want that to happen.

Here is how it works:

  • Whenever you interact with a permissions prompt on Android and select the Allow option, Bouncer displays a notification that lists the following options:
    1. Keep the permission.
    2. Keep the permission for one hour.
    3. Revoke the permission when you press the Home button.
  • Bouncer will revoke the permission if you select options 2 or 3.

You will notice that Bouncer will revoke the permission automatically by opening the application's permissions on the device and toggling the permissions that you granted; all automated.

There are some restrictions. First, that Bouncer works only with Android 6.0 and higher apps as it requires runtime permissions. Second, that it does not work with apps that you have granted permissions already in the past before Bouncer's installation.

bouncer

There is a workaround for the second restriction, however. Open Bouncer and switch to the all apps listing. Tap on any app that you want to revoke permissions for, select the permission, and let Bouncer revoke it for you using built-in Android settings.

The process is straightforward but Bouncer does not highlight which apps have requested "problematic or dangerous" permissions and which have not in the listing.

Once you are done going though the list Bouncer will notice any permission requests of the application's so that you may tell Bouncer what to do about it.

Bouncer lists permission changes, e.g. allowed or denied, in the application's main interface.

So what can you use it for?

Well, the primary application for Bouncer is to use it to give applications temporary permissions that are revoked automatically by the app after use. Sometimes, you may want to give the maps app permissions to use your location, or may want to tag a location or take a photo using applications; that's where Bouncer comes in as it makes those permissions temporary if you wish so.

Bouncer does not fake permissions like some custom Android ROMs or root applications do. Means, if you grant a permission the app may make use of it.

Closing Words

Bouncer is an application designed to grant Android applications temporary permissions. It is automated in that it removes permissions automatically when you select the option.

Bouncer won't set permissions to allow again, however, when you start an application another time after its permissions were revoked. Applications may not work properly if they require certain permissions.

Is Bouncer worth the price? That depends entirely on how you use Android. If you need apps to have certain permissions at times but don't want them to have the permissions when you don't run them, then yes, Bouncer may be a useful addition then.

Now You: do you use privacy apps on your mobile devices? (via Android Police)

Summary
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Software Name
Bouncer
Operating System
Android
Software Category
Apps
Price
USD 0.99
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Comments

  1. Albert said on August 18, 2023 at 1:49 pm
    Reply

    Thanks for the tip Martin.

    It is for these kinds of posts that I follow GHacks.

    1. Mike Williams said on August 26, 2023 at 8:55 pm
      Reply

      What’s up with the generic comment, are you a bot?

  2. Tachy said on August 18, 2023 at 3:23 pm
    Reply

    2G?

    Where on the planet is that still in use? I was forced to give up using my RAZRV3 years ago because 2G was phased out by AT&T.

    1. arbuz said on August 20, 2023 at 5:02 pm
      Reply

      Everywhere 3G has been turned off and you don’t have LTE coverage, and believe me there are many developed countries where this is the case and if it weren’t for 2G you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call.

    2. Doc Fuddled said on August 31, 2023 at 5:55 pm
      Reply

      Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe tha term “2G” is in the article. Perhaps you are referring to “AGM G2”??

  3. Tachy said on August 18, 2023 at 3:27 pm
    Reply

    @Martin

    Your website has gone insane.

    When I the post button I then saw my comment posted on a different article page. When I opened this article again, it is here.

    1. Martin P. said on August 31, 2023 at 4:39 pm
      Reply

      @Tachy @Martin Brinkmann

      ” Your website has gone insane. ”

      Same here. Has happened several times.

      1. owl said on September 1, 2023 at 3:42 am
        Reply

        @Tachy,
        @Martin P.,

        For over two weeks now,
        I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
        https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
        https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
        For the time being,
        it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.

  4. Anonymous said on August 18, 2023 at 11:17 pm
    Reply

    @tachy a lot of non-phone devices with a sim in them rely on 2G, at least here in europe.
    Usually things reporting usage or errors/alarms on something remote that does not get day to day inspection in person. They are out there in vast numbers doing important work. Reliable, good range. The low datarate is no problem at all in those cases.
    3G is gone or on its last legs everywhere, but this stuff still has too much use to cancel.

    Anyhow, interesting that they would put that in. I can see the point if you suspect a hostile 2G environment (amateur eavesdroppers with laptop, ranging up to professional grade MITM fake towers while “strangely” not getting the stronger crypto voip 4G because it is being jammed, and back down to something as old ‘stingray’ devices fallen into the wrong hands).

    But does this also mean that they have handled and rolled out a fix for that nasty 4G ‘pwn by broadcast’ problem you reported earlier this year? I had 4G disabled due to that, on the off chance that some of the local criminals would buy some cheap chinese gear, download a working exploit and probe every phone in range all over town in the hope of getting into phones of the police.

  5. Andy Prough said on August 19, 2023 at 3:04 am
    Reply

    >”While most may never be attacked in stingrays, it is still recommended to disable 2G cellular connections, especially since it does not have any downsides.”

    The downside would be losing connectivity. I spend a lot of time way out in the countryside where there’s often no service or almost none. My network allows 2G, and I need it sometimes. I have an option on the phone to disable 2G, I may do that when I’m in the city and I have good 5G connectivity, but not out in the country.

    I would imagine that the stingray exploits, like most of the bad things in this world, are probably things you will run into in the crowded big cities.

  6. owl said on August 21, 2023 at 3:40 am
    Reply

    I stopped using it in a mobile (Wi-Fi line) environment, so I’m almost ignorant of the actual situation,
    But the recent reality in Japan makes me realize that “the infrastructure of the web is nothing more than a papier-mâché fiction”.
    https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/17/google-chrome-to-enable-https-first-by-default-for-all-users/#comment-4572402

    It is already beyond the scope of what an individual can do.
    What we should be aware of is the reality that “governments and those in power want to control the world through the Web”, and efforts to counter (resist and prevent) such ambitions are necessary.

  7. Anonymous said on August 26, 2023 at 9:27 pm
    Reply

    Why do you want people to disable the privacy features? Hmmmmm?

  8. Anonymous said on August 27, 2023 at 2:30 am
    Reply

    Now You: do you plan to keep the Ads privacy features enabled?

    I’d like to tell you, but apparently if you make a post critical of Google, you get censored. * [Editor: removed, just try to bring your opinion across without attacking anyone]

  9. Tachy said on August 27, 2023 at 5:15 am
    Reply

    @Martin

    You website is still psychotic. Comments attach to random stories.

  10. John G. said on August 28, 2023 at 2:46 pm
    Reply

    @Martin please do fix the comments, it’s completely insane commenting here! :[

  11. ECJ said on August 28, 2023 at 5:37 pm
    Reply

    @Martin

    The comments are seriously messed up on gHacks now. These comments are mixed with the article at the below URL.

    https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/18/android-how-to-disable-2g-cellular-connections-to-improve-security/

    And comments on other articles are from as far back as 2010.

  12. Naimless said on August 29, 2023 at 12:57 am
    Reply

    What does this article has anything to do with all the comments on this article? LOL I think this Websuite is ran by ChatGPT. every article is messed up. Some older comments from 2015 shown up in recant articles, LOL

  13. Paul Knight said on August 31, 2023 at 3:35 am
    Reply

    The picture captioned “Clearing the Android Auto’s cache might resolve the issue” is from Apple Carplay ;)

  14. Anonymous said on August 31, 2023 at 9:57 pm
    Reply

    How about other things that matter:
    Drop survival?
    Screen toughness?
    Degree of water and dust protection?

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