Introduction｜Android app｜Personal information security｜Shelter (sandbox app)

Recently, a health app in Hong Kong was found to contain a facial recognition code. Although the person concerned denied any knowledge, as a privacy-conscious user, suspicion and anxiety naturally aroused. So the following introduces a sandbox app, hoping to reduce the possibility of this healthy app secretly doing evil.

This Shelter is free open source software (FOSS), the main function is to open an additional work profile in the mobile phone, so that the profile you use every day is completely separated from the work profile, so as to achieve two accounts on one machine (so useful users can Two Whatsapps on one phone). Its most powerful feature is that it can force-freeze specific apps to prevent them from running automatically in the background and reading data from another profile. (Note that this sandbox app is developed by Chinese people, but based on open source, everyone can check the source code, unlike "An X out X", so it will be more trustworthy)

1. Download Shelter from Google play

2. Open Shelter

3. You will see the following screen content that this app will add a profile called work to your phone. If you are rooted and use other ROMs of your own, do not use this app. If there is no problem, press continue, otherwise bye~

4. Press Accept & Continue

5. Then a Work profile will be opened

6. Press the pop-up notice Click here to finish setting up Shelter to complete the installation.

7. In the Shelter app, you will see two pages: Main and Shelter. "Main" is what the user is using now, and "Shelter" is where you want to isolate the app

8. If it is not a native app, i.e. an app downloaded from Google Play, Shelter will ask it to install an app from an unknown source (because it will copy the app and the phone will treat it as an unknown source)

9. Configure Shelter to install programs from unknown sources

10. Then continue to install the app you specified

11. Take Evernote as an example, after installing Shelter, click the Evernote icon

12. Then select AutoFreeze, and if you want a shortcut to Evernote in the Work profile, select the bottom item: Create Unfreeze and/or Launch Shortcut

13. You will see the Evernote icon on the desktop of the mobile phone and there will be a cute egg pattern, which is the app in Shelter.

14. Finally, turn on the function of automatically freezing the app in the settings of the Shelter app (set in the vertical 3 dots in the upper right corner, the first one; you will see "Auto Freeze" in the middle of the settings)

Note

1. If the app to be quarantined is installed with the Shelter app, you can delete the original app. because it is independent
2. Remember to close the Shelter app and the network usage of the designated app, including mobile network and wifi
3. For safety's sake, it's best to use a so-called ghost machine
4. Cover the front lens with tape