118 lines
4.4 KiB
Markdown
118 lines
4.4 KiB
Markdown
**Disclaimer:** This is a free and open source project, but it relies on third-party web-services for some functions to work. This project is not affiliated with any third-party entities in any other sense.
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# Yet Another Call Blocker
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The goal of this project is to provide a free and open source application that can block unwanted calls or warn about probable intentions of the callers using a third-party crowdsourced phone number database (from some other proprietary app).
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## How to use
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* Install and launch the app.
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* Press the "Download database" button on the main screen, wait for it finish.
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The DB will be downloaded from [here](https://gitlab.com/xynngh/YetAnotherCallBlocker_data).
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* At this point you should be able to see notifications with some caller info during incoming calls.
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You can press such a notification to load detailed online reviews.
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* Check the "Auto-update enabled" switch (recommended) to automatically receive daily DB updates (these are delta updates, so they consume very little traffic).
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* Check the "Block unwanted calls" switch if you want to enable automatic blocking.
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* After these step everything should just work. Enjoy!
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## Features
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At this point of time only very basic features are implemented.
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Currently implemented (more or less):
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* Showing a notification with some number info (positive/negative, category, number of negative reviews and such) when the phone's ringing. *Works offline.*
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* Loading and displaying a list of reviews for a calling number (accessed by pressing the notification). *Requires internet.*
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* Automatic blocking of unwanted calls (may not work on some devices; doesn't work on Android 9+). *Works offline.*
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* Automatic update of the database (for offline use). *Requires internet.*
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## Available data
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The following data is available in the main offline database:
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* a phone number,
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* a category (telemarketers, dept collectors, scam, etc.),
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* a number of negative reviews,
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* a number of positive reviews,
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* a number of neutral reviews.
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The main database may receive delta updates from third-party servers.
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The "featured" database provides "names" (company names or short descriptions) for some (presumably) subset of numbers in the main database.
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The third-party servers can be queried for a list of detailed user reviews for a specific phone number.
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A detailed review contains:
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* A rating: positive, negative or neutral.
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* A category: each review may have a different one.
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* A title and a comment: the actual description the user left for the number.
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## Privacy
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Protecting the user's privacy is the first concern during development. No personal data is sent to or otherwise shared with anyone.
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The only known possible data leaks are the following:
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* Database update procedure leaks user's IP address to the update servers.
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The request also includes current database version (base or updated).
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* User review requests leak user's IP address coupled with the phone number in question.
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Shouldn't be a big deal unless you call it for a bunch of numbers in your phone book.
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No other identifiable information is sent with the requests.
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## Rationale
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Some may find the original application (whose DB and servers are used) hard to trust because of its proprietary nature (and also the use of firebase analytics and the like).
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But since the database behind that application is crowdsourced, some may find it acceptable (in a moral sense) to use that database in a separate open source application.
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Also, this project is meant to be non-commercial. So, there's that.
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## License
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[AGPLv3](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.en.html).
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## Contributing
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Any contributions are very welcome.
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## Building
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Clone the project repo:
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```
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git clone https://gitlab.com/xynngh/YetAnotherCallBlocker.git
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```
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Clone the assets repo (optional step: allows to avoid the initial DB downloading after installation):
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```
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git clone https://gitlab.com/xynngh/YetAnotherCallBlocker_data.git
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```
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Sym-link the assets:
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Linux
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```
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cd YetAnotherCallBlocker/app/src/main/assets/
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ln -s ../../../../../YetAnotherCallBlocker_data/assets/sia .
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```
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Windows
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```
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cd YetAnotherCallBlocker\app\src\main\assets
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mklink /d sia ..\..\..\..\..\YetAnotherCallBlocker_data\assets\sia
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```
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**or** copy the whole directory `YetAnotherCallBlocker_data/assets/sia` into `YetAnotherCallBlocker/app/src/main/assets/`.
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Then you can build the app using Android Studio or using Gradle:
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```
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./gradlew assemble
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```
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