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Is GO Launcher or anything by GO dev safe?

Metroid Prime

Metroid Prime

Oil Can!!! Oil Can!!!
Hi I'm new here and I just wanted to know if go launcher and anything by the go dev team safe because I really want to download it and I just want to be sure it's ok sorry I'm a noob :p plus are the permissions legit?
 
Hi Metroid prime, welcome to AF!

Go Launcher is a widely used product in the Android market and I have never heard anything to cause concern about using their products. I tried Go Launcher at one point, it is a good product, I just prefer a different launcher. You can safely try it out and see if it is for you, good luck!
 
are these permissions for Go locker legit I understand some of them but what about needing internet access?

  • Hardware controlstake pictures and videos
    Allows application to take pictures and videos with the camera. This allows the application at any time to collect images the camera is seeing.
  • Your messagesreceive SMS
    Allows application to receive and process SMS messages. Malicious applications may monitor your messages or delete them without showing them to you.
    read SMS or MMS
    Allows application to read SMS messages stored on your device or SIM card. Malicious applications may read your confidential messages.
  • Network communicationfull Internet access
    Allows an application to create network sockets.
  • Your personal informationread contact data
    Allows an application to read all of the contact (address) data stored on your device. Malicious applications can use this to send your data to other people.
  • Phone callsread phone state and identity
    Allows the application to access the phone features of the device. An application with this permission can determine the phone number and serial number of this phone, whether a call is active, the number that call is connected to and the like.
  • Storagemodify/delete USB storage contents modify/delete SD card contents
    Allows an application to write to the USB storage. Allows an application to write to the SD card.
  • System toolsdisable keylock
    Allows an application to disable the keylock and any associated password security. A legitimate example of this is the phone disabling the keylock when receiving an incoming phone call, then re-enabling the keylock when the call is finished.
    prevent device from sleeping
    Allows an application to prevent the device from going to sleep.
    display system-level alerts
    Allows an application to show system alert windows. Malicious applications can take over the entire screen.
    modify global system settings
    Allows an application to modify the system's settings data. Malicious applications can corrupt your system's configuration.
    retrieve running applications
    Allows application to retrieve information about currently and recently running tasks. May allow malicious applications to discover private information about other applications.
 
Many of these are needed to function since the app is taking over your home screen duty. Think about how Sense or any other skin operates, they have to coordinate a lot of functions on your device.

Once again, it is a very popular app used by many people without incident.
 
thanks and sorry I apologize forbothering you
Click to expand...
No bother... Our pleasure. Thanks for joining the ranks.

If you need any help navigating the site, just give one of us Guides a shout!
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Just a sidenote: I don't particularly trust the Chinese government, which - as I imagine - have the possibility to kindly visit a developer who have an application downloaded by 10+ millions of western enemies and convince them to mess you over twice daily in the background. Or getting ready to accept that control message over the network which handles over any or all the data, processing power and whatnot.

I wonder if anyone ever ran a real security check of the application, including network traffic analysis. Oh well, paranoia most often is in the way of progress but try to imagine the possibilities, what if.

Just sayin'.
 
grinapo said:
Oh well...
Click to expand...

LOL...:p

That's actually a very interesting link there, grinapo.

I wasn't aware of that site or service until now.

For those that didn't click on the above link, it's:

Anubis: Analyzing Unknown Binaries says its:

Anubis is a service for analyzing malware.

Submit your Windows executable or Android APK and receive an analysis report telling you what it does. Alternatively, submit a suspicious URL and receive a report that shows you all the activities of the Internet Explorer process when visiting this URL.
Click to expand...

and that link is an analysis of the Go Launcher apk.

I don't know exactly how useful the report is (with respect to a summary analysis), other than the details it lists from scanning the .apk file, but very interesting nonetheless.
 
Wow, this thread is so old and the very first one I made! :)

If you mean Go Launcher than no, it doesn't need internet to work.
 
Installed the Go Launcher ex on my one X and god i faced teething problems. Arbitrary restarts, lags etc etc. Finally had to uninstall the whole app to get my phone back
 
I find this thread pretty fun. First, the "noob" that started the thread has over 8,000 posts since last year. Like him, my first post here is in this thread. Don't think I'll rack up posts as fast though! I found this thread because I had been using Go Launcher for a long time on my Droid X2. I just upgraded to HTC DNA this week and I wanted to find out how safe the app really might be. The reason I was concerned was after one particular update my browser kept redirecting its home page to a Chinese site. Battery life and stability had become serious issues on my Droid X2 so I wanted to be as smart as possible with the sort of apps I allow on this new phone. After playing around with the HTC Sense interface I decided I'd go ahead and try Go Launcer again. There were simply some improvements I really missed (such as landscape mode and resizing widgets). What I found was that on the DNA it was less useful to me. First, the DNA has a software menu button that resides nicely at the top right corner of apps, as there is no hardware button for that function. Go Launcher puts a black bar across the bottom of the screen taking valuable real estate. Then I noticed a funny notification. I could see that I was going to start being barraged with ads. There is an option to disable ads but now you have to upgrade to the premium version at the current cost of $5.99. Given these issues and the uncertainty of how the app might affect my phone in the future, I uninstalled it. I used to recommend the app highly. I no longer feel comfortable doing so.
 
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