Basically I’ve acquired a burner Android 8 phone and am running the target.com app which is the only way they let you get parking lot delivery at the store. I assume the Target app is spyware. I keep the phone powered off almost all the time which should limit the spying. The thing is, if I power up the phone and order something, then close the app, I still get an alert when the status of the order changes (e.g. it’s ready for pickup). So the app is still listening for network traffic from Target.
Can anyone explain what is happening in Android and whether there is a way to make an app really stop? Does the app stay in a running state even after I’ve closed the UI part of it? Is there somethng like an inetd in Android that listens for network alerts and re-launches the destination app? Are there Android app permissions associated with this, that I can revoke?
I don’t want to run this type of app on my main phone, but I had at first liked the idea of using a burner for such things. Now, though, I wonder if I need a separate burner for each suspicious app. Thanks.
Okay, so this is not really to answer your question, but I don’t think you needed a separate phone just for one app. You could’ve just use a “work profile” to put that app inside, and whenever you don’t need the app, you can turn off the work profile, and its effectively like that part of your phone being turned off.
I use an app called Shelter to do this.
Apps in “Work Profile” are effectively the same as if it were on another phone, they cannot access the data on your main profile.