Recently the app ClassyShark3xodus was updated and I see many apps with Acra tracker now. I suppose it’s about sending information to some server about the app when it crashes. So, it could be a lot of information, according to the server or tracker configuration.
And I see that F-droid app contains this tracker too.
Do you know something more about this tracker?
Thanks!
ACRA is an open-source crash reporting framework, not so much a tracker. (Crash reporters can be used for tracking though): GitHub - ACRA/acra: Application Crash Reports for Android
The configuration in F-Droid just pre-fills an email to send to the crash-reporting address when F-Droid client crashes. It never sends any data to any server unless the users sends that email.
Other apps might configure it differently so you’ll have to ask their respective developers.
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Thanks a lot.
So, it could also serve to track the users in some apps (not F-droid) if the configuration is “agressive”.
Any app could find a way to track its users, even without a “crash reporting framework”.
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Of course!, but if it contains some code to track the users then it adds more.
Because? Any links for this on how adding Bugsnag or ACRA to get crash reports and improve an app suddenly makes a dev decide to start tracking users?
I’m not saying that. I just say that if the developer answer about it it could be fine, but otherwise it’s better if I don’t find that code and less if the app is not opensource. As f-droid and the other answers show. That’s why I mean you can’t always trust in it, not that it’s always bad.
@jal , ClassyShark3xodus has been updated: fixes and latest Exodus trackers database (204 lines) https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/api/trackers .
I decided few weeks ago to add some missing known trackers : many of them are quite unused (but present in old apks), some are in stand-by in Exodus Etip (https://etip.exodus-privacy.eu.org/ wip before final validation) and few are bug tracker.
These additions use prefixes: ° ² µ
As example,
- ° for missing: Amazon new active tracker AWS Kinesis is missing
- ² for Etip stand-by: Mozilla/Telemetry is now in Etip stand-by
- µ for micro non-intrusive: Acra
All these additions have one thing in common on F-Droid: they should not be activated without the user consent; otherwise they will be flagged with antifeature warning.
So in fact, having a foss bugtracker like acra in fdroid apps, is an indicator of quality. In theory bugtrackers should only be present in debug/nightly apps; since fdroid-client is a live contributors’-team market app, it’s fair to have acra onboard (with user consent).
I also decided to go for one single exception to Exodus official database: Mapbox is softened to MapboxTelemetry instead of the wider general map sdk detection.
More info: oF2pks / 3xodusPrivacy-toolbox · GitLab
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Thanks for the information. 
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