yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] maybeme2:
I am one who paid for the pro versions, both for Xprivacy and xprivacylua. I did that because I appreciate the time you must have spent and the expertise involved.

But, I do recall hesitating and thinking the price for xprivacylua was high. I am no business expert but I suspect that I am not the only one who hesitated because of the amount. This is no reflection on the cost of development. It is a reflection on sales psychology. I 'think' if the price (of anything) is low people are more likely to buy it. I don't recall what I paid for xprivacylua but I believe it was $10+, which is high for an app and may be why so few hesitate to buy it. If it was $1-2 I think more people would pay and the increased volume would greatly exceed the total amount you currently receive.

Why not do an experiment? Announce a 'sale' where users can get the pro for $2 for a short period of time. Whatever additional amount you receive will be just that: money you would not have gotten otherwise. Just extra.

For this to succeed your current non paying users will need to know (repeatedly) that the sale is going on for a limited period of time.

As I said, I'm not a business expert. Just trying to be helpful. But it makes sense to me.

The other suggestion I would make is the following. I know you've repeatedly said that using xprivacylua is easier than Xprivacy. But many users have not found it so, including myself. I am now quite comfortable using its controls but it still is less easy - from the non developer end user point of view - because of the lack of the 'on demand' approach of Xprivacy.

Xprivacy did not require the user to think ahead of time what to block in an app. Instead, when an app tried to use something Xprivacy could control a clear popup appeared asking a simple question : allow, not allow, etc. I think that is what is missing in Xprivacylua. I know it works differently, etc. but that is developer talk. The end user thinks differently and it is up to the developer to make it happen the way the user prefers. However illogical that may seem.

Just my 2 cents. Trying to help.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Namnodorel:
[MENTION=6910712]maybeme2[/MENTION] The problem is that there are a lot of fees involved with the price of the Pro companion. Marcel doesn't actually get that much from it. If the price was reduced to one or two dollars/euros, there'd be almost nothing getting through.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
More details here: https://github.com/M66B/NetGuard/blob/master/FAQ.md#FAQ37
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Oswald Boelcke:
Just for the benefit of @M66B I always suggest to use the other (don't want to call it alternative) method of donations that Marcel offers. @Namnodorel is certainly right. I know that Google takes 30% (in writing THIRTY) of the donation/purchase as a fee.

And yes, the purchase of the complete pro-companion was more expensive than usually for other Android applications but so what... Marcel shows his dedication for privacy enhancement in all he's doing and his development/applications. The about 15€ I paid (I can't even recall how much the XP pro-features were years ago) are well deserved. And nobody is required to purchase the complete package. The amount is that what I smoke in two days; and I guess this is fair. Actually, the free XPL already provides all the features to enhance my privacy; I wouldn't even require the paid features of the companion but I'd liked to show my appreciation. I'm not (and won't ever be) familiar with the Apple family but for Windows I doubt that the discussion would ever occur.

I firmly believe that quite a lot of members of the Android community have a personality problem that was addressed in an earlier advertisement slogan of the largest German IT store: "Parsimony is horny!" Everything on and for Android with a 500€ device must be for free or at be least price at less than 10% of a scoop of ice cream. If it's already at the price of the scoop then evn warez like this freaking l****p****** comes into effect. And yes, well recognised developers always have the possibility to sell their applications as one of SRD of XDA did with his superuser application that became a no-go to me when it was owned by a Chinese company.

Personally, I hope Marcel just continues his way! Marcel, I wouldn't mind if the pro companion leaves its beta status and be installed 1,000k times; even if only 20% conduct a partial puchase, I grant you the compnsation for all your efforts.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] maybeme2:
Many other apps seem to sell for that amount.

As I said, my advice is worth exactly what you paid for it: not even 2 cents. ?

If the production and sale fees are too high maybe that's the problem to be addressed. I don't know '
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] maybeme2:
Like you I paid the full amount.

I was just trying to suggest a way to increase Marcel's total income using the multiplication factor and if the costs are a percentage that just argues in my favor.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] badabing2003:
[MENTION=2799345]M66B[/MENTION]

Although I don't personally care one bit about on demand feature (I block by default and adjust later if need be), many users repeatedly seem to be seeking that feature.

I do understand the technical reasons behind leaving that out, correct me if I'm wrongly, mainly because by the time a user selects a response to allow or block the restriction, the app is blocked waiting for the data which could cause a crash.

Perhaps there could be a way to keep those users satisfied without blocking the app.

What if you assume a pre-set (through settings) default block or default allow response until the user selects a choice for the on demand popup?

The app won't block and won't crash, the first response is previously set, but future responses are set by the user.

This could be explained in the faq.

I know it's not perfect on demand, but if it can get more users buying into XPL, then why not?

On the other hand keeping a parallel record of what the user has responded to and what not yet could involve quite a bit of development effort, which might not be justifiable.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
If there ever will be an Xposed update, I will look into on demand restricting. For now I am busy with an email client (it will not take very long anymore until I will release the source code and an alpha version).
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Namnodorel:
An idea for the restriction definition management: Have short descriptions for groups, and add some way to only View the available groups and bulk-download restrictions for a group.

The current long list of hooks does not give that much of a good overview about what's there. Also, even for more experienced users individual hooks don't matter/are too hard to understand but just what a group of hooks does. When I for example want to add another analytics library to what I can restrict, I don't care much about how it is done, just that it is and that I get all hooks necessary for it. A scenario where I just need one hook from a set of hooks designed to be used against one framework is quite rare, I'd say.

So I think it'd make sense to unclutter the restriction management UI a bit by making it first and foremost about groups. If someone wants to look at individual hooks, they could do that by explicitly opening a submenu or checking a box for "Detail Mode".
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
This is already on my to do list, for when I am bored and Xposed is being updated.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] maybeme2:
Another suggestion is an easy way to find - within the app - a one line definition of what each restriction does. Preferably by long pressing on the item. Take 'read network data' as an example. It would be logical for the user to wonder if that is similar to blocking WiFi access or something else. Some items send fake data but others (like record audio/video or SMS) essentially 'block' the item use. Hence the potential confusion without an easily accessible definition.

Right now, clicking on ? provides links to the documentation and faq and while reading through the documentation defines the various items in Xprivacylua that's 2 links away and scrolling to find the item.

If long pressing on an individual item provided a description, it would make using xprivacylua much easier.

(Do you need translation to French? I could help with that).
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Oswald Boelcke:
@M66B: Marcel, maybe the second part of my post here is interesting for you as you offer your application for free via Google Play Store but besides the in-app purchases you provide a donation posibility on your website. I certainly hope that you don't get banned from Play Store as it happened to Andreas Schildbach.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
The pro features are offered outside the Play store for people without Google services on their device, so I don't think rules are being violated. There is no competition between the one and the other.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] ricky0007:
compatible with mate 10 pro

Hello it is compatible with mate 10 pro ?
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
The right question is if there is a working Xposed version for your device. You'll need to ask this in the Xposed XDA forums.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] iu1nguoi:
In the pro app, can we have an option to automatically restart the app when one of it's hook is toggled? Like how it is done in the normal XPrivacyLua app
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
I will put it on the to do list.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] mark_at:
Marcel, I am currently on holidays in another country. I tried to stream some sports news.

Did not work, because stream only possible in my home country.

I thought by faking my location ... "set" ... latitude and longitude I took from google ... the app would allow me to stream and think I am not in another country. But it anyway did not work.

Anything else I could do?
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
Your country is likely determined by your external IP address, so you could try using a VPN, but that will most likely not work too because parties like Netflix have become smart.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] apkwebs:
Some people using the pro companion app without Google services installed are frequently flashing a new ROM, which resulted into the pro activation being deactivated. This was being solved by requesting a new activation until now, but this was both inconvenient for them and for me. This has been solved in version 0.24.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Namnodorel:
I've heard that some providers (ProtonVPN) have explicit support for streaming services. And I believe Netflix doesn't actually care that much whether you watch a thing from a certain location, they just need to make sure they are in check legally.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] mark_at:
Ok, thank you for fast reply. I had hoped that the pro companion app alone would solve the problem.

But is not such a big issue. I can live without stream for some time.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] bluegrass55:
Google Play Store

I don't normally use the Play Store app as I use microG ROMs.

However on the occasions that I had to install the app with everything blocked it still manages to read my phone number correctly even though I inputted a random number using Lua Pro. It did read the false email address.

It is under Privacy.Account.Create Form Parcel

How come it reads the false email address but not the false phone number?
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
Which telephone number is exactly read?
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] bluegrass55:
The sim card number. The one I use to make calls etc
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Oswald Boelcke:
I hope I correctly understood your issue because for me XPL works as advertised.

Screenshots 1 and 2 show the restrictions I've imposed on Google Play Store. Screenshot 3 is the log with the actions applied to Google PS. Screenshot 4 show my personal fake values i.e. I've customised the IMEI, the phone number and the email address (for the latter two no need to pixel them as they are the official phone number and email address of the official Office for Privacy of the German City and State of Hamburg.

As you see, in my case neither the phone number or email were requested, and the requested IMEI was faked to my customised one.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
There are two phone number restrictions:

https://github.com/M66B/XPrivacyLua/blob/master/app/src/main/assets/hooks.json#L1245

https://github.com/M66B/XPrivacyLua/blob/master/app/src/main/assets/hooks.json#L1341

so, this should work, unless there is another way to get the phone number.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] bluegrass55:
Thanks for the images. I have the same setup as you but with different values.

All the Play Store restrictions are on yet it still managed to read the phone number. Strangely enough since my post it no longer reads that information. However just noticed the contacts and user dictionary were reading the phone number. Allowed the permission to read Account name and they both stopped showing phone number in the log.

So in my case if I don't want the app to see my phone number I have to allow the read account permission. Strangely no other app gets this information even with read account blocked.

---------- Post added at 05:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:12 PM ----------

I'm not sure if you mean to enable these hooks. I have installed all the hooks minus the ones that would cause conflict with built in ones.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] bluegrass55:
I changed the ROM and still face the same issue. Either I've restored Lua with data too many times or I need to start fresh. So currently if I don't want an app to read my phone number I have to allow the Read Account permission.

It could also be the device. It is a Oneplus 5T on Oreo. My Nexus 5 on Nougat doesn't have this issue.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] beeshyams:
[MENTION=2799345]M66B[/MENTION]

Please clary

I have not been messing with system apps so far but tried the exact settings in Oswald's post above

I expected that with this settings, Google would think I am trying to sign in with a new device and sends me a confirmation mail. It didn't happen. When I logged into my account, it didn't show new devices

How is Google still getting to know about the device and correctly identifying?

Thanks for your response
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
I don't know.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Namnodorel:
Have yoh cleared Cache and possibly data of your Google Apps after applying the restrictions? It is possible that Google detected the device once when it could, and then saved that identification somewhere. In that case it wouldn't care if suddenly the identification methods return something else, because it wouldn't even call them.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Oswald Boelcke:
Please be aware about a possible slight difference between our devices respectively systems. All of our devices are GApps free but using microG (installed via Setialpha's NanoDroid) i.e. there aren't any Google services or applications running on the devices except the Google Play Store; however, even this play store is modified by Setialpha. The for the play store required Google account is created via microG, and e.g. never ever synchronises anything - but I use my "official" gmail account for that. This gmail account is only used for the login to the play store to have access to my purchases or to conduct in app purchases (as I e.g. did with the XPL pro companion). This is the reason why access to the account name is granted in XPL. In my Google Play Store (access via browser) appear a lot of unknown devices with recent logins; I assume that are my device and the one of my wife, which are using XPL. The devices recognised by Google obviously belong to the rest of our family - and don't have XPL or even Xposed installed.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] beeshyams:
Thanks. Good point. Did that and also restricted Google Framework but did not get the expected result

---------- Post added at 09:59 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:54 AM ----------

Thanks. Whale of a difference between what you are running and me on stock MiA1 with all Google stuff. Any idea on how to completely make it appear to Google that I am running a different device with same account and same set of apps. Restricting GSF and clearing cache/data of PS didn't help
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Oswald Boelcke:
Actually no idea if Google is used. Many years ago, I pretty quickly realised for myself that I cannot avoid to being tracked by Google if I use anything of the Google services or applications.The footprint you allow Google might be large enough to track you. If interested you may read in the linked posts how I proceeded:

https://xdaforums.com/android/general/how-enhance-battery-duration-sgs-3-lte-t3478287

https://xdaforums.com/galaxy-s3/general/gapps-free-samsung-galaxy-s3-lte-gt-t3553620
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] beeshyams:
Awesome. Thanks for sharing.

Yes, it often appears that fighting Google is a losing battle when you use them. Leaving them may be the best bet
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] lklyta:
hello, i can't seem to be able to purchase the features it gives me an error each time, even though i can purchase just fine other paid apps for example. is there a way over this? can i purchase via computer and then upload features? thank you
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
What exactly is the error?
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] lklyta:
The message that appears is: "Error: Your transaction cannot be completed". Is there any other way i can buy this please? Thank you
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
You can request information about an alternative way of buying here:

https://contact.faircode.eu/?product=xluastandalone
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] lklyta:
thanks i sent a message.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] beeshyams:
[MENTION=2799345]M66B[/MENTION]

I am toying with the idea of being Google free. Do I need to buy the license for standalone separately or will the existing license hold?
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
You can get that information through here:

https://contact.faircode.eu/?product=xluastandalone
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] maqo314:
I have a problem activating my license I got from my paypal donation (17.07.2018).

- First image is the webpage I am after clicking on the activation link from email.

- Second image after clicking on first link on first image (I did this on an android device).

- Third image after clicking on second link on first image.

running Android Oreo 8.1 (LOS)
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] beeshyams:
Must have been asked before but couldn't find hence

Some custom hooks don't have the download button next to them. How do I download them to apply?

Also how do you enable from XLP for a custom hook to be globally available for all apps instead of toggling that category for each app. I see it described as can be done from XLP but can't find
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] spawnlives:
I believe if there's no download button then the custom hook has already been downloaded. Download button will show up if a new or updated hook is available. In pro app under collection to turn on hooks from the author.

To set for every app(globally) in xlp you can use the search function (see FAQ point 11) and also just below xlp name menu bar there is an option to filter restriction per catergory. I haven't really checked but I don't know if you can filter per hook.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] beeshyams:
Thanks but apparently you can do it per hook and that's what I am trying to find out. For example this hook definition says "alternately, enable NetworkInfo.toString hook in XPL Pro."

I have enabled that under the hook definition (from edit) and ticked "enabled" and "usage" but I find it not applied to all apps

Under global settings Fif is enabled

From XLP (not pro) one can filter and apply for category but I am trying to figure out how to "alternately, enable NetworkInfo.toString hook in XPL Pro." to make it applicable to all apps that have that category enabled already
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] spawnlives:
Not sure on the alternative way of enabling the hook myself. This would be a big wild guess but if you haven't enable fif's in collection and edited the hook to manually enable it. Hopefully [MENTION=987754]fif[/MENTION] or Marcel can help would like to know myself. I did it the hard way
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Fif_:
I was trying to say in the hook description that you can enable the hook for a single app two ways:

(1) In XPL, make sure the correct category is fully active (all hooks are on, red button). If the category button is grey, then only some hooks in the category are active, switch it off (white) then back on so that it's red.

OR

(2) You can use XPL Pro by:

- launching XPL

- scrolling to the app

- clicking on the gear icon to the right of the app name, this will launch XPL Pro for the selected app

- clicking on the settings button in the XPL Pro header bar (second from the left, labeled "Manage assigned hooks")

- You can now turn on and off individual hooks for that app.

Since you're taking about the NetworkInfo.toString hook I authored, the correct category for method (1) is "Read Network Data", and the hook name for method (2) is "NetworkInfo.toString".

If you want to turn it on for all apps:

- Launch XPL

- In the filter just below the header, displaying "All" by default, select the "Read Network Data" category.

- Make sure only user apps are shown

- Click the "RESTRICT" button until all the apps are shown as selected (red button).

I hope that helps.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] beeshyams:
Thanks for detailed response
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Gerdje_:
To anybody who knows the answer.

Sorry if it has been asked before but when hooks are gray they are not working. As stated before here, they will work if you toggle them. But being on Nougat (SDK25), for example ContentResolver.query26/blockednumber, even when it is being enabled by default in the Description (after clicking on the hook->Edit), will it work if I toggle it? Because this hook only works on SDK26 onwards.My guess it won't. So the question is not about this specific hook, more in general whether or not it usefull to enable those gray hooks which are not suited for your specific Rom. Thanks!
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
They are disabled for a reason. Enabling is on own risk.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] beeshyams:
Something that's puzzling. In the FairEmail log I see

WIFI[], state: CONNECTED/CONNECTED, reason: (unspecified), extra: "< name>", failover: false, available: true, roaming: false] but in the XPL log it shows <name > as private ?!

[MENTION=2799345]M66B[/MENTION] noticed that when you pointed out what to look for in the log

Edit

[MENTION=5297163]Fif_[/MENTION]

:good:

Fixed with the latest release - version 3

Thanks