[General Questions and Answers] GalaxyA325G:
Anyone know how to delete or sandbox T-Mobile Diagnostics?

Package Name <com.tmobile.echolocate>

This is the first time that adb uninstall has ever failed me!

This image implies "T-Mobile Diagnostics" sends private information

such as "Location" to T-Mobile for reasons that are unknown to me.

<https://ibb.co/mRqYGpr>

A similar warning shows up when I run this adb command.

T-Mobile Diagnostics <com.tmobile.echolocate> OOBE Activity

C:\> cmd activity start --user 0 -a android.intent.action.VIEW -n com.tmobile.echolocate/com.tmobile.echolocate.ui.OOBEActivity -f 0 com.tmobile.echolocate

Which has two switches explained by this activity:

Device Diagnostics​

As part of our commitment to delivering the​

best network quality and device experience​

possible, this device is equipped with diagnostic​

software in the T-Mobile and T-Mobile​

Diagnostics applications, to send performance​

and diagnostics information, including location,​

app/network usage data to T-Mobile for​

troubleshooting, stats and network optimization​

purposes. T-Mobile does not have visibility into​

what actions users take within third-party apps.​

Help improve your experience by sharing​

device performance, app and network usage data​

​

Yes/No​

​

Help improve your local network experience​

by including your device's location.​

​

Yes/No​

The problem is I can't seem to turn these off.

I can turn the switch off, but when I come back to the same activity,

the switches are turned back on

. I can't find any way around this yet.

Looking deeper, there are 3 Trackers in T-Mobile Diagnostics:

com.google.android.gms.measurement.AppMeasurementReceiver

com.google.android.gms.measurement.AppMeasurementService

com.google.android.gms.measurement.AppMeasurementJobService

All I want to do is delete this T-Mobile Diagnostics package.

Where this is the first time that adb uninstall has ever failed on me!

C:\> adb shell pm list packages | findstr tmobile

Result:

package:com.tmobile.pr.mytmobile

package:com.tmobile.echolocate

package:com.tmobile.pr.adapt

C:\> adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.tmobile.pr.mytmobile

Result:

Success

C:\> adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.tmobile.echolocate

Result:

Failed to uninstall a package: com.tmobile.echolocate

C:\> adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.tmobile.pr.adapt

Result:

Success

C:> adb shell pm list packages | findstr tmobile

Result:

package:com.tmobile.echolocate

C:\> adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.tmobile.echolocate

Result:

Failed to uninstall a package: com.tmobile.echolocate

Hmmmm... that has never happened to me before with adb uninstall.

Googling, this suggested an app called "insular" can sandbox it.

What is "T-Mobile Diagnostics" and why can't it be Uninstalled?

<reddit]tmobile/comments/mz1zf7>

Search shows people "sandbox" similar apps using (mostly) Insular.

<https://xdaforums.com/t/app-5-0-beta-island-app-freezing-privacy-protection-parallel-accounts.3366295/>

Do you have experience isolating apps using Insular on Android?

<https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.oasisfeng.island.fdroid/>

However, it will take a while to figure out how to use Insular.

<https://secure-system.gitlab.io/Insular/setup.html>

(Or if Insular is, indeed, the right approach for this package, since I don't want to sandbox it so much as wipe it off the phone!)

<https://secure-system.gitlab.io/Insular/>

"Insular is a sandbox environment to clone selected apps and isolate them from accessing your personal data outside the sandbox (including call logs, contacts, photos and etc) even if related permissions are granted. Device-bound data (SMS, IMEI and etc) is still accessible. The isolated app can be frozen on demand, with its launcher icon deleted and its background behaviors completely blocked."

Searching a bit more for what Insular does, apparently there are multiple similar apps for such isolation tasks, e.g.,

Island

Shelter

Insular (which is a FLOSS fork of Island)

<reddit]privacytoolsIO/comments/kt27zn>

<https://secure-system.gitlab.io/Insular/faq.html>

<https://forum.f-droid.org/t/insular-sandbox/19580>

Given that information above, and the desire to wipe out this

location-privacy hole, anyone have suggestions for isolating

(or uninstalling) this particular app that adb won't uninstall?