Schvenn.net

Category: Administration

Market Link: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.netspark.firewall

Description:

For the less paranoid in the crowd, those who can't or are afraid to root their devices, this is a helpful alternative. The one drawback to this app is that you have to manually turn it on after every reboot.

The way Mobiwol works without requiring root access is that it manages all traffic at the connection level, through a VPN. You allow or deny each application access based on connection type, or only allow communication when it is the foreground application.

So, while this won't stop software from acquiring accurate information about you or your device if you do allow it to connect, you can at least limit if and/or when each app is able to do so. Let me give you a few examples:

Game 1: block all communications with the Internet, in order to block the application from spying on you, altogether
Game 2 (Live): block all communications EXCEPT when it's a foreground app, in order to stop background spying
App 1: block all communication through cellular (only allow WiFi communication), in order to save bandwidth
App 2: allow always trusted applications

While this isn't perfect, it's a considerably better alternative than the default.

Finally, Mobiwol maintains connection logs, so you can see exactly what tried to communicate with the Internet and when. You can see what was allowed and what was blocked as well as the destination address. This additional information can help you decide if you want to continue to allow the app to have access, or perhaps if you want to delete it, altogether. You can even adjust an app's permission right from the connection logs, by clicking on the entry and adjusting the settings.