Roon app contacting unauthorized servers (ref#5R23MJ)

Support
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Hi! What’s not quite right with Roon?

· None of the above quite fits

None of the above quite fits

· None of these quite match

Tell us what's going on

· Roon app contacts servers it is not supposed to contact.

Tell us about your home network

· ROCK running on NUC7, Android app

3

Hello @Florian_Winhart ,

Thank you for reaching out to our support team.

As indicated by the report you shared, Roon does not typically communicate directly with banking endpoints.

Could you please clarify where you downloaded your Roon app.

If you are installing the app via an APK, the only officially supported source is our downloads page. If you installed the application from a third-party store, please uninstall it and reinstall the official version from the link provided above.

Thanks.

6

Thank you for your fast reply. I deleted the app and downloaded the apk from your download link. It does not try to connect to banking app servers now.

But… I still have to stop my firewall on the phone in order to have the app find my ROCK on the local network.

Obviously, the app needs to contact “firebaseinstallations.googleapis.com” in order to work. This is not tolerable.

Please fix this or tell me how to establish a connection to my ROCK without having to stop my firewall each time I run the app.

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@Florian_Winhart ,

Thanks for confirming.

We can now see that your device is appearing on our end in the list of connected devices, which indicates you are using the official version of the Roon app.

Please note that contacting firebaseinstallations.googleapis.com is a normal part of how the Roon app functions. You should be able to create an exception for this service within your firewall settings.

Could you please clarify if there is a specific reason why you would prefer to keep the connection to this host blocked?

Thanks.

10

Thank you for your answer. I will try to explain:

Using a de-googled phone, I still have to struggle with apps using the android sdks, coming along with a load of unnecessary tracking routines such as firebaseinstallations API.

In order to prevent installed apps from connecting to google servers, I use a firewall.

The Roon app actually worked the last 3 years without having to grant permission to contact google servers. It stopped working a few updates ago, so I have to allow the app to contact google servers when starting it, just to close connections once it is running.

This is annoying and should not be necessary. Remember that I paid 700.- Dollars for the server which should be enough to deliver it with an app that does not come with preinstalled tracking crap like the google sdks.

Thanks for your patience. I hope you understand my concerns and are willing to change this.

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Firebase isn’t tracking, it’s Google providing a wide range of app services, which otherwise apps have to implement themselves (some of it being security-relevant and apps might make a worse job of it). Many apps use it.

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Well, not exactly. “providing a wide range of app services” is Gxxxxx’s way of binding Android and its apps to the eco-system. With each “service” you pay a high price and give up privacy, security and stability.

But this is a totally different discussion that I didn’t mean to provoke. I’d be glad if providers were aware that there are users out there who don’t want to be tracked by GAFAM “services”.

There are thousands of apps out there that don’t use or even depend on those “services” and that run smoothly and userfriendly without compromising the above mentioned necessities.

Again: I paid a rather high price for Roon and its apps. Roon should be mature enough to not depend on GAFAM and establish a music listening service that does not feed the internet monopolist structure.

So, @Roon, is there someone who would please comment on the use of google’s tracking “services”?

Thanks and best regards, Florian

1 Like
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I suggest getting an iPhone

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then he jailed and still deals with analytics. Back to the Stone Age is the only solution.

1 Like
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@Florian_Winhart ,

Thanks for commenting on this.

We have checked the use of this endpoint within our software and can confirm that it is not used to track or provide your personal data. In fact, we do not send any user or preference-related data to it.

Communication with this endpoint is required for the technical functionality of certain parts of our service. Currently, Roon utilizes this Google service solely for these technical needs. While it is possible that Roon may migrate to a different service in the future, there are no plans or announcements regarding this at this time.

Thank you.

16

Thank you Alex, for investigating and keeping me posted.

Question remains, why the app did work before, even though it had not access to firebase.

I am not happy with Roon relying on those services and I sincerely hope, you take customers thoughts on privacy and security seriously enough to further develop your software.

Thanks again and regards,

Florian

17

@Florian_Winhart ,

It is likely that the functionality of certain services was not previously marked as mandatory for launching the app, and this requirement may have changed recently.

Please note that information regarding our underlying architecture and technical functionality is not public, so we cannot provide further details or advise on the specific decisions made by our engineering team.

If you feel strongly that this behavior should be changed, we encourage you to visit the Feature Suggestions section of our community forum and post a request.

Requests that gather a sufficient number of votes are regularly reviewed by our team.

Thanks.

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Thank you. I’d be glad to take this to the Feature Suggestion section - where is that? I can’t find it in the community forum.

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Here: Feedback > Feature Suggestions

1 Like
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