How To: Block Apps from Logging Your Data on Android

With root access, you're granted greater control over your device, allowing you to do things that your Android system wouldn't allow otherwise. Things like installing Xposed mods are made possible with root, but other advantages address performance and security, like stopping your Android logging, which is exactly what we'll be going over today.

So What Exactly Is Android Logging?

Android devices come with a logging function that logs system-wide information, which is split into four main parts:

• Main - displays the main log buffer for the application
• Events - deals with the buffer containing event-related messages
• Radio - logs phone-related information
• System - logs low-level system messages and debugging

These logs essentially help developers by reporting issues with their application, which they can then access via SDK tools.

Privacy Concerns

There's no need to panic, but there are potential privacy concerns when it comes to logging. As reported by the Secure Software Engineering Group, "The log entries can include messages with harmless information ... but we found that in practice many messages include privacy-related information such as email addresses, passwords, contact information, SMS/MMS, etc."

The article also provides an example of some log information that includes longitude and latitude coordinates, as well as an address from the Google Maps app.

How to Stop Android Logging

With performance and privacy in mind, developer Wanam created Stop Log. By restricting Android logging, you'll be halting this regular background task from functioning and using up resources, such as storage access and CPU usage.

In order to give the app access to your device, make sure your device is rooted.

After installing the Stop Log and opening it, just uncheck the logs you want to disable. After unchecking the logs, make sure to Save, then Reboot the device.

How Do You Know if It's Working?

With a free application like Android Log Viewer from Volacent, you can make sure that the app has ceased Android logging. I've tested it with Stop Log enabled and disabled and the results confirmed that the app does indeed do what it says.

No force-closing or other issues have been reported on the developer's thread, and as the dev describes, most developers use Google analytics or some other bug report framework to report their bugs, and these reports can be done without the need for device-logs. Test it out and let us know what you think in the comments below, on Facebook, or on Twitter.