Lock down android phone conditionally
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My new job deals with financial stuff, which means there is a bit more strict security than I'm used to. This creates some friction with how I'm used to relying on Google Photos to sync my stuff. Namely, if I wanted to take a pic of a whiteboard with some proprietary information, it'd be on the Google cloud storage and all my personal devices within a minute, which is less than ideal.
Does anyone know of a way of handling this (and similar stuff) automatically? I am imagining a daemon that switches certain settings off and on based on a GPS location. Eg. when it thinks I am in the office, it turns off the cloud stuff?
I know there are user profiles on the phone, but I'd have to switch between them manually, which kind of defeats the purpose.
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@cartman82 said in Lock down android phone conditionally:
I am imagining a daemon that switches certain settings off and on based on a GPS location. Eg. when it thinks I am in the office, it turns off the cloud stuff?
Sounds like a job for Tasker, an app that lets you set your phone to automatically do certain actions based on trigger events
Pretty sure it has GPS location as a trigger, and I think it can interface with other apps' settings. If not, it should at least be able to switch profiles
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IFTTT or Tasker may be able to do something like that, but I think an easier way would be to use a different app and set it to save somewhere that isn't auto backed up to Google.
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@cartman82 said in Lock down android phone conditionally:
My new job deals with financial stuff, which means there is a bit more strict security than I'm used to. This creates some friction with how I'm used to relying on Google Photos to sync my stuff. Namely, if I wanted to take a pic of a whiteboard with some proprietary information, it'd be on the Google cloud storage and all my personal devices within a minute, which is less than ideal.
Does anyone know of a way of handling this (and similar stuff) automatically? I am imagining a daemon that switches certain settings off and on based on a GPS location. Eg. when it thinks I am in the office, it turns off the cloud stuff?
I know there are user profiles on the phone, but I'd have to switch between them manually, which kind of defeats the purpose.
You can do some things with IFTTT app. I bet you could geofence and switch profiles.
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@jaloopa said in Lock down android phone conditionally:
Sounds like a job for Tasker, an app that lets you set your phone to automatically do certain actions based on trigger events
You just reminded me I already have an app called "Automate".
I played around a bit. I can add a location trigger, but so far, I haven't found an action to do what I want.
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@cartman82 If you need a phone for work, they need to buy you a phone. (If, on the other hand, you just need a camera, they need to buy you that.)
Keep your personal shit far away from your work shit, that's always trouble. That's my advice at least.
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@cartman82 my camera app doesn't do any syncing. Do you usually use the google photos app for taking pics?
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@blakeyrat Taking a picture of a whiteboard once in a while hardly justifies dedicated hardware. I've done it, and so have co-workers, maybe a dozen times a year. If I asked my company to buy a camera just for that, they'd laugh. (Nevermind that they won't even buy me a computer; I'm a contractor, and to make the line between contractors and employees very clear, contractors have to provide their own equipment.)
However, I do agree about keeping work and personal separate, at least for this client. I'm sure they'd love for me to check email before I get to the office in the morning, but to do that I'd have to give IT access to everything on my phone (we won't peek at your personal stuff, we promise!) and encrypt the entire device. Um, no.
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@bb36e the Photos app (which includes the camera's default save directory as a default location for photos) will try to sync with your Google account if you have that permission turned on. You can't turn off syncing for individual files, you can only do it on a folder-level, and the camera folder is one you can't disable.
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@blakeyrat said in Lock down android phone conditionally:
@cartman82 If you need a phone for work, they need to buy you a phone. (If, on the other hand, you just need a camera, they need to buy you that.)
Keep your personal shit far away from your work shit, that's always trouble. That's my advice at least.
Yes, mixing private and business stuff when there are clear requirements for not doing that is asking for trouble. Either get a separate phone or something with sandboxing capabilities.
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@cartman82 Are you planning on doing something that moves the whiteboard picture (or other similarly "secure" photos out of the Photos app before you leave the premises? Otherwise as soon as you leave and IFTTT/Automate/whatever turns Photos syncing back on, it'll just sync it anyway...
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How about getting a different camera app that lets you set the save folder somewhere that isn't auto-synced? Use that one for work stuff, use your phone's normal one for your stuff.
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@bb36e said in Lock down android phone conditionally:
@cartman82 my camera app doesn't do any syncing. Do you usually use the google photos app for taking pics?
Camera saves photo to the camera roll directory, and google photos then syncs it in the background. I presume.
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@cartman82 said in Lock down android phone conditionally:
Does anyone know of a way of handling this (and similar stuff) automatically? I am imagining a daemon that switches certain settings off and on based on a GPS location. Eg. when it thinks I am in the office, it turns off the cloud stuff?
I don't think that's really what you want to do. Because once you get out of the office, wouldn't it just sync everything anyways? What you'd need is a way to automatically tag photos in such a way they don't get synched.
I'm wondering if there's an app you can use to take pictures that would send it to a special local album that isn't auto-synched. I have apps that let me save pictures to an album on my phone that never make it to my Google account, as far as I can tell. Then, all you'd need to do is make sure you use that app for work-related stuff.
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I echo the "get a second camera App to save to a non-synced location" suggestion. I use Open Camera for this myself, which dumps pics in a folder that has a .nomedia flag file in it (somewhere. I think it's a level higher actually). Works great.
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@e4tmyl33t said in Lock down android phone conditionally:
@cartman82 Are you planning on doing something that moves the whiteboard picture (or other similarly "secure" photos out of the Photos app before you leave the premises? Otherwise as soon as you leave and IFTTT/Automate/whatever turns Photos syncing back on, it'll just sync it anyway...
I was thinking maybe switch default camera roll directory, so all my work photos go into a directory that's not synced. Maybe even try something with symlinks (but I am affraid of breaking stuff).
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@parody said in Lock down android phone conditionally:
How about getting a different camera app that lets you set the save folder somewhere that isn't auto-synced? Use that one for work stuff, use your phone's normal one for your stuff.
You know what? That's actually a pretty good idea!
Dowloaded an app called OpenPhoto, configured a custom save directory, and that seems to solve the problem.
Thanks!
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@cartman82 said in Lock down android phone conditionally:
Maybe even try something with symlinks (but I am affraid of breaking stuff).
I'm not sure symlinks are supported on SDCard mounts, normally they're formatted FAT32 for "compatibility" reasons...
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@cartman82 said in Lock down android phone conditionally:
that seems to solve the problem
Until you slipup and take a picture with the wrong one. I agree with others who suggested a separate phone.
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@homobalkanus said in Lock down android phone conditionally:
a separate phone.
Until you slip up and take that daily dickpick with the wrong phone.
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@cartman82 said in Lock down android phone conditionally:
Does anyone know of a way of handling this (and similar stuff) automatically? I am imagining a daemon that switches certain settings off and on based on a GPS location. Eg. when it thinks I am in the office, it turns off the cloud stuff?
Kind of
'ing after a lot of answers (and you've found one that suits you, apparently), but some time ago someone here mentioned Llama, which I now use a lot and can do these kind of things.
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@cartman82 said in Lock down android phone conditionally:
You know what? That's actually a pretty good idea!
Now you've just made it a human error issue.
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@remi said in Lock down android phone conditionally:
mentioned Llama, which I now use a lot and can do these kind of things.
Yeah, too bad the GPS add-on is disappeared from the store (apparently) so I can't edit or delete them from profiles
all I need is to edit some text, why do I need a plugin for that?
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@remi said in Lock down android phone conditionally:
Llama
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@luhmann said in Lock down android phone conditionally:
@homobalkanus said in Lock down android phone conditionally:
a separate phone.
Until you slip up and take that daily dickpick with the wrong phone.
Simply get a cheap phone for work, then it should immediately become obvious you're using the other phone when the shitty camera is unable to get it all into view.
