Warden is a FOSS app management utility.
Warden has a static curated list of known trackers (Exodus Privacy) , each app's dex file is read to retrieve the class names,
these class names are then matched with the signatures of known trackers & loggers to find them.
A list of currently known trackers & loggers can be found here & here
Loggers in the context of Warden means all utilities which are used to log user activity on an app or logcat in general. Not all loggers are evil.
But few logging tools like ACRA, xLog are very powerful tools that can send user data to devs without user's consent.
So do read the app's Privacy Policy, beforehand.
Warden uses su pm to manage the components.
Design:
-Beautiful UI based on latest Material Design guidelines.
Analytics Reports:
-Generates report for all trackers & loggers present in app installed on device.
De-bloater:
-Advance profile based de-bloater, allowing to disable/uninstall/hide junks.
-Warden provides a profile based de-bloater where a profile is created in a format specified as in this sample scripts
-You need to place this profile/your custom profile at ExternalStorage/Warden/Profiles to make them appear in app.
-De-Bloater is an experimental feature, will improve it over time.
-Default action for debloating is 'disable' you can configure it to 'uninstall' or 'hide' from settings.
Exodus Report:
-Show trackers hidden in an app with version history, powered by Exodus Privacy.
Nuke It!:
-Nuke it! is another experimental feature that scans all apps on the device and disables all know tracker components automatically.
-It also gives an option to export components names per-app basis.
Components here means: Activities, Services, Providers & Receivers
Also it disable all trackers across the whole device automatically.
Comments and Reviews
Beautiful UI, and really nice features
I like the interface too. Also the scanner, which is nice. 2 problems I have:
it runs on a static list of trackers, which will be outdated after a week, and given the last commit on this app was done 2020 (the one commit in 2024 is described as "bump") its development can unfortunately be considered dead at this point. I'm hoping im wrong because I am looking for an app like it.
secondly, the debloat and nuke features were announced but they didn't get any development traction.
So in summary, it's an app to display a snapshot in time, but not usable for serious, continuous tracker blocking. And as MVP, I would need a strong app core, not a strong UI, and I only find the latter.