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[Discuss] Syncing Android phones directly



David Kramer wrote:
> ...how people sync the contacts/calendar/notes/etc from their phone to
> SOMETHING.  That something may end up being Outlook under Windows, but
> of course something under Linux would be better.

Does the data actually need to sync with some other tool? You need a
desktop GUI? And it has to sync - meaning you plan to modify records on
the desktop?

Most collections of data in Android are stored as SQLite database files,
and if you rooted the phone, so you could do a full backup, among the
files should be a SQLite database with your contacts.

Once you have the file on your desktop, a generic SQLite viewer, like
SQLite Manager[1] (a Firefox extension), could be used for occasional
access to the data.

1. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sqlite-manager/


> Whatever I do, though, I don't want the data going through Google
> servers, or to leave my intranet at all.

If you're that protective of your contact data, I'd be reluctant to use
the stock Google contact manager app. Even though you can disable sync
for contacts in the settings, I still wouldn't fully trust it in that
regard.

Fortunately Android does let you swap out components, and replace it
with another contact manager. (Some of the syncing apps you mentioned
may even be contact managers.) Ideally one that encrypts and makes it
easy to back up. I don't know of a contact manager that specifically
meets those requirements. (I once looked for contact managers that
encrypted, and found one, but didn't like it.)


Richard Pieri wrote:
> Fact is, Android isn't a standalone device. It's not a PDA like Palm.
> It's an appliance for Google's storage system. Everything that resides
> on an Android device is a replica of what's stored in the Google account
> associated with that profile. That's how Android and all of the
> Google-branded applications are designed to operate. Google encourages
> third party application developers to follow suit.
> ...
> If you're not ready to hand over copies of your data to Google then you
> shouldn't go anywhere near Android. Or at least don't use it for

I tend to agree. If your hope is to run the stock Samsung ROM and still
keep all your personal data out of the cloud, I think you'll be
disappointed. (Though you'll likely have no idea what data is being
leaked, unless you really go digging.)

If you can confine your sensitive data to just your contacts or a few
other things that can be handled with specific apps that used encrypted
storage (and you don't care about the rest), you might get close to your
goals.

A third party ROM from a group that optimizes for data privacy (I don't
know how well the well known ROM developers fair in this regard) would
be the better option.

An inconvenience, but I don't think there are any other smartphone
platforms that are substantially different in this regard. Average users
want to be able to login to a new phone after their old one falls in the
pool and have all their data magically reappear.

 -Tom

-- 
Tom Metro
Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA
"Enterprise solutions through open source."
Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/



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