The iodé child protection was for me the convincing aspect which ended with two iodéOS powered Pixel 5.
So far it make all sense and the very first test convinced me to activate a PREMIUM subscription.
Only iodé tools and the system updater has permanent network access.
The motivation is a full control of all excising and future apps such that nothing can be installed without permission (–> we gathered some deteriorating experiences in the past with too optimistic app-freedom ).
One thing that seems “improvable” once such a restrictive setting, is the process of updating installed apps through Aurora or F-Droid. Unfortunately, I would expect there is no way in separating between an installation or an update process for these apps.
Therefore, I would foresee a “maintenance run” for instance once a week to make sure things are reasonably well maintained. To ease this par entail administration task, would it be possible to introduce a “quick switch” for apps like Aurora and F-Droid to grant full network access with the pin until one closes the iodé’s interface app again? Is this somehow already possible and I missed it?
Also a pop-up message to grant with the pin an update or installation would be an excellent extension too.
I would further prose to extend this entry into an advanced parental control guide together with your inputs and suggestions.
Thanks for your valued feedback and your excellent tools to efficiently protect our children and there (virtual) childhoods!
Best regards
Tobi
Further topics to be discussed / iterated for “advanced parental control”:
Address book & calendar snyc (via DAVx5)
Email app/sync → K9 vs pEp
app restriction via “time limit” (on daily and/or weekly contingent)
remote control app for maintenance and guided installation. (something like team-viewer?)
pro/con of permanent personal VPN via netgear or fritzbox or similar boxes (wireguard)
Would you like to create an application to add options to Parental Control or are you asking the IodeOS team if they will add these options?
For my part, I’d be interested (in the future) in adding a time management app (like Google’s Parental Control). I’ve already talked about it here, to find out what the IodeOS team’s intentions are on this subject.
This is something we could think about indeed, that could improve the usability in a generic way: allow network access for some apps (not only aurora store or f-droid), in a simple way, for a limited session.
@McFly Thanks for the reply and the link. I guess this is one of the key functionalities that cannot be added through an app since (to my understanding) to be effective it has to be fully integrated into the OS to protect it it from tuning off or uninstallation etc. So it is up to the iodé team to consider and implement it.
On my side I can only offer testing support and some financial support.
@vince31fr
Considering this would make iodé even more appealing. Another way would be accessing the app is restricted the app GUI is restricted while the background processes can very well access the network. This could be a quick and simple approach for implementation.
I will extend the part in the DNS filtering according to your suggestion and background link.
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