Is there a way to sandbox Facebook messenger so it can't see the rest of my phone?

[Red Squirrel]

With this quarantine I can see my family wanting to face time more, and I normally don't install that app on my phone but it can be nice for face to face conversations and stuff. I tend to install it like once a year if I'm working night shift on Christmas or new years then delete it but chances are the damage is done at that point anyway and it probably harvested all my info.

I'd like to just keep it installed, but is there a way to sandbox it so it can't access all my info? I don't want it tracking anything I do such as location, or contacts, or phone calls etc and all the stuff these types of apps tend to spy on. I just want it to essentially think it's on a blank phone and I want to be able to turn it off. When you install it there is no way to actually turn it off.

Is there a way of doing this like some kind of VM software that can run right on the phone then I can turn the VM on/off? I have a blackberry DTEK50.

 

[s44]

Shelter - Apps on Google Play

Isolate Apps / Multiple Accounts

play.google.com

 

[Red Squirrel]

Tried to install it but for some reason I can't find it on Play store, and when I try to install from web page it just says my phone is not compatible... never seen that before. Any other similar apps? Or is there a way to run android apps on a Raspberry Pi or something and have it use a web cam as the phone camera?

Worse case scenario maybe I'll just try to find a cheap tablet or something.

 

[balloonshark]

Can you use facetime when logged into facebook through a web browser? If so Firefox has a couple of Mozilla add-ons that would work. I've been using Multi-Account containers daily since I first heard about it.

Firefox Multi-Account Containers – Get this Extension for 🦊 Firefox (en-US)

Download Firefox Multi-Account Containers for Firefox. Firefox Multi-Account Containers lets you keep parts of your online life separated into color-coded tabs. Cookies are separated by container, allowing you to use the web with multiple accounts and integrate Mozilla VPN for an extra layer of...

addons.mozilla.org

Facebook Container – Get this Extension for 🦊 Firefox (en-US)

Download Facebook Container for Firefox. Prevent Facebook from tracking you around the web. The Facebook Container extension for Firefox helps you take control and isolate your web activity from Facebook.

addons.mozilla.org

Bluestacks will allow you to run apps on a PC. I haven't tried it but it seems to be the most common solution. It looks like linux may have similiar emullators if you do a search.

 

[Red Squirrel]

That might be an option too, maybe I can set it up on the TV on a Raspberry PI, that would be kinda neat actually.

I'll have to play around with that.

 

[mxnerd]

Try

Shelter | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

© 2010-2021 F-Droid Limited and Contributors

f-droid.org

Shelter info at Gihub

https://github.com/PeterCxy/Shelter

 

[Red Squirrel]

It won't let me install it, says it's incompatible. I wonder if it's because the DTEK50 uses a slightly custom android by Blackberry.

 

[mxnerd]

Found Rocket Chat, no experience.

Install Rocket.Chat server

Download and install Rocket.Chat server. Deploy on premise or to a secure cloud of your choice.

rocket.chat

Maybe you can host your own server?

I haven't view the full videos yet.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I was thinking of looking into my own solution, it would be better. But family will probably want to use FB. Still going to look into this one though, something self hosted would still be nice and if it's easy enough to setup for end users I can maybe convince them to try it.

 

[s44]

It won't let me install it, says it's incompatible. I wonder if it's because the DTEK50 uses a slightly custom android by Blackberry.

BB didn't provide their own knockoff of Secure Folder/Android for Work? That's what this stuff is. On Samsung you can sandbox apps out of the box.