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Comment by gagabity | Hacker News Reader

This reminds me of an interesting thing that happened when I uninstalled Opera VPN on my Android. After uninstalling it automatically opened up a browser to one of those "Tell us why you uninstalled" pages that you normally see on the desktop, this shouldn't be possible on Android.

I think they are doing this by having Opera Browser watch for uninstallation of Opera VPN and possibly vice-versa and when one detects the other has been uninstalled it launches the page, clever but annoying.

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Um, before going down the conspiracy theory road, maybe do a simple google search? This is literally the top result for "android app on uninstall": http://stackoverflow.com/a/18816716/4944625

I think what they are describing there runs before the uninstall does it not? Pretty sure mine was after the uninstall completed, which is not possible since the app is already gone by that point.

There are actually networks of unrelated apps that listen for uninstalls. I was contacted by a company wanting to add their SDK to my apps, partly for this purpose. Uninstall activity is just another thing being monitored.

So that's why there are 999 versions of 'flashlight' app. Not because everyone wanted to develop it, but because we now have the equivalent of pre-packaged bloatware/malware for the desktop, now for the phone.

Thanks for chiming in. I didn't know this kind of company or business model existed, so now I will be more wary about installing seemingly benign apps. (I am not an app developer).

I was surprised myself. So much bloat and spying. I saved one of the emails I received:

Subject: Monetize Your Daily App Uninstalls! Hi Developer, My name is Kathy Lee, Director of Business Development at [redacted], and I wanted to introduce to you our new (100% Google Compliant) revenue-generating tool that lets you monetize your app uninstalls. If you are currently earning with In-app ads, why not monetize when users uninstall your app? We are the only network that can help you instantly earn $$$ when your users uninstall your app. The [redacted] SDK, with one line of code, lets you earn the highest eCPM with today’s top global offers. When you sign up and integrate today, we’ll deposit $50.00 FREE into your account! To get started and claim your FREE $50.00, sign up for your free account. If you are interested in learning more about app uninstall revenue or have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me via email or Skype. I look forward to you working with you. Kindest Regards, Kathy Kathy Lee Director of Business Development Skype: kathy Mobile: 646-

How would this even work? The app cannot listen to system events.

(I also think what you said is against Google ToS)

I know that launchers normally detect when the package was installed/uninstalled. That's how they refresh the list of app icons. And launcher is just a regular app with no special permissions. I think some kind of an intent is broadcasted when the list of apps is changed.

From what I understand once an app is removed Android fires a ACTION_PACKAGE_REMOVED intent which can be picked up by other Apps.

I'm not an expert in google's android but could it be that the uninstall process ends by firing up a web page ?

No there it doesn't, on Android you cant do anything after the actual uninstall as far as I am aware.

They were probably using the Opera browser to check for the OperaVPN uninstall [1]. This may actually be possible in the app itself as I believe the intent fires before the app is actually uninstalled giving you time to do one last action (fire up a uninstall questionnaire).

https://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/Inte...

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