Are the Picture to PDF apps safe?

[Miner]

I see several of these, they will convert any picture you're taken into a PDF file. I'm looking for one for receipts for travel expenses.

The concern is all of the apps in the Google Play store seem like they are written by people in eastern europe, and all the apps seem to have network access.

Why does a picture to pdf app need network access? And how does one know the app is not sending the PDFs or photos to some server in Russia or Eastern Europe?

 

[srkmagnus]

I see several of these, they will convert any picture you're taken into a PDF file. I'm looking for one for receipts for travel expenses.

The concern is all of the apps in the Google Play store seem like they are written by people in eastern europe, and all the apps seem to have network access.

Why does a picture to pdf app need network access? And how does one know the app is not sending the PDFs or photos to some server in Russia or Eastern Europe?

Have you found an alternative? If not, I would really recommend using Google Drive. Open the app and on the lower right corner of the screen you'll see a an option to scan (icon is a camera). Press that to take a picture of an object which will automatically convert to pdf.

Let us know if you have any questions.

 

[Miner]

Have not found an alternative yet. I never knew Google Drive will do that, I'll try it, thanks for the tip.

 

[Richtea2007]

Of course the legitimate reason they may ask for network access is to deliver adverts to you. But I'm not sure I would trust a random app with sensitive information. I can tell you as a developer myself that google does no checking of apps published to the store, I click submit, almost immediately it's available on the store

 

[electricpete]

You can use a firewall program to block internet access for a given an app (so the app has no way to send your private data anywhere...assuming it has no permission for sms or telephone function)

I use afwall+ (needs root). Easy to use. There are a few no root firewall programs out there also.

In most casesa firewall program has no adverse effect on the program other than intended effect (blocking access). A few programs will crash if they sense that the phone is connected but they can't communicate. Memento databaseis the only one that crashes when blocked/connected for me (works fine when the phone is offline). I can get it to work while connected/blocked if I also block access to internet STATUS using Xprivacy (xposed module, needs root)