this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2025
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120
The Best-Selling Apps Made By Israeli Spies (www.donotpanic.news)
submitted 3 days ago by davel@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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[–] ZebraGoose@sh.itjust.works 58 points 3 days ago (3 children)

The article lists the following apps associated with Israeli developers or companies:

  1. ZipoApps (also known as Rounds.com):

    • Collage Maker Photo Editor
    • Instasquare Photo Editor: Neon
    • Simple Gallery
    • Various baby photo editing and retouching tools

  2. Bazaart (AI-powered photo editing app)

  3. Facetune (by Lightricks)

  4. Supersonic from Unity:

    • Build a Queen
    • Going Balls
    • Bridge Race
    • Trash Tycoon
    • Conquer Countries

  5. Playtika (gambling apps, specific titles not listed in the article)

  6. Crazy Labs:

    • Phone Case DIY
    • Miraculous Ladybug & Cat Noir
    • Sculpt People

  7. Moovit (urban transport app)

  8. Call App (call screening app)

  9. Gett (ride-hailing app)

  10. Waze (GPS navigation app)

  11. Fooducate (nutrition app)

[–] herseycokguzelolacak@lemmy.ml 36 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Simple* apps were great before they got bought by Israeli spies. The development continues in Fossify: https://www.fossify.org/

[–] lcb@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

So this fossy apps are safe? I have all apps from simple, but now i saw that israel owen them.

[–] pogmommy@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 days ago

Yeah, the fossify apps are at least guaranteed to be safer than the simple ones from zipo. if you're using simple apps, you ought to switch to the fossify forks.

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 17 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Who else besides Waze can warn me if the police are nearby?!!!

[–] ploot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Google Maps in Android Auto does it, but I think they use Waze data.

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 35 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Google bought Waze, so at this point you're probably not making any Israeli spies money if you make use of it. On the other hand, you're making Google money, which is almost as bad.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 3 points 3 days ago

🤣

[–] CatsGoMOW@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Except for Waze, I haven’t ever heard of any of these apps.

[–] Ilandar@lemmy.today 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

And yet, if you look them up you'll find many of them have tens of millions of downloads. It's crazy the types of random shit people thoughtlessly download from the Play Store. The North Korean spy agency also had spyware apps on there until recently, targeting South Korean users.

[–] IttihadChe@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 days ago

What are these North Korean spy apps. For research...

[–] douglasg14b@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Had to use gett when I visited Tel Aviv a few years back. That's about it

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

i was worried for a split second but then i remembered i don't use proprietary garbage unless i'm forced to.

stick to FOSS, folks. its the best defense against most of the bad shit coming from the software you use.

[–] surph_ninja@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago

Given how many “former” spies from the Israeli Unit 8200 are now in high level positions at Facebook, I’d say any Meta app is a concern for Israeli spying.

[–] Armand1@lemmy.world 17 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

I'm pretty sure I've been using the Simple Gallery app they mention for years.

It looks like it is still open source. However I do see on the Play Store page that their contact details are in Israel.

Play store page for Simple Gallery

The Pro version, the one I use, claims to collect no data at all. Not sure how much I trust that.

Maybe it's time to look for a new gallery app...

EDIT:

The open source code has not been updated since 2023, and neither has the Pro app. However the non-pro app has been updated in 2024.

GitHub page for Simple Gallery, showing a October 2023 release

Play Store page for Simple Gallery, showing an October 2023 release

Therefore, it might be safe to use the open source code version on GitHub, but I wouldn't touch the free one on the play store.

I wouldn't use the Pro version on the play store as you would be funding these companies and they could push an update in the future.

EDIT 2:

As mentioned here, a popular fork of many of these now abandoned Simple apps is the Fossify project. If you liked the app I'd recommend looking at that if you want to keep getting security updates at the very least.

[–] pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 days ago

Simple Mobile Sold out to some company. Move over to the Fossify equivalent apps

https://f-droid.org/packages/org.fossify.gallery

[–] zqps@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I moved to com.kaii.photos on F-Droid. Works quite well.

[–] Tundra@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 days ago

Aves Libre Is also a great alternative

[–] DrunkAnRoot@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 days ago

everything on play and app store is spyware and not safe if you cant audit the source you need to assume its spying

[–] sith@lemmy.zip 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

What do you guys think about AnySoftKeyboard? Could it be a "sleeping agent"?

Country of origin is Israel according to: https://alternativeto.net/software/anysoftkeyboard/about/

(I know this doesn't mean anything, but still..)

The main developer seems to live in New York: https://evendanan.net/

He's probably a good guy. Just got a little suspicious (or curious) when I saw the Israeli flag on AlternativeTo.

[–] autonomoususer@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Does it include a libre software license text file?