Is the device model supposed to be known by any app?

leafnose

Hi,

I installed an app that now shows me what seems to be an ANDROID_ID string and my device model (i.e. ‘google Pixel 8').

As far as I’m guessing and understanding things, there’s no permission that governs the device model disclosure, and the only solution to avoid it would be to spoof the device model, which is out of question since it requires root privilege.

I also notice that the string ‘google Pixel 8’ has the Google name without a capital G, which let me think that maybe the google part has been inferred by a third party rather than having been hard-coded by Google itself.

The app itself has been installed through the Play Store, and needs its services for push notifications.
So, has the app got the device model itself or via Google APIs?
And what is the exact name of this string?

The most important question and obvious one: Is this the expected behaviour under GOS, knowing I’ve given permissions as little as possible.

Thanks for your enlightenment.

treequell

Hi there and thanks for your query. Yes, it's expected that all apps you install can tell the model of your device.

For more of information, please read the FAQs on the GrapheneOS website: https://grapheneos.org/faq#hardware-identifiers

Apps can determine the model of the device (such as it being a Pixel 6) either directly or indirectly through the properties of the hardware and software. There isn't a way to avoid this short of the OS supporting running apps in a virtual machine with limited functionality and hardware acceleration. Hiding the CPU/SoC model would require not even using basic hardware virtualization support and these things could probably still be detected via performance measurements.

leafnose

treequell
I’m so sorry. I had already read that part, and searched multiple time any references to model… I still didn’t get it.
I guess it was not concrete enough for me, and I was not prepared to see it so blatantly displayed in the app, and even in my account on the website linked to the app.

So is there no particular device model string? How does it work more exactly, are there third-party databases used by those apps?
Because the string ’google Pixel 8’, instead of ’Google Pixel 8’, doesn’t look very professional and first-party.

In any case, thanks for the answer, it reassures me that I haven’t screwed up, but at the same time leaves me a little worried.