Connections to Google detected on App Lounge

• /e/ version: v0.23
• Device model(s): All
• Device rooted: yes/no No

Summary

User reports connections to google servers from ~"app lounge"

The problem

Steps to reproduce

Issue as reported by user on the forum

I see the connections in the Blokada 5 tracker-blocking app. Besides the usual mtalk.google.com, which if I’m not mistaken is unavoidable, even on /e/, Blokada noted all these:

Opening App Lounge, a connection is made to clients3.google.com and android.clients.google.com.

Selecting Anonymous Login within the app triggers a connection to play-lh.googleusercontent.com.

Checking for updates to installed apps, calls clients3.google.com again.

Clicking to App Lounge Home sends android.clients.google.com again.

Searching for a specific app calls play-lh.googleusercontent.com again.

Opening the landing page of the searched-for app sends to clients3.google.com again.

Clicking on a category, e.g. “Medical,” within the Categories tab calls clients3.google.com again.

Clicking on Terms of Service calls clients3.google.com again.

Closing the app calls clients3.google.com again.

I was connected to my home WiFi during this test, but interestingly, my Pi-hole application didn’t register a single one of these. (Only mtalk.google.com.)

I’m not qualified to say if these represent anything nefarious or exploitative, but I instinctively distrust any connection to a Google domain, so I would be appreciative of any clarification.

What is the current behavior?

As reported above

What is the expected correct behavior?

No connections to google

Technical information

Relevant logs (adb logcat)

Relevant screenshots

Link to the original issue

Solutions

Workaround

Possible fixes