Assistant App is connecting to Google Firebase

rufposten

After entering a question to Kagi Assistant in the new standalone app, a connection to Google Firebase was opened by the app. While this is done widely by other commercial apps, it appears to me as an unwanted feature. I pay Kagi to replace Google, so why I get Google connections?

This holds a privacy problem: Data collected in Firebase, unlike Google Cloud, may be used for advertising purposes, e.g. IP household tracking and behavioural advertising:

By using Firebase, Kagi agrees to the Firebase terms which includes agreeing to the Google APIs Terms of Service.
The APIs Terms of Service state that all information submitted may be used "in accordance with our privacy policies".
The Google Privacy Policy is finally describing the use of IP tracking for advertising: "We also collect information about the interaction of your apps, browsers, and devices with our services, including IP address, crash reports, system activity, and the date, time, and referrer URL of your request. (…) Depending on your account settings, your activity on other sites and apps may be associated with your personal information in order to improve Google’s services and the ads delivered by Google."

I expect every app from Kagi to be free from third party advertising connections, but especially I expect it to be Google free.

Ratik

Hey, thanks for flagging this. I am pretty sure we aren't using Firebase for anything on the production version of the app. We do use Firebase interally to share test builds with testers. That said, I'm going to double check this and get back to you. I'm aligned with you on what you're saying.

Ratik

I investigated and found that the connection is made by the Google Play Billing SDK required for in-app purchases in the Android app. The library probably sends telemetry through Google’s firebaselogging.googleapis.com endpoint. Kagi is not using Firebase Analytics, advertising, Crashlytics, or similar Firebase services directly.

Unfortunately, to make Kagi Assistant available through Google Play, we were required to integrate Google Play’s in-app billing system. The app release was rejected by Google without it.

niu3

Ratik Thanks for this clear explanation.

That points to a better pathway: release the app through other channels, without the (foreign to Kagi) pervasive spying junk built in. Even better if the apps become open source.

rufposten

Hi Ratik, thanks for the quick research. I appreciate that Kagi generally agrees to have an app without Google connections, but I can't really value it if you aren't able to deliver this.

What I think you should do in this matter:

Communicate the problem openly so people don't run into connections and ad tracking they are trying to avoid. I will inform all my readers now about this issue.
Keep the Assistant available as an option in the Kagi main app
Push forward the F-Droid repository issue and publish an Google free version there

nichu42

There is also Obtainium that can grab the app and updates directly from your website if you just make the APK availabe there. https://obtainium.imranr.dev/

Ratik

We hear you. F-droid has been on our mind for some time now. We would like to do it. We're just a really small team (2 devs) and need to consider the time investment required to maintain a different F-droid flavour for each of our products. I do believe that setting a repo up is the right thing to do here to support the community. I'll work on that and we will gradually get our apps in there. Some patience would really be appreciated 🙏

niu3

Ratik Thanks for the clear communication. Hoping we follow this path.

mb

@Ratik it seems apps in the EEA doesn't need Google's billing and can have just their own. Is it possible to make a special EEA build or something? Or, now that I've done some reading, it seems the SDK is still required even though you do the billing yourself?