How to make android smartphone into a scanner document

The biggest problem with this sort of app (and to be fair it's not just this one) is its total lack of security. If you are scanning documents invoices contracts etc as suggested then you need to store them securely. This app has full network access for some unexplained reason.

Which means that (whatever the intentions of the author) I don't think I could trust it with scanning anything that contains personal or private information.

 

Yeah, this looks like an interesting app, but as psionandy points out the full network access gives me pause. Make it secure and I might use it.

 

Does this have any features that S note doesn't?

 

A lot of these scanning apps integrate cloud storage and social network features as part of their basic functionality. The privacy and networking accessibility aspect is something to take into consideration for some apps, but not always. In this case having automatically backed up documents isn't necessarily a bad thing.

 

I don't regard having network access as being a good or bad thing long as I have control where it is saved. There is a certain advantage to having it saved to the cloud if you want to share it or be able to access it on another device.

 

Ahh.. But that's the point isn't it. You don't have control about where the documents go. This app in particular doesn't list the cloud as one of its features. According to what it says it does it has no need for network access. So why is it there?

As for saving to the cloud.. I'm more than willing to do that AFTER I've scanned it.. to a cloud location of my choosing, and with the required level of encryption (which could be zero, or some extreme encryption scheme)

Now... if you've seen the code (Open Source) or have complete confidence in the developer then fine.. go for it. Otherwise you need to be really careful about what you scan with the app.


Other similar apps, without the risk of network leakage do exist.

for example
http://androidforums.com/threads/camera-to-pdf-scanner-free-and-no-ads.973428/

 

I think the scanner app recommended without internet permission is a good idea.

I'm not sure but I think that if the file is saved in a location with where you (the user) have easy access to it, then many other apps may also have access to it. (May depend on permissions assigned to the file, example rw-rw-r-- ... I don't fully understand all that). Certainly your file manager has access to it, and I'll bet that file manager app has internet permission.

I'm getting a little off topic, but there is a good no-root open-source firewall option available (by the creator of the legendary app xprivacy):
Netguard no root firewall
Free, low overhead, open source, the app itself has no internet permission. Very easy interface (Just tell it which apps you want to have internet access and which not). There's no reason not to use it (or another firewall). Netguard is what I would certainly use myself, if not rooted. ( I use afwall+ which needs root).

The only downsides: it (netguard) requires reboot before it'll start working the first time and there is theoretical data leak window during every reboot. But it's still way better than nothing at all. Btw if you happen to use a vpn, then don't use netguard ... netguard uses the phone's vpn service to snag blocked traffic.