Bloatware: Difference between revisions

Bloat, in any of its forms, raises privacy and security concerns<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hubert |first=Bert |date=2024-02-08 |title=Why Bloat Is Still Software’s Biggest Vulnerability |url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/lean-software-development |access-date=2025-11-21 |website=IEEE Spectrum |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260131190126/https://spectrum.ieee.org/lean-software-development |archive-date=31 Jan 2026}}</ref>.<!-- These privacy and security concerns should be detailed and explained. It would be the core point of this article. --> As a rule of thumb, every added branch of code can make a program exponentially harder to prove for correctness<ref>{{Cite web |last=Howard |first=Gavin |date=2024-03-26 |title=What Computers Cannot Do: The Consequences of Turing-Completeness |url=https://gavinhoward.com/2024/03/what-computers-cannot-do-the-consequences-of-turing-completeness#infinite-state |url-status=dead |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20251214082939/https://gavinhoward.com/2024/03/what-computers-cannot-do-the-consequences-of-turing-completeness#infinite-state |archive-date=2025-12-14 |access-date=2026-01-06 |website=Gavin D. Howard}}</ref>, making it impractical or impossible to verify that a program is not malicious (such as [[spyware]]) or has an exploitable [[wikipedia:Software_vulnerabilities|vulnerability]]. The problem is exacerbated if the [[wikipedia:Source-available_software|source-code of the app is not available]], since [[wikipedia:Reverse_engineering|reverse engineering]] is difficult and (in some cases) illegal. This means that user is unable to control or ensure the safety of their devices.

*Increased latency, "slowness", when using programs and applications<ref>https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Performance ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260211103730/https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Performance Archived])</ref>

*<code>[https://privacy.sexy/ privacy.sexy]</code>. A tool for improving security and privacy on popular operating-systems, it also serves as a "debloater".

*[[Android]] debloaters:

**[https://github.com/samolego/Canta Canta]. An Android app that uses UAD-NG's bloat-lists as its knowledge-base (KB), and [https://shizuku.rikka.app/ Shizuku] as ADB replacement.

**[https://github.com/MuntashirAkon/AppManager AppManager]. An "all-in-one"/general-purpose package manager that runs on Android. It uses a derivative of UAD's lists as its KB. It can show '''a lot''' of hidden info about apps, which can sometimes be used for reverse-engineering.

**[https://github.com/lavafroth/droidrunco Droidrunco], superseded by [https://github.com/lavafroth/zilch Zilch]

*[https://github.com/M66B/NetGuard NetGuard]. An app that uses [https://developer.android.com/develop/connectivity/vpn the local Android VPN API] to filter internet traffic (like a [[wikipedia:Firewall_(computing)|firewall]]). It can be used as an on-device [[Pi-hole]] to [[Ad block|block ads]] using [[wikipedia:Hosts_(file)|<code>hosts</code>-files]] as rules.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bokhorst |first=Marcel |date=2016-03-20 |title=Ad Blocking with NetGuard |url=https://github.com/M66B/NetGuard/blob/7308869411ff87649bf3a46a9c7c08f1e5353801/ADBLOCKING.md |url-status=live |access-date=2026-03-15 |website=GitHub}}</ref>

==See also==

*[[Electron]]

==External links==

*[https://idlewords.com/talks/website_obesity.htm "Web Obesity Crisis"]

*[https://danluu.com/web-bloat/ How web bloat impacts users with slow connections]

*[https://www.keycdn.com/support/the-growth-of-web-page-size The Growth of Web Page Size]

*[https://tonsky.me/blog/js-bloat Javascript bloat in 2024]