How to easily protect your HTC EVO by removing HTCLoggers
This article is intended for rooted HTC EVO 4G and HTC EVO 3D users.
Well, as we reported yesterday, HTC has been tracking our data for awhile now and apparently the information is available to any app that tries hard enough to get it. Sure, the world isn't going to end, your HTC EVO won't blow up, and your girlfriend won't leave you. But, the information gained in the past three days is still pretty hard to swallow.
As is customary, HTC issued a PR statement letting us all know they will fix the issue as soon as possible.
Screw that! Let's fix it now.
If you are rooted and know how to flash a .zip, save some time, and just grab the patch here. And yes, this will work on all HTC EVO ROMs.
Need more instructions? Then join me below.
First, you are going to need to be rooted. I'm sorry, but there is no way around this. To fix these files, we must remove system apps, libs, and logs, so you need root!
Rooting is not hard and can be done on any HTC EVO 4G or HTC EVO 3D (both are affected by this vulnerability). Search our site for a how-to on rooting your device.
Once rooted, you can grab the application ROM Manager. Even if you are not new to rooting, I am going to recommend ROM Manager (the free version will work fine) to complete this tutorial. Those that are new will have to select the first option: Flash ClockworkMod Recovery. Once this is done, you are ready to protect your EVO!
Now, let's grab the patch. I compiled this pretty quickly, but what this file will do is remove the HtcLoggers.apk, its associated lib file, and any logs the app has already collected.
Move the flashable .zip to the root of your EVO's SD card. Then open up ROM Manager (make sure your SD card has mounted). Go to Install ROM from SD card, then locate the loggers_remover.zip patch you downloaded.
You will be asked what options to select when installing. Select none because a Dalvik cache wipe is included during the flash. Once you hit OK, your phone will reboot and flash the .zip. Be patient during this process.
After you have rebooted, every file pertaining to HTCLoggers will be gone and your EVO will be safe! Before and after pictures shown below.
*Sigh of relief*
As a reminder, this does not remove Carrier IQ. That requires a bit more work and must be cooked into the ROM. If you are worried about the data collected from CIQ, then switch to a ROM that has it removed.
