71–80 of 257 posts
The apps on Android should be sandboxed and not be given this kind of permissions, that's all.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Either that's not entirely truthful, or the app permission system is totally broken... Need to find out when you last opened the app? "Get running apps"...?
I don't even understand why they need local access to figure this out. Poll the web API for last_login and be done with it. Surely they're already tracking and storing this kind of data on their end.
Very unnecessary overreach on android permissions.. Will be interesting to see how many of the fans of uber here on hn will try to spin this. Just forwarded to some friends, they are uninstalling the rogue app as I type this!
Isn't permission overreach du rigueur on Android? Seriously, I thought that this was a preferred engineering pattern on Android due to platform weirdness or something.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Either that's not entirely truthful, or the app permission system is totally broken... Need to find out when you last opened the app? "Get running apps"...?
This page has more detail on Android's permissions model: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/security/permissio... I don't really understand the point of having fine-grained permissions (like READ_CONTACTS), when the user only sees broader permission groups. Can someone shed light on this?
Multiple comments here parroting the "this is a non-issue on Lollipop or later" defense. Per Android's own statistics [1], that leaves 60% of users vulnerable to excessive permissions. 1: http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html
And google is no less: https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2015/06/google-ch...
Sadly, 98% of folks will blindly accept this.
I'd venture to guess the number is likely closer to 99.9999%
Frankly, a vast majority (99.99%+) don't care.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Either that's not entirely truthful, or the app permission system is totally broken... Need to find out when you last opened the app? "Get running apps"...?
This page has more detail on Android's permissions model: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/security/permissio... I don't really understand the point of having fine-grained permissions (like READ_CONTACTS), when the user only sees broader permission groups. Can someone shed light on this?
I imagine it's because Google recognized the general insanity of the system, and presenting fewer "scary" permissions improved conversion rates.
Then they threw the whole system out with Android 6.0, moving to a much more sane flow for everyone involved, where the user is able to grant or deny individual permissions at runtime.
Multiple comments here parroting the "this is a non-issue on Lollipop or later" defense. Per Android's own statistics [1], that leaves 60% of users vulnerable to excessive permissions. 1: http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html
Regardless of whether it's a non-issue on Lollipop (or later) or not, it exhibits the intent of Uber. And google is no less: https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2015/06/google-ch...
Uber doesn't try to pull anything like this on iOS.
Multiple comments here parroting the "this is a non-issue on Lollipop or later" defense. Per Android's own statistics [1], that leaves 60% of users vulnerable to excessive permissions. 1: http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html
Regardless of whether it's a non-issue on Lollipop (or later) or not, it exhibits the intent of Uber. And google is no less: https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2015/06/google-ch...
There's an Android mod which deals with apps like that. They can try to read all the user's info, but what they get is all phony.
that should be the default... but of course Google is complicit...