Hmmm. Nobody talking about other apps that do this? Talking about Tinder[1] for example. They require "Device ID and cell information" too.
Uber wants access to browsing history, bookmarks, and running apps
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Re: Uber wants access to browsing history, bookmarks, and running apps
#92So this is information about Uber app that I found in some blog: ------- Android Uber app code has many suspicious places. For example, it contains a namespace "com.baidu.frontia" and classes there include such code as: localObject = ((TelephonyManager)localObject).getSubscriberId(); // gets IMSI ((TelephonyManager)localObject2).getDeviceId(); // gets IMEI localObject1 = ((WifiInfo)localObject1).getMacAddress(); publ…
That code is from the Baidu SDK which Uber integrates into its app for Chinese users.
Still suspicious nontheless
Re: Uber wants access to browsing history, bookmarks, and running apps
#93Interesting that the headline leaves out the fact that this only applies to poor, security-less Android. Less sensational that way, I guess. (And less accurate.)
Re: Uber wants access to browsing history, bookmarks, and running apps
#94From a reddit comment: > The permissions you see on the install screen are actually triggered by various permissions in the permission group. I've checked Ubers (there's a button on the web play store and you can see it in the manifest), and the only one from the Device and App History group they actually use is "GET_TASKS", or get a list of recently opened apps. > Furthermore, on Lollipop this permission doesn't eve…
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Re: Uber wants access to browsing history, bookmarks, and running apps
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
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...
No, it really doesn't. It's a fundamental flaw in the earlier Android permissions model that it requests so much. Uber doesn't try to pull anything like this on iOS.
iOS applications are moderated and Apple might not want Uber to collect too much information on their users.
Re: Uber wants access to browsing history, bookmarks, and running apps
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
It's so they can quickly switch between the most recently used maps application like Waze or Google Maps for drivers.
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Re: Uber wants access to browsing history, bookmarks, and running apps
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
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...
No, it really doesn't. It's a fundamental flaw in the earlier Android permissions model that it requests so much. Uber doesn't try to pull anything like this on iOS.
To be fair, there is zero ability (outside of undocumented and forbidden private APIs) for an iOS app to even request access to browsing history, bookmarks, or app history.
Re: Uber wants access to browsing history, bookmarks, and running apps
#98Re: Uber wants access to browsing history, bookmarks, and running apps
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
That code is from the Baidu SDK which Uber integrates into its app for Chinese users.
Still suspicious nontheless
I think you're on to something, for example the Uber app probably also uses the `true` constant in places, which could be used by `if` comparisons, and Uber could actually be using `if` comparisons all over the place. Who knows what sort of suspicious `if` comparisons Uber's app might be making? We don't know, and until we do we should probably not use this app.
Re: Uber wants access to browsing history, bookmarks, and running apps
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is a logical fallacy that is overused and hardly ever true, and should be relegated to the dustbin of intellectual discourse where it belongs.
It's not a logical argument. It's more of a heuristic of human behavior, which tends to be right. Only rarely is there someone sitting behind a large desk making tent hands while laughing maniacally. EDIT: On second thought, if it is a logical argument, it's a specific case of Occam's Razor. Which is more likely? Someone made a mistake, or there is a grand conspiracy?
Here's another fallacy: the fallacy of the excluded middle or the false dichotomy. There are many alternatives on the spectrum between "mistake" and "grand conspiracy".