There is definitely an Uber presence on HN doing damage control.
Or some people on HN work for Uber, a near certainty given the company's size.
In that case, the established, respected and ethical way is to state that affiliation in the comment.
Uber wants access to browsing history, bookmarks, and running apps
171–180 of 257 posts
Re: Uber wants access to browsing history, bookmarks, and running apps
#172I'm really starting to worry about this as an Android user.
If I want to keep control of my privacy there are so many apps that I can't trust to install. Even little dinky games are asking for access to contacts and messages and all sorts of other things.
An application on a desktop computer that steals data from your email application and sends it back to base is called "Malware". On Android, this is called "business as usual" from what I can tell. I don't know the app developers' reputation, I don't know anything... Except that someone in some other country has unbridled access to my phone.
As a result there are many applications I want to use and I just don't install.
It's not very cool.
Re: Uber wants access to browsing history, bookmarks, and running apps
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or some people on HN work for Uber, a near certainty given the company's size.
In that case, the established, respected and ethical way is to state that affiliation in the comment.
I don't get why people working there would defend their company's shady tactics. But then again, I never understand why people blindly defend their countries, sport teams, etc.
If the tactics are not shady, come out and plainly state it. No such statement has been made that I can see.
Re: Uber wants access to browsing history, bookmarks, and running apps
#174Very 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.
Yes it is/was. The problem is/was that your app stops getting auto updates if you add permissions later. A lot of users never go into the update section and grant new permissions and so your app stays on the version with the old permission set for ever.
Re: Uber wants access to browsing history, bookmarks, and running apps
#175I wish Android had permission control like WP10 do...
Re: Uber wants access to browsing history, bookmarks, and running apps
#176I have observed on my device when i use Transit Stop to check for bus schedule, Uber app pops up.
Re: Uber wants access to browsing history, bookmarks, and running apps
#177this is why I don't use an android device as my primary phone, even though my perception is that you get rather more bang for your buck, hardware wise, on android phones, and even though the samsung gear VR looks like someone implemented one of my less-realistic fantasies. On IOS, yes, uber asks for access to my contacts list, I click 'no' and uber works just fine (modulo the 'spam my friends' feature, which I didn't…
This is how it works in Android 6 - permissions are requested as needed and user can deny them individually. Unfortunately apps have to be build against the new API, so it does not happen automatically for old apps.
You can deny permissions individually for older apps as well.
Re: Uber wants access to browsing history, bookmarks, and running apps
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does the app log in every time it starts up, or does it just have a stored access token that is simply supplied with future requests regardless of whether it's been 5 hours or 5 months?
Given what the uber app does when it starts up (show you a map of your locations, with data from a few uber cars moving across it), I'd bet the app essentially contacts the servers immediately when it starts. The only this would get them is "how many times did a user try to get an uber without data connectivity" ...
And even then, you could keep that record in local storage.
Re: Uber wants access to browsing history, bookmarks, and running apps
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
> Can someone shed light on this? Whoever is in charge of the permission system is absolutely nuts. Or it's designed by the committee from hell. Those are the only reasons I can think of. No one sane would create this. They actually wanted to "simplify" the permissions system and let the user have more control/understanding. You could argue they've done the first... at the expense of everything else. Half of it seems…
On the internet permission - its a difficult business decision for Google to allow users to restrict the Internet permission. If they did, every ad-supported app would overnight become an ad-free app.
Re: Uber wants access to browsing history, bookmarks, and running apps
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
When it comes to Uber, I think the default is to assume malice unless we can prove it is incompetence.
Yeah, I'm afraid that in Uber's case this is what you must assume. Normally I don't default to such a state, I honestly feel that most times it's just incompetence within an organization, but in Uber's case they have been a bad actor for a long time now so they just can't be trusted. I won't be using Uber, ever.
I'm a latecomer to this situation, what have Uber done in the past to earn that reputation? Genuine question.