221–230 of 257 posts
If you are running the app on Marshmallow, with iOS-style permission requests, in what contexts does the app ask you for these?
other than that, i could not make these new permissions to trigger.
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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.
On one hand: That's a really good point. Thanks. On the other hand: Everything can now steal my data " just " so adverts can be shown. Really?! To me that's more outrageous than the original points I listed. My device and my data are left permanently insecure, all to protect their adverts. Even though I purposefully don't use applications with in-built advertising (because they can't be trusted with permissions), I c…
You don't own these devices as long as someone else has root. This kind of crap is evidence that we are loosing the War On General Purpose Computation. A lot of people are scared of the power of a general purpose computer in the hands of the general public. Computers (especially internetworked computers) allow people to see throw scams, remove artificial scarcity, and work past propaganda. When middlemen feel their power is under attack, they tend to lash out in stupid ways to counterattack the perceived threat and reestablish their position.
In the end, the general purpose computer must be made back into an appliance, and the internet back into something closer to cable TV. I don't blame the average person for falling for this scam, as they are often ignorant of the underlying technology. However, a lot of people that really should know better have been distracted with shiny baubles and keep buying into these increasingly locked-down walled gardens, when they should be setting an example and working to educate others so they have the information they need when they vote with their wallet.
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Why make a network call if the device can give you that information locally?
First, you're making a network call anyway, because that's what apps do, so the data is implicit. You simply group by user id and subtract the timestamps of the requests. But let's say for some reason, you can't collect app-open timestamps. What could you possibly want to do with it locally? Say, "Hey it's been x days since you last used me. Thanks for coming back!"? These are stats you want in aggregate, which means…
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Why make a network call if the device can give you that information locally?
First, you're making a network call anyway, because that's what apps do, so the data is implicit. You simply group by user id and subtract the timestamps of the requests. But let's say for some reason, you can't collect app-open timestamps. What could you possibly want to do with it locally? Say, "Hey it's been x days since you last used me. Thanks for coming back!"? These are stats you want in aggregate, which means…
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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.
This permission should just simply not exist. I had two games and an another app. The browsing history was, in this case, used for targetting ads. I did not need the apps and uninstalled the apps (it was around 2 years ago, on previous version of Android I think). The apps on Android should be sandboxed and not be given this kind of permissions, that's all.
This is one reason why i use Firefox on Android (another being the read-it-later feature, and option to add other search engines easily).
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That's how it works in Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) and above.
Kind of, but you still get the situation where an app wants to get your IMEI to identify the device, but is forced to ask for permission to 'phone', which the user promptly denies because that also allows the app to make phone calls.
On the google store site.. when browsing apps, there should be a tab on every app page, where i can see a sample of what it collects and a declaration of what it does with that data.
after installing the app, in the app manager, i should get a tab where i can see what its grabbing from me.
right now we got strangers going into our bedrooms borrowing something they wont tell us what it is.
and really permissions dont help a lot when it comes to this. Yeah my bookmark dup cleaner has to access my bookmarks to clean.. so i give it the permission, but does it keep them? does it sell them? i dont know permissions arent that detailed. if there was a privacy tab that i could check...then i would know.
People hide nanny cams to watch the nanny. Its because they gave her permission to have access to the house and kid and such.. the cam is like my privacy tab. it makes sure she doesnt abuse the permissions. We KNOW she needs access to the house and kid to do her job.. we just dont want the kid molested. well I dont want my data molested.. So google please give me an app nanny cam.
There is definitely an Uber presence on HN doing damage control.
People sure love to throw out the shill card without providing any proof.
So it's not people with tin foil hats speculating that shills might exist - we know shills exist and are pervasive. Given that, we should have a certain non zero belief that any given poster is a shill. Not sure what is the best way to proceed when you know for sure that there are spies around you all the time. That's a bigger discussion. But jumping on people as if we should have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there's a shill is really counter productive and helping "them" win.
